The effects of 6-weeks of resistance training on the gut microbiome in young adults with overweight and obesity
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INTRODUCTION: Obesity is a known risk factor for the development of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and other cardiometabolic outcomes. Recently, the gut microbiome had been identified as a possible contributor to the onset of obesity and subsequent health complications. Exercise has been regularly utilized as a therapeutic intervention to treat obesity and its associated comorbidities and has also recently been shown to have an effect on the gut microbiome. Various modalities of exercise and their effects on the gut microbiome have been studied to differing degrees, with aerobic exercise being the most commonly studied exercise modality and resistance training (RT) being the least studied modality. AIMS: Hence, we sought to examine the effects of RT on the gut microbiome (Aim 1), hypothesizing that RT would have an effect on the diversity, composition, and metabolic pathways of the gut microbiome. We additionally sought to study the effects of RT on cardiometabolic outcomes and the associations of the gut microbiome with cardiometabolic outcomes (Aim 2), hypothesizing that beneficial changes in the gut microbiome would be positively associated with changes in cardiometabolic outcomes. METHODS: Sedentary young adults (age 18-35 years) with overweight and obesity (BMI 25-45 kg/m2) were recruited to participate in this randomized controlled trial. Participants were randomized into 1 of 2 groups: RT (n=17) which participated in a 6-week resistance training program (3 days/week), or control (CT) (n=16) which continued normal patterns of daily living and served as a non-exercising control. Main outcomes of the study included gut microbiome measures (composition, diversity, and pathways) and cardiometabolic measures (glucoregulatory and cardiovascular outcomes). Data was collected at baseline (BL) and at the end of the 6-week study (W6). RESULTS: Notable findings include an increase in Roseburia genus abundance, a SCFA producer, and microbial starch and sucrose metabolism pathway abundance over 6 weeks with RT in comparison to CT (group x week, p[less than]0.05, q[less than]0.25). Moreover, RT resulted in higher QUICKI and lower diastolic blood pressure at W6 compared to CT (BL-adjusted p[less than]0.05). Correlation analyses demonstrate a trend for a moderately positive correlation of Roseburia with QUICKI (r=0.48, p[less than]0.1) and negative correlation with HOMA-IR (r=-0.46, p[less than]0.1) in the RT group at W6 which was not observed in the CT group. CONCLUSION: This study provides preliminary evidence that resistance training induces positive changes in the gut microbiome and cardiometabolic health. Additionally, the microbiome-glucoregulation associations indicate that SCFA producers may be potentially associated with glucoregulatory improvements which could have important clinical implications and should be examined in future studies with larger sample sizes.
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M.S.