How to Prevent GI Distress in Endurance Athletes Ep 105

Functional Sports Nutritionist Chris Newport discusses gastrointestinal (GI) distress specifically for athletes, particularly endurance athletes. The conversation covers the prevalence of GI issues in sports, the various causes of these problems, including overeating, race day anxiety, and unfamiliar foods, as well as strategies for managing and preventing GI distress. Chris emphasizes the importance of gut health and nutrition in athletic performance and offers practical tips for athletes to improve their gut health and overall performance.

Listen to the episode on Gut Health here. 

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Transcript

Introduction to GI Distress in Athletes

Speaker 1 1:31

Hey y'all and welcome back to the Find your Edge podcast. I am so excited that you are here. Today we're talking about gut health, but this time gut health specifically for athletes during exercise. So if you don't do endurance sports, that's okay too. You might get a couple of pearls out of this. Or certainly, if you've heard some of your friends discussing this, this might be an episode that you might want to pass along to them. So if you know someone, or if you've ever had to sprint to the port-a-john mid-race or felt so nauseous that you couldn't take another gel or another sports drink, you're not alone.

Speaker 1 2:10

Gi distress is one of the most frustrating and complex issues in endurance sports, and today we're diving into what causes it, how your gut health plays a role and what you can do about it. Don't forget that all of this is included in our Fueling and Hydration Bootcamp, which you can find in the show notes. So, first of all, what is GI distress, or gastrointestinal distress? Some of the most common symptoms you may experience, or know someone telling you about nausea, bloating, cramping and I don't mean cramping like my calves are on fire or my quads are cramping. This is cramping like in your belly area, in your abdominal region Diarrhea certainly is a common one reflux or urgency to make your way to the port-a-john. Or, as my kids' favorite word, you gotta poop. You know what I'm saying, so check this out.

Common Causes of Gut Issues

Speaker 1 3:08

Some studies have indicated that as many as 93% of long-distance triathletes have experienced at least one GI symptom. That's pretty much everybody. That's pretty much all of you guys out there. That's insane to me and this is also why I have a job. So, more specifically, serious GI problems were reported by 43% of those athletes, with 7% of people having to abandon or basically DNF. So another study found that 31% of Ironman triathletes and 14% of half Ironman or Ironman 70.3 racers experience severe GI symptoms. Y'all. I feel so terrible for you and don't want you to have game-changing GI symptoms. This is something that, yes, it's complex and yes, it's frustrating, but some of these things are fixable, all right.

Speaker 1 4:05

So let's get into what could potentially be some of the causes of distress. So number one overeating or chugging fluids or just consuming too much all at once while you are exercising. So let me remind you, during exercise, especially high intensity, or if you're really pushing your body a long way like an Ironman, especially if you've only trained, say, up to five or six hours and then you're going for 12, 13, 14, 15 plus hours. That is a long time for blood to be shunted away from your gut, which means that basically, your gut is kind of like one big tube from tip to tail. That the amount of blood that your body because your body needs energy to digest, the amount of blood that your body because your body needs energy to digest, the amount of blood that is being sent to working muscles, is reducing your ability to digest as effectively as you can.

Race Day Anxiety and Gut Health

Speaker 1 5:09

Thereby you're probably going to have some intestinal issues, especially lower GI, and I sort of separate them into upper and lower GI regions. So lower GI might be the more sort of bloating sensation or needing to run to the port-a-john. Upper symptoms upper GI symptoms are more like the nausea, feeling overly full or maybe even vomiting. So your gut gets overwhelmed when you consume too much all at once. It's kind of like I like to use the analogy of sitting down on your bike or during your run and having like Thanksgiving dinner. What are you going to want to do? Like stop and take a nap because your body's like okay, I need some extra time and energy literally energy to digest all of this, so your gut basically gets overwhelmed and then you might experience nausea, you might experience some level of sloshing, you may even have to vomit or just generally slow down. So pro tip there make sure that you are consuming your fluids and foods and when I say food, that could be anything from fig, newtons to gels to anything that is going to provide an excess amount of calories. So take your time. Sip slowly in order to avoid overloading your system. Sip slowly in order to avoid overloading your system. That helps by allowing gastric emptying, so the ability of your stomach to empty into your small intestines, which is where the real magic happens, and all of that energy is able to be absorbed and sent to working muscles. All of that happens more consistently if you sip and consume steadily, rather than in these large gaps, so like if you're taking 90 minutes before you have anything and then you have too much. It's just going to overload the system, all right.

