Beta-Alanine Supplementation

Welcome to my blog, I hope to update regularly to offer an insight into my work placement at Leeds United which begins at the end of the month. In the meantime, I have been asked to review some of the current topics that are popular in Sports Science, namely the effectiveness of some of the ergogenic aids available and some modern recovery methods to training.
First up on the list is a review of Beta-Alanine supplementation, I have researched 10 papers on this issue and collaborated the findings into a fairly short information sheet. Please feel free to add any comments that you might have either in favour or against any of the points that I make.

Beta-Alanine Review

Introduction

Beta-Alanine is a non-essential amino acid that is found in many foods that we eat, such as chicken, turkey and fish. It has received a great deal of attention in recent years as Beta-Alanine supplementation has been shown in several studies to increase performance enhancement potential. The way it acts is to increase muscle Carnosine levels, Carnosine is found primarily in fast twitch muscle fibres, and works by buffering the increase in H⁺ ions to protect against a decrease in the pH of the muscle which can become a fatiguing factor that is associated with anaerobic activity such as sprinting. Theoretically, increasing skeletal muscle carnosine levels, through either training or supplementation, or both, would improve the buffering capacity of the muscle, which should lead to improved performance. The following information is derived from a review of some of the current literature on the topic, and gives some recommendations and advice for the use of Beta-Alanine supplementation.

Key Points

Following the review of the literature there seem to be several recurring themes.

·         The recommended dosage is between 3.2-6.4 grams per day. It is recommended to begin on the lowest dose and gradually increase supplementation over the course of a ten week period. It was also noted that peak concentrations of Beta-Alanine occurred within 1 hr of ingestion and rapidly declined within the second hour, thus it is recommended that the daily dose should be taken in 6-8 servings, separated by at least 2 hours.

·         A substantial increase in the content of Carnosine in the muscle was noted with values ranging from 58-64% after 4 weeks, and 73-80% after 10 weeks. This increase in muscle Carnosine content coincided with sprint capacity performance increases ranging from 11-16%.

·         Some studies found that there was an increase in lean body mass but noted that unlike Creatine, Beta-Alanine does not induce bodyweight gain due to the retention of water. This may be important for athletes in weight bearing exercises or weight class sports such as cycling or boxing.

·         Most experiments were carried out up to a maximum period of ten weeks and noted no ceiling effect, this would seem to indicate that further improvements could occur with prolonged cycles of supplementation.

·         All of the journals that I examined had carried out the experiment on male subjects. None of the subjects were elite level athletes. I would be interested to see if results would be similar when elite athletes are used, and would also be interested to see results when carried out on females.

·         All but 1 paper used the cycle ergometer as the main testing protocol, I would like to see some variation in testing and would be particularly interested to see results from some common fitness tests used in field sports such as the 150 sprint test, shuttle run test etc...

·         One side effect was often noted, this was paraesthesia which is a tingling sensation like ‘pins and needles’ in the fingers and hands. This occurred in more than 50% of the cases when a dose of greater than 10mg.kg was used.

Conclusion

All of the papers reviewed, indicate that the supplementation of Beta-Alanine can lead to an increase in performance for untrained and recreational athletes, it remains to be seen whether the same effects are experienced with elite level athletes. It would also be of interest to determine the ergogenic effects of Beta-Alanine on intermittent sports, such as soccer, hockey, basketball or gaelic football, which require a combination of endurance and sprint performance. We don’t yet know how long to continue supplementation to maximise muscle Carnosine concentrations, or how long muscle Carnosine remains elevated if supplementation was stopped, although one paper noted that a 55% increase in Carnosine concentrations required a 15 week washout period to return to baseline. Finally, no long term studies have been conducted on chronic Beta-Alanine supplementation so any long term health effects are as of yet unknown.