Abstract
Moderate exercise has been shown to be beneficial to health in many ways,听including reducing stress, building a stronger immune system and increasing聽cardiovascular health. Recent studies in the human gut microbiome have聽demonstrated benefits of certain microorganisms in aiding human pathogen聽resistance and reduction of inflammation. The hypothesis is that exercise can聽help modulate the human gut microbiota. Here we show that increasing聽exercise frequency selects for a diverse community of microbes that聽contribute to a healthier environment. Individuals who exercised more often聽showed a significant elevation in their diversity, as well as a significant聽elevation of certain members of the Firmicutes phylum (including聽Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, uncharacterized species of genus Oscillospira,听Lachnospira, Coprococcus, and uncharacterized families of Clostridiales).