A recent article in Nature Medicine by Scheiman et al has identified a strain of gut microbes found in marathon runners that improves run times. Researchers from Harvard and the Joslin Institute collected poop samples of 15 marathoners during the 2015 Boston Marathon. Researchers then compared urine samples of the runners to the samples of non-runners. These rather unpleasant studies revealed that the runners had a significant increase in the number of a gut bug called Veilonella atypica. When mice were fed this bug, they were able to run 13% longer on a mousy treadmill, and the researchers used the Lactate Scout as part of this endurance testing.This bug is a metabolic pathway which can only use lactate, and there's lots of lactate in the marathon runner's stomach (and the muscles of their bodies, which is one reason that lactate testing is essential in the analysis of performance in sports). Although this bug doesn't rely on lactate, Veilonella.ypica makes propionate. Propionate, which is metabolically active, acts to boost the metabolism of fat. This bug could use excessive lactate (created in the muscles of runners) to boost fat metabolism, especially when runners rely on fat stores to provide fuel.
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