Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 121, August 2019 | Page 71

KEEPING IT DOWN ON THE RUN
Do you struggle with nausea on your long runs, or even worse, during races? If yes, a course of probiotics could be the
answer. – BY NICKI DE VILLIERS & SHONA HENDRICKS
Y
ou’ve done everything right... Your training has been great, you’ve
applied your nutrition strategy in training sessions, and done
nothing new on race day, and then suddenly the nausea hits. It
can be so debilitating during a race, and can ruin the whole race day
experience, let alone that targeted PB.
The causes of nausea during prolonged endurance events are multi-
factorial and there is no one reason as to why this can occur. Some of the
common causes of nausea could be due to these factors:
• Obviously, increased blood flow is required for muscle metabolism,
and so there is a change in blood flow away from the stomach/
gut to the muscular system. The decreased blood flow to the gut
can influence the rate of stomach emptying, which can cause an
accumulation of food and drink in the stomach, causing discomfort.
• The nutritional aspects of the causes of nausea can include the
type of food consumed on race day and its influence on stomach
emptying, the type of carbohydrate used (it has been shown that
carbohydrates such as fructose can have this effect on the gut), the
caffeine intake, fibre intake and fat intake, to name a few.
• Hydration status can also contribute to nausea, as too much will add
to stomach content and heaviness, and too little can, once again,
decrease blood volume, which impacts on blood flow to the gut.
So how do we combat nausea? Here again there is no one answer, as
this can be different for each runner. However, the correct amount of
carbohydrates combined with the correct hydration strategy is key.
A recent study featured in the European Journal of Applied Physiology
in January this year experimented with the use of a four-week course
of probiotics prior to race day, and found that this could be effective in
reducing gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms during a marathon. The probiotic
supplement used contained the Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium
bifidum and Bifidobacterium animalis strains. The study showed that
runners supplementing with probiotics reported fewer and less severe GI
symptoms, both in training and during a marathon.
The study is not suggesting that you only use probiotics, and don’t
pay attention to your carbohydrate intake and hydration status. In fact,
their methods used an ideal nutrition recommendation of 8g/kg/day of
carbohydrates in the weeks leading up to the marathon, and 66g/hour of
carbohydrates on race day. This is usually the aspect that runners feel is
actually the cause of the nausea, and therefore they tend to eat far less,
which in turn also impacts performance. Therefore, if probiotics could
make it more comfortable to include more carbohydrates to maintain their
running intensity for longer, then runners could see better results.
So, while the four-week course of probiotics is not the magic pill to get rid
of all race day nausea, it is (as should be with all supplements) something
that could assist over and above good nutritional practices to avert
nausea, by allowing you to ingest the recommended carbohydrate intake
while training and racing.
Train smarter, with fewer injuries.
Running to the best of your ability is as simple as 1...2...3
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