The gut microbiome for athlete health and performance. Episode #342

After listening to this one, you may want to think twice before reaching for that next bottle of kombucha! On this week’s podcast, microbiome expert Dr Patrick Hanaway joins BJSM’s Daniel Friedman (@ddfriedman) to discuss the implications of the gut microbiome for athlete health and performance. Dr Hanaway is a family physician who has served as the Director of Medical Education for the Institute for Functional Medicine, as well as the Medical Director at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine. He is also a past president of The American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine. He is currently the Director of Research at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine (https://my.clevelandclinic.org/departments/functional-medicine), and practices at his clinic (http://www.familytofamily.org) in Asheville, North Carolina. In this 20 minute conversation, Dr Hanaway shares how clinicians can apply our current understanding of the gut microbiome in their clinical practice, and addresses the following topics: · What is the gut microbiome? · Microbial diversity throughout the life cycle and its relationship with different disease states · The relationship between different diets/foods/macronutrients and the gut microbiome · The effects of different types of physical activity on the gut microbiome · The role of probiotics in sport