Gastrointestinal Complaints During Exercise: Prevalence, Etiology, and Nutritional Recommendations

@article{deOliveira2014GastrointestinalCD,
  title={Gastrointestinal Complaints During Exercise: Prevalence, Etiology, and Nutritional Recommendations},
  author={Erick P. de Oliveira and Roberto Carlos Burini and Asker E. Jeukendrup},
  journal={Sports Medicine (Auckland, N.z.)},
  year={2014},
  volume={44},
  pages={79 - 85}
}
Gastrointestinal problems are common, especially in endurance athletes, and often impair performance or subsequent recovery. Generally, studies suggest that 30–50 % of athletes experience such complaints. Most gastrointestinal symptoms during exercise are mild and of no risk to health, but hemorrhagic gastritis, hematochezia, and ischemic bowel can present serious medical challenges. Three main causes of gastrointestinal symptoms have been identified, and these are either physiological… 
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228 Citations

Carbohydrate-Dependent, Exercise-Induced Gastrointestinal Distress

Training the gut with high intake of CHO may increase absorption capacity and probably prevent GI distress, and CHO mouth rinse may be a good strategy to enhance performance without using GI tract in exercises lasting less than an hour.

Changes in Intestinal Permeability in Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Runners

The lack of difference in intestinal permeability between the groups combined with the difference in symptom occurrence indicates thatestinal permeability changes alone do not account for symptom development, and an individual predisposition as the cause of symptoms rather than diet alone is indicated.

Gastrointestinal pathophysiology during endurance exercise: endocrine, microbiome, and nutritional influences

The link between the intestinal microbiome, the integrity of the gut epithelia, and the influence of nutrition and dietary supplementation strategies are explored, and detail on gut hormone and peptide secretion that could potentially contribute to GI distress symptoms in athletes are added.

Effects of exercise and hyperthermia on gastrointestinal dysfunction and symptoms in recreational athletes

The increase in GI permeability observed during exercise is likely to be caused by intestinal ischemia, rather than an increase in core temperature, and no association between intestinal permeability and GI symptoms appears to exist.

Training the Gut for Athletes

It is clear that “nutritional training” can improve gastric emptying and absorption and likely reduce the chances and/or severity of GI problems, thereby improving endurance performance as well as providing a better experience for the athlete.

Gastrointestinal symptoms in elite athletes: time to recognise the problem?

There has been less research in examining the prevalence of GI symptoms in other sports, particularly at elite level, which is surprising given that many of the factors associated with GI damage and symptoms are commonly associated with endurance sports.

The Psychobiological Etiology of Gastrointestinal Distress in Sport: A Review.

  • P. Wilson
  • Psychology
    Journal of clinical gastroenterology
  • 2019
Future work should attempt to confirm that experimentally inducing psychological stress results in the aforementioned GI problems during exercise, and studies are needed to determine how psychological stress impacts the tolerance to nutritional fueling and whether it worsens the GI permeability that normally occurs with exercise.

‘I think I’m gonna hurl’: A Narrative Review of the Causes of Nausea and Vomiting in Sport

Given the commonness of nausea in sport and its potential impact on exercise performance, athletes and sports medicine practitioners should be aware of the origins of nausea and strategies for dealing with this troublesome gut complaint.

Exercise and gastrointestinal symptoms: running-induced changes in intestinal permeability and markers of gastrointestinal function in asymptomatic and symptomatic runners

Running for 90 min at a challenging pace causes small intestinal damage and increases intestinal permeability, however, these alterations in GI function do not appear to correlate with the development of GI symptoms during running.

Low FODMAP: A Preliminary Strategy to Reduce Gastrointestinal Distress in Athletes

Preliminary findings suggest that short-term FODMAP reduction may be a beneficial intervention to minimize daily GI symptoms in runners with exercise-related GI distress.
...

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