Exercise-induced gut permeability

How intense athletic training alters our gut microbiome

I have always strived to be the best endurance athlete I could be. With that came a rigorous training regimen, complete with nutrient timing, spreadsheets of periodization and tapering, logging results for each heart rate zone, and intense hours-long training sessions. Although the training contributed significantly to my success in my sport, I now look back and reflect on how terrible I felt. I was constantly nursing some injury - back, knees, shoulders - and insatiably exhausted. I ate on a schedule, with each meal a calculated concoction of nutrients determined by my training regimen for the day or week. There were many evenings filled with tears, thinking I could never race again, based on the level of pain I had in my lower back and knees. Of course, I continued, driven by my continued (perceived) success.

It wasn’t a single injury or breakdown that made me stop, but a growing awareness that something deeper was off. My body was screaming, and I finally listened. I felt like I was…