How to boost your gut microbiome for a better workout
The gut biome is the ecosystem of bacteria, fungi and viruses that lives in our digestive tract and has a powerful effect on our immune system, energy and mood. Could it therefore have a significant effect on our workout performance?
Drew Price, a nutrition consultant and doctoral researcher at Reading University, points to studies that show mice with normal amounts of bacteria in their gut biomes have a third more energy than those with lower amounts. 'There's growing evidence that protecting the gut microbiome boosts the physical processes that underpin our fitness,' he says. This is how to keep your gut and body fit and firing.
Muscles are made from protein, of which meat, fish, eggs and beans are all excellent sources. But protein can
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘It was simply mind-blowing': readers remember seeing Star Wars for the first time
A relatively long time ago in cinemas near and far away, the first Star Wars film captivated a generation of children and adults. As the British Film Institute in London this week screens the original 1977 theatrical version of the space opera, which has rarely been shown since the 1990s, readers have shared their recollections of its groundbreaking special effects, iconic heroes and villains, and queueing around the block for tickets. Most of those who responded to a Guardian callout recalled being mesmerised by the film's opening crawl, then 'blown away' by the first scene in which Princess Leia's starship is captured by an immense Imperial Star Destroyer. 'It loomed right over our heads in the theatre, immediately putting us in the action, alerting us to the huge stakes in this world,' said Marilyn Stacey, a 68-year-old paralegal and actor from Portland, Oregon, who saw the film with her boyfriend in Westwood, Los Angeles, soon after it opened in the US in May 1977. Many readers said Star Wars was the first 'grownup' film they saw as children, with their few previous trips to the cinema being for Disney films such as Mary Poppins or the Herbie comedies about a sentient Volkswagen Beetle. Mark Hannaby, who was six in 1978 when his father drove him from the suburbs of Wrexham, north-east Wales, to see the film at the biggest screen nearby at the Odeon in Liverpool, recalled how it captured his imagination. 'At that age, I don't think you expect the external world to correspond with your internal world,' said Hannaby, 52, now a journalism lecturer at the University of Chester. 'Dad said my face never left the screen. I was hungry for the story, and unusually uninterested in the wine gums he offered. Even for years afterwards, nothing really compared to it.' Lois Pass, from Southend-on-Sea, who didn't have a TV at home when she saw the film as a teenager in 1978, agreed. 'To suddenly see battles taking place in space, travel faster than the speed of light, plus this mysterious power – the Force – in a galactic battle between good and evil was simply mind-blowing,' she said. Like many readers, Cliff Ramshaw's anticipation for the film had been fuelled by its merchandising. By the time it came out in the UK, Ramshaw, now 58, had already read the novelisation and part of the Marvel comic book adaptation, and had decorated his school haversack with drawings of X-wings and Tie fighters. Unfortunately, his father did not share his enthusiasm for the film when he took him and his younger brother to see it in Sunderland in 1978. 'We arrived early and Dad, not wanting to hang around, took us in straight away [to an earlier screening],' he recalled. 'We sat down just in time to see the attack on the Death Star. After the movie ended we remained seated while the audience left and a new crowd arrived. We saw the beginning and middle of the movie and then, when the attack on the Death Star was about to start, Dad took us out of the cinema and drove us home!' Ramshaw, who now lives in the Cotswolds, didn't get to see the film the whole way through until it was aired on British TV four years later. But his unusual viewing experience did not dampen his love for Star Wars, and he later became a software engineer at George Lucas's visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic. Luke Skywalker's journey from a farm boy on a backwater planet to a hero of the rebellion particularly enraptured readers who had grown up in small or remote communities. Back in 1978, Pass, who grew up in the Essex coastal town of Shoeburyness, was grappling with discomfort about her 'lowly position on the social scale' at the local grammar school. 'There was Luke, a poor, scruffy, nobody from nowhere, just like me, suddenly plucked from obscurity to discover his true calling. Obi-Wan Kenobi revealing that there is a whole lot more to his life than he could ever have imagined [was] a potent message!' Many women who responded to the callout recalled how enamoured they were with Princess Leia's attitude. Rebecca Pollock, a HR worker from Brisbane, Australia, said: 'For a young girl, growing up in a country town in Queensland, watching an amazing heroine like Princess Leia dominate her world gave me a role model who was brave, adventurous and strong in the face of adversity. I loved it when she looked up at Darth Vader and talked back to him, and her banter with Han Solo. Her wit and sarcastic approach was so different to what I'd seen women be.' It wasn't just children and teenagers who were enraptured. Milton Justice, a former artistic director of the Stella Adler Academy of Acting and Theatre, saw the film after Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia, auditioned for a part in a murder-mystery film he was producing. 'I remember Carrie's audition, because she was very quirky as an actor. She didn't get the part. After Star Wars opened, I went back into the company and said: 'Are you guys crazy?' I later knew her socially. She really was one of the funniest people ever. Even some of the line readings she did in Star Wars had that kind of way that she saw life.' Justice, who now runs a podcast about acting, said back then many people in the movie industry thought Star Wars was just a one-off. 'In an odd sense, we might have been more respectful of the story than the special effects. I don't blame Star Wars for the fact that so many movies today have so many special effects that you don't even see the story. I think it's very separate from those kind of films.'
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Bluetongue virus sees Wales introduce limits on moving livestock
Limits are to be placed on moving livestock from England into Wales in response to the spread of the bluetongue sheep and goats would need to test negative for the potentially fatal disease before they can be transported across the bluetongue has spread across large parts of England, it has yet to reach Wales this year and the Welsh government said it was attempting to hold it back "for as long as we can".But the farming industry warned the implications of the decision could be "catastrophic" for cross-border trade. Spread by midges, bluetongue presents no threat to food safety or human health, but can have serious consequences for ruminant livestock like sheep and farming industry is dominated by sheep and cattle farms.A restricted zone (RZ) in England - limiting the movement of animals - has continued to expand over recent months as the disease has 1 July, the UK government has decided to designate the whole of England as an RZ, which in practice means movement controls are lifted as the focus shifts to encouraging uptake of new bluetongue vaccines which alleviate the symptoms. The Welsh government said it regretted the UK government's decision, but understood the reasons behind it."This change increases the risk of disease incursion into Wales, either through the movement of infected livestock, or the ingress of virus carrying midges from across the border," warned Deputy First Minister Huw Welsh government had been left facing "a major decision - with implications for the livestock sectors and animal health and welfare across Wales", he said. Farming leaders had urged him to align with England and not impose restrictions on livestock movement across the border - branding it both "a futile endeavour and wholly impractical".Irranca-Davies, also the cabinet minister with responsibility for rural affairs, said he appreciated there were differing views and that he had listened to representation from both the livestock and veterinary ultimately he had concluded that he could not "in all conscience invite bluetongue into Wales on 1 July by aligning with the RZ in England"."I am unwilling to risk the uncertain impact of the disease in livestock dense areas like the Welsh borders," he said."I am also extremely concerned about the economic and farmer wellbeing impacts of dealing with sick animals, and the livestock productivity and fertility losses associated with severe bluetongue, as observed in many affected European countries."Testing livestock brought into Wales will allow time to monitor the effects of bluetongue in England and ensure more Welsh farmers are able to vaccinate their animals, he some would be disappointed by his announcement and there would be "licencing requirements, livestock testing costs and other commercial pressures" as a result, he said the policy would be kept "under regular review". Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW) President Ian Rickman said the announcement brought "a wealth of barriers and complications"."The mechanics of issuing licences in a timely manner, arranging and conducting pre-movement sampling and testing, co-ordinating haulage and the extortionate costs and disruption to cross-border holdings and trade... will be entirely unattainable and impractical," he warned."Meanwhile the midges that carry and spread the virus would not respect any such boundaries."The union called for "clear guidelines and advice" for the 550 farms and "numerous livestock markets" that straddle the Welsh-English to BBC Farming Today earlier this week, Chris Dodds of the Livestock Auctioneers Association said limiting movement of animals across the border would be "catastrophic"."We're not very far away from the main store and breeding sales especially for sheep, when hundreds of thousands of animals move from their upland farms to the lowland farms both for feeding and for breeding purposes."Pointing to Hereford market, which sits "right near the Welsh border", he explained about 100,000 animals were moved from that market into Wales last year."The suggestion that everything (would have) to be pre-movement tested to move to Wales at great cost to the farmer - you're looking at tens of millions of pounds just within one market to facilitate that trade - and those animals need to go to the farmers as their future breeding stock." What is bluetongue? It affects cattle, goats, sheep, goats, deer and camelids such as llamas and can cause ulcers or sores around the animal's mouth and face, difficulties swallowing and breathing, fever and lameness, abortion, foetal deformities and impact of the latest strain – known as BTV-3 - seems to vary considerably across different regions, with some animals showing little sign of infection and managing to the Netherlands, tens of thousands of sheep have is a notifiable disease so anyone suspecting their animals may have it must report it to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Mum's urgent warning after innocent UTI led to life-threatening condition – and all four of her limbs being amputated
