Beta-Alanine - is it worth it?

Many athletes take supplements to gain an extra competitive edge, but only a few provide real performance benefits. Beta-alanine is one of the few that may work. It has proven performance benefits in certain sporting situations, but… it may make your skin crawl.

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What is it? 

To understand beta-alanine, athletes need to understand carnosine. Carnosine is a dipeptide, or protein, found in skeletal muscle. It’s made up of two amino acids: beta-alanine and l-histidine. It’s found naturally in the diet in meat and fish, but during digestion, it’s rapidly broken down.  Muscle carnosine levels are generally low. While the body has plenty of l-histidine, beta-alanine is limited. Beta-alanine is the rate-limiting component in carnosine synthesis. Supplementing with beta-alanine is necessary to increase muscle carnosine levels, the primary goal for improving performance.

How does it work? 

Carnosine acts as a buffering agent. High-intensity activity requires oxygen faster than the body can supply it. When there’s insufficient oxygen available for aerobic metabolism, an accumulation of hydrogen ions occurs. The increase in hydrogen ions lowers the muscle's pH, causing metabolic acidosis and fatigue. Carnosine works by buffering the hydrogen ions, preventing the drop in muscle pH, and allowing athletes to continue working at a high intensity. Increases in muscle carnosine have been shown to improve high-intensity endurance performance in trained and untrained individuals. Specifically, it is beneficial in exercise bouts that are 30 seconds to 10 minutes in duration.

Now, we all know most endurance events last longer than ten minutes. So, is beta-alanine beneficial to endurance performance? To answer this question, we must think about how endurance events unfold.  Endurance races generally do not involve holding a smooth, consistent effort through the entire event. There are “make-or-break” moments in a race where anaerobic efforts are required. Think about a swim start, following a move on the bike, or a sprint finish. Successful athletes can perform at a high effort, making the break or winning the sprint. This is where beta-alanine may provide some benefit. Additionally, it’s essential to consider beta-alanine's benefits outside of competition. There’s likely a benefit to taking beta-alanine when training and completing repeated exercise bouts. Beta-alanine positively affects intermittent exercise, such as interval training, allowing athletes to train better and harder, indirectly leading to performance benefits on race day.

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How much?

 Muscle carnosine levels will increase with beta-alanine dosage. This means athletes saw similar benefits from consuming 3.2g/day for eight weeks vs. supplementing with 6.4g/day. Muscle carnosine levels will continue to rise and peak after supplementing with 6.4g/day for 24 weeks. It’s unclear if there’s an additional performance benefit from increasing muscle carnosine levels past this level. This dosage level doesn’t need to be maintained forever. After the loading period, athletes continue using a maintenance dose of 1.2 g/day ß-alanine, which seems sufficient to maintain muscle carnosine content above baseline.

Considerations?

 Researchers have studied the safety concerns of beta-alanine supplementation, and no safety risks have been reported when following these dosing guidelines for up to 24 weeks. However, athletes may notice one spooky side effect. Frequently, athletes will experience paresthesia, an uncomfortable tingling sensation in the skin that can last up to an hour. Symptoms can range from mild tingles to skin flushing to uncomfortable prickling. Although the exact cause of paresthesia is unknown, it is thought to be due to ß-alanine-activated receptor sites in the brain and central nervous system. The effects of paresthesia can be lessened by spreading out doses of beta-alanine throughout the day and using time-release formulas.

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Final Thoughts

Given that the ß-alanine supplementation protocol requires long-term usage, supplementing may be expensive and require a financial commitment. It should be noted that there are significant intra-individual differences in beta-alanine supplementation. Some athletes may see significant benefits, while others may see very little. This is thought to be because of baseline muscle carnosine levels, which may be why vegetarians could see more significant improvements in muscle carnosine levels. Untrained individuals are also likely to see more substantial benefits than trained individuals.

Megan