Getting to the Bottom of Microbes in Sport - The Potential Role of the Gut Microbiota in Athlete Health and Performance

This product is free for SCAN members.

This webinar was presented live on November 30, 2020.

The gut microbiome has been implicated in the modulation of human health and metabolism. The human gut microbiota contains thousands of different bacterial taxa as well as various archaea, microbes and viruses, more than three million genes, and harbors an enormous metabolic capacity. The role that exercise plays, in particular the associated factors and stressors, such as sport/exercise-specific diet, and their interactions, on the gut microbiota have been less well described. Athletes, although diverse as a population given the wide variety of different types of exercise/fitness/athletic training, competition, dietary practices and attributes, exemplify these factors on a generally consistent and long-term basis. This session will look at the research currently available, specifically focus on our current research and show how this has been applied at an athlete level.

CPEU: 1
CPE Level: 3

Learning Objectives

1. Review current research within the area of the gut microbiome and athletic populations.
2. Understand the role of nutrition and exercise and how it affects the gut microbiome.
3. Outline some of the research that Sport Ireland Institute have carried out and how we are applying this with our athlete populations.

Speaker

Sharon Madigan PhD, RD, RSEN, FFSEM (Hon)

Sharon currently is Head of Performance Sport at the Irish Institute of Sport. She has also significant experience as a clinical dietitian within the Belfast Trust. She has a PhD in Nutrition Education.  From 2003-present she has been the performance nutritionist with the Irish Boxing Team working with young right up to the elite international team.

In 2010 she started work with the Sport Ireland Institute.  She is responsible for delivery and coordination of nutrition services for elite Irish athletes across a range of Olympic and Paralympic sports.  A strong focus of her position within Institute of Sport is also the engagement in high performance research. Sharon’s main research interests focus on the interaction between diet and health and diet and sports performance. She is currently involved in co-supervision of a number of research projects including:

• Energy deficiency and its relationship with injury, illness, bone health and performance.
• Vitamin D and athletic performance.
• Vitamin D and COPD.
• Gut health and sports performance.
• Nutrition and sleep in elite sport.
• Female Health and Performance.

She has delivered nutrition support to athletes over five Olympic cycles and other major championships such as European, World and EU championships. As well as working with individual athletes has been involved with the science and medical committee of the OFI in the planning and logistics at two camp bases. She is Chair of the Sports Nutrition Group of the British Dietetics Association and on the Board of PINES. She was awarded a Hon Fellowship of the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine, RSCI in Sept 2016.