2023, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (8): 1292-1299

Health benefit relationship between exercise and intestinal bacteria

Liang Jiaqi, Liu Hengxu, Yang Jinxin, Yang Yi, Deng Xuhui, Tan Mingjian, Luo Jiong   

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Exercise has become one of the indispensable ways to promote human health. In recent years, as an important target for disease prevention and improvement, intestinal flora has been gradually recognized as an important target for human health. Current studies have proven that exercise can effectively regulate the composition, structure, function, and diversity of intestinal flora, thereby influencing the health status of body tissues.
OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the correlation among exercise, the intestinal flora, and the body health system and to further explore the possible mechanism by which exercise influences body health through the involvement in the intestinal flora and analyze the effect of bacterial flora changes under different exercise intensities on the body health condition, in order to provide new ideas and strategies for the improvement of relevant diseases.
METHODS: Literature retrieval was conducted in the Web of Science, Elsevier, Springer, PubMed, ProQuest, CNKI database, WanFang Data, VIP Chinese Journal Service Platform and Airitilibrary. Chinese and English documents related to sports training, intestinal microflora, energy metabolism, anti-inflammatory response, and oxidative stress published before February 2022 were included. Corresponding inclusion criteria were established according to the research needs, and finally 97 documents were reviewed.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Exercise can promote the secretion of short-chain fatty acid to increase the level of interleukin-10 and reduce the production of lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammatory factors, thereby improving the anti-inflammatory ability of the body and promoting host health. Exercise for intervention of intestinal flora cannot only promote the production of short-chain fatty acid but also increase the secretion of bile acid to activate nuclear hormone farnitol X receptor and G protein-coupled receptor in human organs, thus regulating lipid, glucose and energy metabolisms of the host body and promoting the absorption and stability of energy metabolism in the body. Exercise can change the abundance of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria to regulate antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione, thereby regulating or eliminating oxidative stress, preventing pathogen invasion, and improving muscle tissue injury. In addition, it is found that different intensity exercises have obviously different effects on the intestinal flora, thereby producing different effects on the body health. Low-intensity exercise intervention can improve the gut bacteria abundance, promote the intestinal steady-state, and have a beneficial effect on the health of the body, whereas high-intensity exercise intervention for the intestinal flora has a controversy on the human health. At present, the relevant mechanism of exercise intervention for the intestinal flora to promote body health is still unclear and needs to be further studied. Moreover, there are few studies on the effect of exercise intervention for the intestinal flora on the body health under specific conditions such as different exercise intensity, exercise time, exercise mode and exercise object, all of which are worthy of further explorations.
Key words: exercise, intestinal flora, physical health, anti-inflammation, energy metabolism, oxidative stress, short-chain fatty acids, endotoxin, bile acid