Beta-Alanine and Performance: What Athletes Should Know

Beta-alanine (BA) is one of the few supplements that the organizations that classify supplements by the available scientific evidence place in the highest evidence category, but what is BA and what is it used for?

As an athlete, when you compete or train, you have surely felt the unpleasant sensation of what we call fatigue and that is responsible for performance starting to fall.  Fatigue is multifactorial and we have traditionally classified it as central (originating in the brain) and peripheral (it occurs in the muscle). When we perform high-intensity efforts, due to the muscle's need to produce rapid energy to support demand, glycolytic metabolism is strongly active. Associated with the production of ATP through this pathway, hydrogen ions (H⁺) are also produced. The accumulation of hydrogen ions inside the muscle cell results in a drop in pH from the approximate 7,2 that it usually has at rest to, according to some studies, 6 – 6,4 that are reached with intense exercise. This drop can affect your performance as excess H⁺ and lower pH interfere with several important processes. For example, hydrogen ions compete with calcium at the troponin C binding site, which prevents actin and myosin binding, i.e. muscle contraction, from occurring effectively.  In addition, it inhibits the production of phosphocreatine, a fundamental molecule in ATP resynthesis, and even inhibits the activity of key enzymes in the production of energy from glucose, such as phosphofructokinase. However, the human body contains well-regulated mechanisms for maintaining intracellular and extracellular pH within the physiological range, including intracellular buffers, extracellular buffers, dynamic buffering systems, as well as respiratory and renal mechanisms for pH regulation. Among the intracellular mechanisms there is a molecule that is of special interest in this post given its relationship with BA, it is carnosine. Carnosine is a dipeptide that is very present in different animals due to its important functions. It is made up of two amino acids, histidine and beta-alanine.  Among its functions are those of intracellular calcium metabolism, regulation of glycolytic flux, antioxidant and, among others, also acting as an intracellular buffer, that is, buffering the pH changes that occur inside the cell. Its buffering capacity is produced due to its chemical structure that makes it capable of binding hydrogen ions, thus controlling the drop in pH. (Figure 1)

Now, you can guess that the main reason why we supplement with BA is to increase muscle carnosine synthesis.  You're probably thinking that why not supplement with histidine or both. It is a good question, today we know that the limiting step in the endogenous synthesis of carnosine is BA and not histidine.  BA, being an amino acid, is found in some foods in the diet, such as chicken, turkey or fish.

As for its effectiveness, the evidence is strong as shown by different systematic review studies and meta-analyses. However, there are several variables that you must take into account to know if you can benefit from it in your sport (Figure 2).

Perhaps the most important variable, along with the dose, is the duration of the exercise. We know that sports whose efforts are between 30 seconds and 10 minutes are the ones that can benefit the most. This seems obvious if you understand metabolic physiology. It is here, in these "metabolic times" where you preferentially use glycogen/glucose to produce energy via glycolytic. As we talked about earlier, this is associated with higher H⁺ production.  The effect on these sports, although not very high, in terms of performance, if you are an athlete you already know that a small improvement can mean a triumph.  Does this mean that in times of less than 30 seconds or more than 10 minutes it is not effective? No, this would be an error in the interpretation of results and their implementation. If we go to a 100 m sprint, if you stay with the above, you would exclude your athlete from supplementing with BA. However, when a 100-meter athlete trains, he does not go to the track, he does 100 meters and leaves. The athlete does, among other things, multiple sprints. Therefore, at certain times in the planning of this athlete's training it could be used. The same applies to efforts lasting more than 10 minutes. Consider a footballer: the sport's intermittent high-intensity efforts could also benefit from BA.

"BA is especially effective in sports lasting between 30 s and 10 min (glycolytic) (100 – 800 m, swimming, 4K cycling, 2000 m rowing; 8000 m race)"

Beyond this, dosage is a key factor.  Dr. Roger Harris said that doses of 5,2 g/day resulted in significant increases in muscle carnosine content.  Today we know that skeletal muscle has a high capacity to store carnosine, far above what we have achieved through supplementation. Thus, supplementing for a minimum of 2 weeks 6,4 g per day of beta-alanine increases the muscle carnosine content.  This would be the minimum time (between 2 – 4 weeks) that the literature collects for BA supplementation to lead to increases in carnosine in the muscle and we can take advantage of the improved performance. However, a longer supplementation period is not always better. Studies show us that, at 24 weeks of supplementation, both carnosine levels and performance effects are approaching their upper limit of improvement.  Again, I want to make you reflect, if we need a minimum of 2 weeks for its function to occur, would pre-workout supplements be useful where we take the BA acutely?

Unfortunately everything is not forever, when we stop taking it, after a short time both the carnosine content and its effects on performance begin to disappear, which has led some scientists to recommend a maintenance intake for some athletes and at certain times.

Safety-wise, BA seems like a safe supplement. The most well-known and uncomfortable side effect is the well-known paresthesias. This itching spread throughout the body that can occur with the consumption of BA has to do with the peak of appearance that occurs in the blood after a single intake of the recommended amount.  To give you an anecdote, it was the English athletes, prior to the Olympic Games, who asked for a solution to this problem in order to use it. This led to the appearance of extended-release formulas, which achieve the same effect, but without the high peak in blood that causes paresthesias to appear.  Thus, the intake of 1,6g of slow-release BA reduces its appearance.  You can also divide the dose into several small doses throughout the day, which will also reduce the appearance of the dreaded "itching".

To conclude, I leave you with my supplementation recommendations:

• 3,2 – 6,4 g/day
• 0,8 – 1,6 g every 3 – 4h (avoid paresthesias)
• Between 4 – 24 weeks
• Maintenance 1,2 – 1,6 g/day

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AUTHOR
Fernando Mata (Col. AND-01053)

MSc Physiology; Msc. Biomedicine; Msc. Nutrition; PhD. Student
Director General of the Center for Advanced Studies in Nutrition