Speaker 1 7:15

Another one is race day anxiety. Poor Carly, who is our sports psychologist I love to send her all my folks who are pooping excessively on race day and she's like rolling her eyes at me. But honestly, the gut is so deeply tied to your brain and your body's fight or flight response and your body's fight or flight response. So when you get really nervous so that those race day jitters or there's that race day anxiety kicks in, your body is like, okay, cool, we're running from the tiger. Now that's great. I need to empty myself out, like right now. So then you're taking several trips to the Port-A-ohn, probably having some level of diarrhea. That is a normal response. Another response is sometimes people will get constipated. It's almost like nope, I'm holding on to it, let's go, let's roll out. So it's so interesting to me the difference in our specific responses to stress.

Sugar Overload and Fructose Intolerance

Speaker 1 8:16

So one of the things that you can help is using things like breathwork, like visualization. This is literally what Carly does on a day in and day out basis of helping people with sports psychology so that they can be more grounded, more centered and check it out. Then you also digest better. What so? Amazing how those tools can really help with race day anxiety. All right, another thing, and you've probably heard this before unfamiliar foods or new products. On race day You're like, hey, check it out. There's this brand new gel that the race has that I've never tried before, or it just happened to be there or my training buddy gave me this thing. It's always best to test any of your products or any of the foods that you're going to be doing prior to race day. So, in other words, train your gut just like you train your body. So consistency is key, getting used to all of the different textures, all of the different flavors, and whether your body is actually going to accept whatever it is that you're putting in your body.

Gut Health Beyond Race Day

Speaker 1 9:31

All right, next up, sugar overload or sugar alcohol overload this is a more interesting one that I will see more commonly in athletes rather than just the general population is too much fructose. There is something called fructose intolerance, and oftentimes you're going to have symptoms outside of exercise, but sometimes you may not until you get to be exercising. And now you're consuming all of these foods and gels and products with excess free fructose, and what I mean by free fructose is that it's literally stated on the product as fructose. Now, fructose is a magical thing from an exercise perspective, because once those glucose transporters in your body get saturated, we need another avenue to get calories to your muscles, and one of those ways is via fructose. So finding that right balance that is not going to throw your body overboard with too much fructose, which oftentimes will create this bloating sensation. You may have some diarrhea and it can be not great, or just GI chaos is what I like to call it. It can be crazy. So, yes, it's helpful to use multiple carb sources, so like glucose and fructose and maltodextrin, or dextrose and fructose, that kind of thing, so that you can saturate different transporters in your body. But consider options that might be a little bit more whole foods based or adjusting the ratios of that glucose to fructose option. So play around with different things and we help you in that process in our fueling and hydration bootcamp. So there's other things that, like I just mentioned, that we discuss in the fueling and hydration boot camp and even digging deeper on our live calls. We talk about everything from caffeine including the genetics of caffeine, nsaids, infections, toxins and even menstruation. So those are all the things that you can learn more about and see if that's more specific to you in our Fueling Hydration Bootcamp.

Speaker 1 12:05

All right, the one that probably most people don't like to talk about, but GI distress isn't just about race day. It's about gut health. So you may have heard some of the terms like leaky gut, dysbiosis, inflammation. All of those things impact how you feel and perform. So if you are not taking care of yourself outside of exercise, that you're not getting your recovery nutrition, that you're not getting your fruits and vegetables, that you're not getting your good quality protein and all of those things that are making us be an amazing human and an athlete, then you know that you are not going to perform your best.

Speaker 1 12:49

So stress is another massive one. I know I talked a lot about that in our gut health podcast, so I'll link back to that one so that you guys can dig deeper into that with our STAIN acronym that we like to talk about, which is stress and toxins, adverse food reactions, infections and nutritional imbalances. Those are all the things that we like to look at from a functional health perspective, tying that into functional nutrition for athletes. So stress and poor food choices and lack of diversity in your diet is going to equal an unhappy gut, and that can be easier said than done. Right, the concept of, oh, I need to eat so many different types of fruits and vegetables on a regular basis can be hard when you're making so many other decisions. So the gut-brain connection can also affect your mood and your motivation. I mean, have you ever felt like, oh gosh, I just don't want to train today, or I don't really want to do anything today? So that may be related to the quality of food that you're putting in your body and also giving you quality sleep.

