Beta Alanine

What Is Beta Alanine?

Have you heard of the health benefits of beta-alanine in the realm of sports nutrition? If you’re a fitness buff or an athlete, read on, you’re in for a treat! What is beta alanine? It is a modified form of the non-essential amino acid alanine, that combines with histidine to form carnosine (it's what we call a “precursor” of carnosine). In turn, carnosine is a molecule, made up of the amino acids beta-alanine and histidine, and highly concentrated in muscle and brain tissues. Carnosine is extremely beneficial to athletic performance because it reduces lactic acid accumulation in the muscles during exercise, which translates into better athletic performance. Further, supplementation with his amino acid has been shown to increase the concentration of carnosine in muscles, which in addition to preventing acidosis, decreases exercise fatigue and enhances exercise performance. Unfortunately, simply supplementing with carnosine or increasing your consumption of carnosine-rich foods (beef, fish, and poultry), has not been shown as effective as supplementing with beta-alanine itself since carnosine supplements are broken down during digestion into histidine, and only a mere 40% of beta-alanine.

Benefits of Beta Alanine

• Anti-Aging, Antioxidant, Immune Stimulant 
• Helps Improve Body Composition
• Improves Athletic Performance & Strength
• Increases Time to Exhaustion

Who Should Take Beta Alanine?

A beta-alanine supplement may be recommended to you if you are an athlete or fitness buff who's looking to take your workouts and performance to the next level. Because this amino is converted into carnosine in muscle cells, which acts as a buffer for the lactic acid produced during high-intensity exercises, it’s also often suggested to delay the onset of neuromuscular fatigue in hard trainers and bodybuilders. This amino is an ideal supplement for anyone looking to enhance muscle protein synthesis and to optimize body composition (lose fat/gain muscle), as well as to increase muscle quality and volume, and prevent muscle loss (sarcopenia) in the elderly. Last but certainly not least, newer research has demonstrated that beta-alanine not only improves exercise performance, but cognitive performance as well, which opens the door to a variety of new and exciting potential applications.

Beta Alanine Supplements

Beta-alanine supplements are very popular and widely available in either powder or capsule form and are typically recommended in the 3.2 – 6.4g daily range, in divided doses. Proper dosing helps prevent paresthesia, itching, and tingling of the skin that's common after taking high quantities of this nutrient. This reaction, while uncomfortable for some, is perfectly harmless, and is a function of the dose used and food intake before supplementing.

Final Thoughts

Beta-alanine supplements are offered primarily in one of two forms; instant or sustained-release formulas. The added advantage of a sustained release formula is that it features an advanced delivery system that allows for higher dosing / greater increases in muscle carnosine concentrations, as well as minimizes paresthesia. Many athletes choose to use both instant release and sustained release blends in tandem to allow for higher dosing and to reap greater potential performance gains.