Effect of Probiotics Supplementations on Health Status of Athletes

Abstract

Athletes are prone to several health complications, including upper respiratory tract infections, allergies, and gastrointestinal discomforts during practice and after the performance due to the intense exercise, travel, insufficient rest and restricted food consumption. Probiotics are well known as complementary therapeutic and health supplements for several diseases and disorders. Studies suggest that the intervention of probiotics improved the health status of elite athletes, but the results are not consistent in all the studies. The beneficial effect of probiotic supplementation profoundly relies on species or strain, dose, duration, form, and host physiology. The manuscript summarizes the effect of probiotic supplementation on health status of athletes. The literature was collected from PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar using the search term “probiotic and athletes”. As per the literature survey, probiotic supplementation improved the intestinal permeability, immune system, intestinal microbiota, inflammatory system, reduced the severity and incidence of respiratory tract infections, and duration of gastrointestinal symptoms. Several studies were conducted on Lactobacillus species and the outcomes were found to be species- or strain-specific. More studies are required to know the detailed mechanism behind the beneficial effect of probiotic intervention in athletes. Further studies are desired on formulation and optimization of probiotic supplements to develop generalized and personalized sports supplements to boost the overall health and enactment of elite athletes.

Vaginal Probiotics for Reproductive Health and Related Dysbiosis: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…There was a probiotic strain in combination with oral metronidazole that was not able to reduce BV recurrence [ 51 ]. The lack of success in clinical trials with probiotics as modulators of fertility disorders may be due to the efficacy of the probiotic being strain- and disease-dependent, as well as highly reliant on the dose, duration, administration method, and host state [ 71 , 72 ].…”

Effects of probiotics on salivary cytokines and immunoglobulines: a systematic review and meta-analysis on clinical trials

“…To find probable sources of between-study heterogeneity, subgroup analyses were conducted based on sex (Male/Female/Both genders), age (<40 year/>40 year), study design (Parallel/Cross-over), supplement dosage (=10 9 />10 9 CFU/day), duration of intervention (<3 /≥3 weeks) and probiotic type (Lactobacillus/Bifidobacter/Different types), using a fixed-effects model. The duration of 3 weeks and the dosage of 10 9 CFU/day were selected based on previous studies 21 , 22 . All statistical analyses were done using Stata software, version 11.2 (Stata Corp, College Station, TX).…”

Probiotic Supplementation and Respiratory Infection and Immune Function in Athletes: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

“…8 It could be suggested that the use of probiotics in physically active individuals might serve as a strategy to further improve respiratory symptoms and inflammatory status, and in consequence increase the physical performance of athletes. 8 Although a recently published review has indicated that probiotic supplementation improves the immune system and reduces the severity and incidence of upper respiratory tract infections in athletes 9 , to the best of our knowledge there has been no systematic literature review or meta-analysis that has confirmed these results.…”