Exercise may help overcome pain and inflammation by influencing gut microbiota

Summary: Science has known for a long that regular exercise may help lower inflammation help reduce pain. Studies show that exercise helps with headaches, arthritis, and other painful conditions. Experts have proposed many ways in which exercise may reduce pain. However, now first a kind of studies show that exercise can even reduce inflammation by boosting the population of beneficial gut bacteria. At the same time, exercise may suppress the growth of harmful gut bacteria. This ultimately leads to increased short-chain fatty acids production, which may affect the endocannabinoid system and help suppress pain and inflammation.

 Many modern diseases like the increased incidence of brain disorders, arthritis, and inflammatory conditions result from lifestyle changes that occurred during the last century. One such change is that people are now spending more time sitting and engaging less in physical activity – a significant change in physical activity level.

Since most modern jobs do not require intense physical exertion, regular exercise is the only way to maintain adequate health.

Studies show that physical activity helps in multiple ways like helping in weight loss, improving cardiovascular health, and even strengthening joints. However, exercise has less evident benefits like reduced inflammation and improved mood.

Although extensive physical exertion makes arthritis pain worse, but moderate regular exercise reduces arthritis-related pain and inflammation. Though these benefits have long been known to science, experts have struggled to understand how exercise reduces inflammation.

Schedule An Appointment With Us

Now, a new study sheds light on a completely new and earlier unknown mechanism in which exercise may benefit health. It appears that exercise can even alter gut microbiota and lower inflammation1.

Researchers knew that one way in which exercise can help is by modulating the endocannabinoid system, quite like CBD. Thus, it can relieve pain and inflammation.

In the new study, they enrolled 78 people, and half of them were prescribed 15 minutes of exercise a day, and others did not engage in any activity at all.

At the end of the six-week study, those who did exercise reported a significant decline in pain scores. In addition, gut microbiota analysis demonstrated increased bifidobacteria and Coprococcus 3 population. These bacteria help lower cytokines level and thus inflammation.

This is the first study to show that exercise can affect the gut bacterial population, raise short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), and modulate the endocannabinoid system. It appears that a significant anti-inflammatory effect exerted by gut microbiota is through the modulation of the endocannabinoid system.

Interestingly enough, researchers also found that exercise reduced the population of Collinsella, a bacteria known to cause inflammation. Conversely, its population is elevated in those with low fruits and vegetable intake.

Thus, the study concluded that regular exercise is associated with a consistently higher population of beneficial bacteria, thus less circulating cytokines and a higher level of endocannabinoids.

This study is unique, as it is the first to show an association between the population of beneficial gut bacteria and exercise. Although many studies confirm the association between low pain and inflammation and gut bacteria, they did not show that such an association has to do anything with exercise. 

Thus, a 2019 study in those living with fibromyalgia found that higher or lower pain scores were associated with a higher or lower population of 19 different species of bacteria found in the gut2.

Similarly, yet another study reported that gut microbiota changes could either make migraine headaches worse or better, depending on the population of various gut bacteria3.

To conclude, although many early studies have shown an association between altered gut bacteria and higher pain and inflammation. But, this is the first study that showed how regular exercise could also influence gut bacteria and thus reduce inflammation.

References

1. Vijay A, Kouraki A, Gohir S, et al. The anti-inflammatory effect of bacterial short chain fatty acids is partially mediated by endocannabinoids. Gut Microbes. 2021;13(1):1997559. doi:10.1080/19490976.2021.1997559
2. Anson P. A Gut Feeling About Fibromyalgia. Pain News Network. Accessed February 19, 2022. https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2019/6/19/a-gut-feeling-about-what-causes-fibromyalgia
3. Anson P. Diet Changes Reduce Migraine Headaches. Pain News Network. Accessed February 19, 2022. https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2021/7/2/diet-changes-reduce-migraine-headaches