KIM Smith's hands and feet went black and had to be amputated after a common infection turned deadly. "I woke up at 4am and I thought I was going to die," the 63-year-old said in a TikTok video, recalling the day fateful day she woke up sick. 5 The mum-of-two from Milton Keynes was on holiday with her family in Spain in 2018 when a simple urinary tract infection (UTI) spiralled out of control. A UTI is a common infection where bacteria infiltrates parts of the body like the bladder, kidneys and urethra. It often causes a painful burning sensation when urinating and the need to pee more often. Familiar with the signs, Kim, then 56, saw a doctor on November 28 2018 and was prescribed antibiotics. But the pharmacist did not have her prescription available for collection that day, so the former hairdresser returned to their hotel, where she quickly deteriorated. "I had severe breathlessness, slurred speech and confusion. I was really really cold. I had a fever and I was shivering like mad," she explained. Kim was rushed to hospital in the early hours of November 29 where doctors diagnosed her with severe sepsis - with the mum being put into a coma. Sepsis is a life-threatening reaction to an infection, which occurs when the body's immune system overreacts to an infection. By the next day, her hands had already turned purple. For weeks, Kim remained in the Spanish hospital, with her family getting more and more concerned. My UTI turned out to be cancer & I had my vagina reconstructed with my bum Eventually, her daughter arranged an air ambulance to get her home, and two weeks after coming back to the UK Kim was brought out of her coma. Waking up, Kim saw her limbs had blackened and died, with doctors telling her she needed them to be removed. Once she recovered from the quadruple amputation, the mum spent 12 weeks in physical rehabilitation, where she regained her strength and learned to live without her limbs. If you feel unusually unwell and you know something is not right, please please please advocate for yourself Kim Smith Now, the mum wants to raise awareness for the little-known risk associated with common UTIs. "I want to tell you, if you need to go pee, go pee," she said. "Don't hold it, that could cause you to get an infection and that could develop into sepsis," she added. 5 5 "The symptoms are severe breathlessness, slurred speech and confusion I had that I didn't pass much urine that day and I had a fever but I was really cold," she said. "If you get anything like that, if you feel unusually unwell and you know something is not right, please please please advocate for yourself," the mum urged her followers. She added: "Tell [doctors] something is not right and ask them to test you for sepsis. "Ask for a second opinion if you have to. Do not leave if you feel something is wrong." How UTIs and sepsis are related UTIs affect the urinary tract - including the bladder, urethra, and kidneys. In the UK, 1.7 million people suffer recurrent UTIs (three or more a year). Around half of all women will get a UTI at some point. Common symptoms are burning pain when peeing, needing to go more often, and cloudy urine, which can also signal dehydration. Some may feel lower abdominal or back pain, fever, chills, or a dangerously low temperature below 36C. Severe symptoms may mean a kidney infection, which can lead to life-threatening sepsis if untreated. 5 Globally, sepsis kills 11 million people a year. In the UK, it claims 48,000 lives annually. Septic shock can cause blood clots that block oxygen to limbs which is when tissue dies, turning skin black. Doctors may try removing dead tissue, but if that fails, amputation is needed. UTIs are a leading cause of sepsis, known as the 'silent killer' because symptoms mimic flu. Key signs of sepsis include confusion, slurred speech, blotchy or blue-grey skin, difficulty breathing, and a rash that doesn't fade when pressed. Skin may be pale, cold, clammy, or show purple bruises. Producing less urine or not peeing for a day is another warning sign, as sepsis lowers blood pressure and blocks blood flow to kidneys. The NHS urges anyone with these symptoms to call 999 or go to A&E immediately.
