Does your gut microbiome affect your fitness? w/Dr. Jimmy Bagley

Our digestive system has all kinds of stuff living in it that we can’t see with the naked eye – and even if we could, it would still be inside of us so... Anyway, does any of this stuff we’re carrying around affect how fit we are?

Dr. Jimmy Bagley is an Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, and Director of the Muscle Physiology Lab (@musclephyslab), Co-Director of the Exercise Physiology Lab, and Research Director of the Strength and Conditioning Lab at SF State. His department has conducted studies about the human gut microbiome.

We got him on the line to run down some findings from the Human Genome Project, as well as some of his own work. But first we followed our guts and asked some additional questions about how what’s living in our guts might affect many different aspects of human life and health.

Here’s what we came up with:

• Can we change our gut microbiome or does it change us? Or both?
• Does self-improvement start with our guts?
• Are there genetic or gender differences in the composition of our gut microbiome?
• Can your microbiome make you crave?
• Can a fat person get gut bacteria from a skinny person…and get skinny?

Our ideas start about 14:04.

Dr. Bagley joins us about 21:38.

We kick off the episode talking about an appropriate topic: food. Why are combo meals with mandatory tortilla chips LESS expensive that the same items WITHOUT the chips? We also talk about two ends of the Sacramento restaurant spectrum: Taco Bell Cantina and The Kitchen (which was recently awarded a Michelin star).

You can find Dr. Bagley on Instagram at @drjimmybagley, and on Twitter at  @drjimmybagley.

Hosted by Mike Farr (@silentmikke) and Jim McDonald (@thejimmcd).

Produced by Jim McDonald

Production assistance by Connor O’Neal.

Theme by Aaron Moore.

Branding by Joseph Manzo.