GLOSSARY

Exercise-Induced Microbiome Changes are changes attributed to exercise, requiring comparison and confounder control for causation.

Activity can accompany microbial differences, but athlete diet, food volume and lifestyle also matter. Elite-athlete profiles are not mandatory targets for everyone. Findings on microbial lactate use and mouse performance do not establish the same intervention's human benefit. Record diet and sampling time when examining training changes. This helps separate confounded associations from independent exercise effects rather than treating every post-race bacterial shift as a performance-enhancing mechanism.

An association between microbes and health or performance does not alone establish microbial causation. Diet and training can influence both, and culture or animal findings are not direct human prescriptions. Sports-benefit claims need relevant human outcomes for the actual intervention. An axis name or biological pathway cannot replace evidence of a practical effect, especially when a product is marketed using results from a different population or formulation.

Long or intense exercise, particularly in heat, can reduce splanchnic perfusion and stress the gut. Mechanical motion, medicines and food also matter; microbes do not cause every symptom. Ischemia means inadequate perfusion for demand, not ordinary bloating. Severe pain or bleeding after exercise warrants assessment rather than continued training or adding gut supplements. Reducing exposure and identifying the cause are more useful than assigning all symptoms one microbial explanation.