Speaker 1 14:02

Timing of your food is a really big one. That relates to GI distress as well. During exercise, if you're not allowing your body to absorb appropriately through the night, that could even be an issue. So your refueling plan isn't just about calories or isn't just about carbohydrates. It's about digestion, it's about absorption and and it's also about long-term health, which is why we created our Longevity Nutrition Coaching Program for athletes just like you who want to dig a little bit deeper into what is my blueprint, not only for exercise, but also for health and performance, and what are some of the things that you can do more specifically to benefit you. So I will link to that below in the show notes. Our longevity nutrition coaching program is so amazing and can really transform not only your performance but certainly your long-term health. So here's some strategies that may help you.

Practical Strategies and Solutions

Speaker 1 15:08

If you are somebody who's experienced GI distress, so before training. You are somebody who's experienced GI distress, so before training, so prior to training. Make sure that you keep meals somewhat simple and predictable, which I think is also interesting that I come off of getting some diversity in your diet. You might have to do some tweaks, because then it's a matter of if you're doing an elimination diet and then a reintroduction plan. That can be oh my gosh, can be such a hot mess. So if there are so many different things that you're like I don't know what's causing it, keep a log I cannot emphasize this enough the more symptoms that you can track on a regular basis, then we can start to look back and say, ah, this may be a culprit, let's take an action here. So simplify the meals in the meantime to at least adjust and log those symptoms and then you can start reintroducing more complex meals and I know this is a big one. But definitely manage your stress. I cannot emphasize enough how much stress plays into your gut. I mean, it's so massive.

Speaker 1 16:21

So if you are not working on your breath, work. If you're not working on meditation, I highly recommend you start. And you don't have to start with oh my gosh, I'm going to have to be sitting on this yoga mat for an hour with oh my gosh, I'm going to have to be sitting on this yoga mat for an hour. No start with even just one minute of deep breath work, which is really we'll call it five breaths, five deep slow inhalations and deep slow exhalations. That's one minute. That is one place that you can start, certainly prior to race day, prior to training or long distance events that maybe you've not done before. Or training, because that's the whole point of training right is building your body physically and mentally to be able to go further or go harder. Right During training, make sure you use a tested fueling strategy.

Summary and Resources

Speaker 1 17:14

Again, this goes back into logging your symptoms. So this is a something that we provide in the fueling and hydration bootcamp is giving you a sweat log. This is not just to manage your pre and post weigh-ins so that you know how much fluid that you need to be taking, but it's also an opportunity to manage your different fueling options that you have tried, that you want to try, and then an entire rating system so that if you go back to something, you can look in your notes and say, oh yeah, I tried those Fig Newtons on that one run and I felt really good, or Rice Krispies just didn't work really well for me, or that gel was too chunky or whatever the case may be. We've got an entire tool to use so that you can manage what your fueling options have been, so that you can write out that strategy. Also, don't forget to space out your intake so that you can have that consistent gastric emptying and then, on a daily basis, make sure that you're supporting your gut health with consistent hydration, and when I say hydration, I mean good, old-fashioned water, not necessarily with anything else fancy in it, but good water, making sure that you're getting good quality protein, making sure that you're getting your fruits and vegetables and maybe even some fermented foods, if those are things that work best for you. So, when in doubt, test and don't guess.

Speaker 1 18:49

So, if you are consistently having these GI issues, there's additional testing that you can do, whether it be from your primary health care provider, your GI doc, or even working with us to do some more specific might be swimming in some different types of waters. Sometimes we see some parasites that can be lingering and some of these things can stick around for a while After you got back from a trip to Hawaii or after you had a specific race or something that may be a clue to say, okay, this may be more specifically, what's going on to you Anyway. So a lot of pieces to go with that. So GI distress, just as a reminder, doesn't have to be part of your sport story. So with the right plan and a little gut love, you can go from porta potty panic to podium confidence.

Speaker 1 19:58

So we've helped hundreds of athletes just like you, and we'd love to help you too, whether it be in our feeling and hydration bootcamp or doing some one-on-one work or joining our longevity nutrition coaching program. So if you found this helpful, I would love it if you could share this with a training buddy who may be visiting the Port-au-Jean a little bit too much who's had some of those tummy troubles. We would love to help them as well. Thanks again for listening and we will catch you next week on the Find your Edge podcast.