Probiotics supplementation for athletes and its role in athletic performance

Probiotics are live microorganisms that we can find them naturally in fermented food. They have many beneficial effects on human health. Gastrointestinal health is important for athletes and an imbalanced micro biome causes many health problems both within the gastro‐intestinal tract and out of it. Using probiotics as nutritional supplements can be beneficial for athletes by modulation gut micro biome and maintaining their gastrointestinal functions and overall health. By a keyword search of probiotic , athlete and athletic in PubMed databases, we obtained 40 articles and after analyzing them, we found good results. Lactobacillus helveticus Lafti L10 supplementation can reduce Upper Respiratory Tract Illness (URTI) length in elite athletes. Lactobacillus casei Shirota supplementation may be beneficial in reducing the URTI's frequency in an athletic cohort but regular L. salivarius supplementation does not appear to be beneficial in reducing the frequency of URTI. Lactobacillus GG (LGG) supplementation has no effects on the incidence of respiratory infections or GI-symptom episodes in marathon runners, but it can be helpful to shorten the duration of GI-symptom episodes. It doesn't have any effects on prevention of allergic markers increase, or the eosinopenia induced by the marathon. So supplementation with some probiotic strains can have beneficial effects on frequency, severity and/or duration of respiratory and gastrointestinal illness that are common in athletes and important for them. We should pay attention to probiotics in a supplementation plan and the dietitian has a key role for it.

Keywords:

Probiotics , Athlete , Athletic