April 21,2010

Increase Energy and Muscular Endurance with β-alanine!

Carnosine (beta-alanyl-L-histidine) is a dipeptide (Two amino acids connected) of the amino acids β-alanine and histidine. It is highly concentrated in muscle and brain tissues. Occurring at 17-25 mmol (millimole i.e. very small amounts) /kg (dry muscle), Carnosine is an important muscle buffer, constituting 10-20% of the total buffering capacity in type I and II muscle fibers, which means it keeps acid levels down so you can work out harder and longer without feeling as much pain.

β-alanine and Carnosine

Carnosine levels are limited by the amount of available β-alanine. Supplementation with β-alanine has been shown to increase the concentration of Carnosine in muscles, decrease fatigue in athletes, and increase total muscular work done.  After a 10 week supplementing strategy (with 400 mg or 800 mg multiple times a day over 8 hours) the reported increase in intramuscular Carnosine content was an average of 80.1%

L-Histidine and Carnosine

L-Histidine, when bound to β-alanine (as in Carnosine) makes for a very efficient intramuscular buffer. Furthermore, this β-alanine dipeptide is not gobbled up by proteins and thus can be stored at relatively high concentrations.

Carnosine, just like Voltron:

So similar to the super robot formed from smaller robots in Voltron (if you don’t know what Voltron is google it), β-alanine and L-Histidine form a super amino acid combination.  This “Super Amino” buffers lactic acid, and improves muscular performance.  I always wanted to use a Voltron analogy!

Watch out!

β-alanine, however, causes paraesthesia when ingested in amounts above 10 mg per kg body weight. This is variable between individuals. (1000 mg/220lb person)

Paraesthesia is a sensation of tingling, pricking, or numbness of a person’s skin with no apparent long-term physical effect. It is more generally known as the feeling of “pins and needles” or of a limb “falling asleep”

Tingling means… nothing!

The paraesthesia caused by beta alanine is no indication of efficacy since the published studies undertaken so far have utilized doses of 400 mg or 800 mg at a time, to avoid the paraesthesia.

Something not thought of!

One thing not reported is its effects might also be due to increasing anserine levels.  Anserine (beta-alanyl-N-methylhistidine) is a dipeptide found in the skeletal muscle and brain of mammals. It is an antioxidant and helps reduce fatigue. Histidine, when contained in anserine, is an effective muscle acid buffer.

Stimulate Vs. Cultivate!

There are basically two different categories of supplements.  Ones that stimulate a biological process immediately like, caffeine, Vinpocetine, Yohimbine and many natural plant alkaloids.  And ones that help keep healthy levels in the body, or you use to “cultivate” your stores.  Arginine, Creatine and many other aminos acids work best when used as cultivating supplements.  You can use them to stimulate certain end products but more often then not that causes problems (as in Arginine producing bad Nitric Oxide and Paraesthesia with Beta alanine.).  β-alanine definitely falls in the cultivating category.  So don’t believe the hype… Use Beta alanine in smaller divided dosages to cultivate your Carnosine stores which will result in better performance.

Bioavailability:

Just a brief look at β-alanine, the solubility and stability in water of β-alanine is excellent so there should be no need for “methyl β-alanine” or β-alanine ethyl esters.  They most likely don’t even exist anyways.  It is not oil soluble so no need for micelles, liposomes, or cyclodextrins.    So a quality β-alanine in a capsule, tablet, drink, concentrated liquid would be fine.  Now there might be something you can add to the β-alanine to help build Carnosine, like maybe, histidine but I did not find anything on that.

Quality to look for:

I would look for a brand that tests their finished product for the following: Total β-alanine per serving, along with the absence of or very low levels of As, Cd, Hg, Pb, PCB, dioxin’s, furan’s.  Beta alanine is hygroscopic, so if a powder make sure it is properly sealed or moisture can be absorbed by the powder resulting in inaccurate dosing. It is stable in a liquid so that might be a good way to take β-alanine.

Dosing

I would supplement 600 mg of β-alanine 4 times a day.  Maybe also might be good to use an additional 600-1200 mg of histidine a 4x day.  There is no info on Histidine but it is needed for the Carnosine and Anserine formation.

Take about 30 min before meals.  You don’t need to take with anything else but probably would not hurt to take it when you dose your creatine since this is a very similar dosing protocol.

You also probably want to use it for at least a 10 week period.

Don’t go about 10mg/kg single dose (1000 mg/single dose for a 220 lbs person)

Summary

It appears β-alanine may increase your muscular performance by buffering lactic acid and postponing fatigue.  Letting you work out harder and longer.  Also the main reason you are limited in strength is “pain” so the buffering of the acid should reduce your pain and therefore increase your strength.  The tingling is not the “effect” of β-alanine it is a ”side effect”, so use β-alanine in divided dosages to help cultivate your Carnosine stores.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta-Alanine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraesthesia