Gut microbiota modification: Another piece in the puzzle of the benefits of physical exercise in health?

Regular physical exercise provides many health benefits, protecting against the development of chronic diseases, and improving quality of life. Some of the mechanisms by which exercise provides these effects are the promotion of an anti-inflammatory state, reinforcement of the neuromuscular function, and activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. Recently, it has been proposed that physical exercise is able to modify gut microbiota, and thus this could be another factor by which exercise promotes well-being, since gut microbiota appears to be closely related to health and disease. The purpose of this paper is to review the recent findings on gut microbiota modification by exercise, proposing several mechanisms by which physical exercise might cause changes in gut microbiota.

Limits of ventricular function: from athlete's heart to a failing heart

The interest in the study of ventricular function has grown considerably in the last decades. In this review, we analyse the extreme values of ventricular function as obtained with Doppler echocardiography. We mainly focus on the parameters that have been used throughout the history of Doppler echocardiography to assess left ventricular (LV) systolic and diastolic function. The ‘athlete's heart’ would be the highest expression of ventricular function whereas its lowest expression is represented by the failing heart, independently from the original aetiology leading to this condition. There are, however, morphological similarities (dilation and hypertrophy) between the athlete's and the failing heart, which emerge as physiological and pathophysiological adaptations, respectively. The introduction of new assessment techniques, specifically speckle tracking, may provide new insight into the properties that determine ventricular filling, specifically left ventricular twisting. The concept of ventricular function must be always considered, although it may not be always possible to distinguish the normal heart of sedentary individuals from that of highly trained hearts based solely on echocardiographic or basic studies.