Sportomics: metabolomics applied to sports. The new revolution?

Abstract

Sportomics is the application of metabolomics in sports to investigate the metabolic effects of physical exercise on individuals, whether they are professional athletes or not. Metabolomics is one of the "omics" sciences that provide a picture of the metabolic state of a person in physiological or pathological conditions. This is achieved through the analysis of metabolites present in a biological fluid, such as saliva, blood, feces, and urine. The authors revised the recent literature concerning this topic and discussed the useful information that sportomics can provide and the limits of the current experimental settings. Furthermore, in the future, sportomics analyses could be used to prevent and manage injuries as it would be known in advance if an athlete is more prone to experience muscular damage or fatigue. Following more trials, it would also be possible to set the best diet and training programs to get the best performances out of the athletes. Moreover, based on their metabolic profiles, both adults and children could choose tailored physical training in order to preserve and improve their health.