Beta-alanine is a non-essential amino acid. As long as the body can produce non-essential amino acids, these nutrients don’t need to be supplied by your diet. The majority of amino acids are protein-building components. However, others, like beta-alanine, are utilized in the body to produce other compounds. Beta-alanine is often used to improve athletic performance as well as lean muscle mass in younger individuals. Moreover, older individuals can use it to improve their physical performance. It is also used to treat menopausal symptoms, although there is little scientific evidence to back this up. One key factor to note is that beta-alanine is not just for athletes. Anyone can benefit from beta-alanine products. This blog post will cover some of the top health benefits of beta-alanine, and provide a list of several beta-alanine products.
Health Benefits of Beta-Alanine Products
The dipeptide carnosine is formed when beta-alanine interacts with histidine, another amino acid. Dipeptides are amino acid molecules made up of two amino acids. Carnosine is present in high concentrations in the skeletal muscles, and one of its primary roles is to buffer pH levels in the body. During the activity, hydrogen ions build, reducing the pH of the surrounding environment and eventually producing muscular tiredness. If you’ve ever had a burning feeling when performing a lot of repetitions that led you to quit, it was most likely caused by a decrease in pH. The rate-limiting step in the production of carnosine seems to be beta-alanine. In other words, the body’s beta-alanine supply limits carnosine synthesis.
Beta-alanine may aid in the prevention of oxidative stress produced by free radical damage, according to some studies on this topic. This is due to its essential function in the production of carnosine inside the body. Carnosine has been shown to scavenge free radicals from cells and possesses a range of antioxidant effects.
Below are some of the main health benefits of beta-alanine. Beta-alanine products are most useful for athletes, as they can help improve muscle mass.
Exercise Endurance
Increasing your beta-alanine intake may enable you to work out harder and for a more extended period of time. According to research, after 28 days of using beta-alanine supplementation, participants were able to work out for more extended periods of time before feeling too exhausted to continue. One study even found that athletes were able to improve their 10km running time by taking beta-alanine supplements. This indicates that you might improve your performance by including beta-alanine in your diet or exercise drink.
Muscle Soreness
Your muscles produce lactic acid during and after exercise, which may result in uncomfortable, aching muscles. This formation of lactic acid results in a minor decrease in the body’s pH levels (lower pH equals more acidic). Because of its capacity to convert into carnosine, higher amounts of beta-alanine in the body function as an acid buffer against this reduction in pH. As an acid buffer for cells, beta-alanine dramatically raises muscle carnosine levels after four weeks of supplementation (4–6 g per day). If you get cramping during exercise or aching muscles afterward, try beta-alanine supplements to see if it helps. However, its impact on muscle repair after exercising is still unknown.
Supports High-Intensity Exercise
You may have an easier time doing short, intense bursts of cardiovascular activity, like high-intensity interval training if you consume beta-alanine products. Studies have shown that taking 4 to 6 grams of beta-alanine per day for at least two to four weeks improves performance in short bursts of activity lasting between one and four minutes.
Supports Muscle Health
Beta-alanine supplementation may increase your lean muscle mass – excellent news for any exercise enthusiast. One research discovered that supplementing using 6g beta-alanine daily for three weeks, after three weeks of supplementing with 3g daily, increased lean muscle mass across 46 young males after the whole six-week period.
Supplementing with beta-alanine isn’t only for youthful people who exercise frequently, it can also be advantageous to elderly folks. Research focusing on elderly people aged 55–92 years old discovered that 90 days of beta-alanine administration pushed back the tiredness threshold and delayed the onset of muscular weariness. If you’re worried about muscle loss as you get older, beta-alanine can be a good supplement for you.
Some Beta-Alanine Products to Consider
If you want to boost your muscle mass or reduce soreness after exercising, then it may make sense to check out some of these beta-alanine products.
Beta-alanine is available in capsule forms and can be found online on Amazon or other online health stores.
Beta-alanine is most commonly sold in powdered form.
Final Thoughts
Beta-alanine is an excellent option for athletes, and notably for those on a ketogenic diet as well. Because beta-alanine has the capacity to reduce the effect of excess acidity on the body’s cells, it may be a valuable supplement for people who are on a ketogenic diet. The high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet causes the body to enter a state of ketosis, in which there is no accessible glucose from carbs to burn, and fat becomes the primary fuel source. This elevates the body’s amount of ketones, an acidic chemical. Beta-alanine supplementation may be beneficial in protecting the body from the high acidity caused by these ketones, although the evidence is still inconclusive.
Although your body produces beta-alanine, further supplementation may help exercise endurance, healing, and muscle mass. Beta-alanine may help safeguard the body against excessive acidities, like lactic acid produced during exercise or ketones produced during the keto diet. The high levels of antioxidants also further edit the health benefits of beta-alanine. Since studies have focused mainly on how athletes can benefit from beta-alanine, it is possible that some of the other health benefits of beta-alanine are still undiscovered.
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