People with stronger muscles are more likely to harbor a particular species of bacteria in their guts, and when this bacterial species was fed to mice, they became stronger, a new study finds.
The study authors say the microbe has the potential to be part of a probiotic supplement, potentially boosting muscle strength. However, this would require the researchers to find a way to preserve it in a pill. What’s more, this microbe could serve as a drug to treat frailty in the elderly, assuming future clinical trials in humans reveal the microbe safely improves muscle strength, said study lead author Borja Martinez-Tellez, a sports scientist at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
