Beta-alanine is a non-essential amino acid, this means your body can make this amino acid without needing a direct source from the food you eat. Unlike most amino acids that are used for making proteins beta-alanine forms with histidine to make carnosine. Carnosine acts as a muscle buffer is the one which is most interest in athletes. In your muscles your histidine levels are high, and your beta-alanine levels are low. This means that adding this amino acid could help raise this level by allowing more creatine to be created.
Good food sources of beta-alanine are meat, fish, and poultry. Supplements can raise this level further. Carnosine sucks up extra hydrogen ions and helps regular your muscles pH and increase resistance to muscle fatigue and increase muscle performance.
Looking at the benefits more closely:
- Benefits high intensity sports 1-7 minutes long. This includes track cycling, middle distance running and rowing
- Sports which involve repeated, high intensity exercise e.g. team sports, racquet sports and resistance training.
Improvements of up to 3% has been seen with supplementation in both intermittent and continuous exercises and sports from 30 seconds up to 10 minutes in length. The more trained an athlete the lower the improvement seen. Beta-alanine can also improve endurance of a muscle however there is no consistence evidence that this supplement can improve muscle strength.
Dosage:
The amount of beta-alanine in your muscles can be stored over a period. So, you can build up your stores of this amino acid over a few weeks. Taking a total daily amount of 65mg of beta-alanine per kg of your body weight split into smaller portions to be taken every 3-4 hours. This is repeated every day for 10 to 12 weeks. 4 weeks have also shown positive results if you do not wish to load for this long.
Once you finish taking beta-alanine supplementation it will be around 3 months before your muscle levels of carnosine are back to their original levels prior to supplementation.
Side effects:
This supplement can be safely taken by generally healthy people for up to a maximum dose of 6.4g per day and for a maximum duration of 6 months. A pins and needles sensation are one negative but is harmless and can be reduced by using slit dosage amounts.
Take home message: Before starting any supplement make sure your diet is optimal. Seek the support of an Accredited Practising Dietitian to get you on the right track. Supplement is just that, a supplement not a major component for optimal health or sports results.
