Abstract
Introduction: Supplementation with beta-alanine becomes not only a common practice among elite athletes, but also got into the spotlight of experts, especially physiologists and sports physicians worldwide. Adding of ß-alanine leads to increase in the concentration of carnosine in muscle cells, to delay of muscle fatigue, and to facilitatation of recovery during repeated sports performances of high intensity. ß-alanine is most efficient for the performances, which are heavily dependent on the synthesis of ATP from anaerobic glycolysis.
Carnosine is a dipeptide consisting of beta-alanine and L-histidine. Objective: We know from experience that manufacturers and distributors of dietary supplements tend effects of their products greatly overestimate.
Our aim is to summarize and objectively evaluate the effect of ß-alanine supplementation on athletic performance based on the latest knowledge of world literature. Methods: We used four databases of scholarly works Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed, and SPORTDiscus.
The key words are searched for work from 1990 to the present. We chose only double-blind studies with a control group and placebo.
Results: We found 114 high-quality work and 8 review articles. Significant ergogenic effects were generally found with untrained individuals during load tests under laboratory conditions.
Above all, there was an improvement of short-persevere-speed performance for the duration of 60 to 240 s. The main mechanism of the effect is attributed to delay fatigue due to the buffering capabilities of carnosine which is independent off the bicarbonate buffering system.
For welltrained athletes is ergogenic effect of carnosine smaller. Maximal aerobic power and VO2max did not increase.
The recommended daily allowance (RDA) of beta-alanine is 1.6 to 6.4 g .day-1. The only side effect of carnosine can be paresthesia.
Therefore it is recommended to divide the RDD into multiple doses a day. Conclusions: Recent scientific studies have shown that trained athletes can use ß-alanine to enhance athletic performance mainly indirectly: by increasing the anaerobic threshold (AT) or VO2AT, by delaying muscle fatigue, by improvement the ability to increase training volume or to prolong the time to exhaustion (TTE); thus, endurance performance can improve without increasing the maximum aerobic capacity.
After endurance performance, carnosine improves the final sprint capabilities. Some effects of carnosine on athletic performance still remain controversial.
Scientists do not see the cause of the difference in methodology, but in considerable individual responsibility of human organism to this supplement.