Beta Alanine Itch: How to Stop the Tingling

Beta-alanine is one of the most commonly used sports supplements among athletes and gym goers alike.

This supplement is often mixed with pre-workout stacks and is thought to be effective in enhancing performance, and possibly benefit overall health.

Though, with these great performance enhancing benefits comes a harmless side effect that tends to be a cause for concern!

The beta-alanine tingle, or paresthesia, is a harmless side effect of this supplement. While harmless, it can still be an annoyance during training sessions.

This aim of this article is to discuss some simple strategies to help prevent this common side effect. But first, let’s go through the ins and outs of beta-alanine and how it works in the body!

What is Beta-Alanine?

Beta-alanine is also known to be a non-essential beta-amino acid, which means that it’s attached to a β-carbon rather than an α-carbon, thus resulting in it having a marginally different function in the body as opposed to the more commonly known amino acids.

By this, we mean beta-alanine doesn’t play the same role as the more known amino acids do regarding muscle protein synthesis. Rather, beta-alanine is the building block of carnosine, a molecule that helps buffer acid in the muscles.

Beta-alanine increases stores of carnosine, which then have a protective effect on exercise-induced lactic acid production.

Let’s journey through the role of carnosine in the muscles:

When we workout, we use up the glucose (glycogen) stores in our muscles for energy. When glucose breaks down in the muscles for energy, lactic acid is produced as a by-product which then converts to lactate, thus producing hydrogen ions

Hydrogen ions are the bad guys here, as they reduce the pH levels in our muscles, making them more acidic.

When this occurs, fatigue sets in as the acidity in the muscles blocks any more glucose breakdown, thus reducing our ability to contract our muscles.

What carnosine does is serve as a buffer against the acid, reducing the acidity in the muscles during high-intensity exercise.

In simpler terms, beta-alanine produces carnosine, which then helps us push out that extra couple of reps in the gym before we start feeling that acidic, and all too familiar, burn in your muscles!

So, what does this mean in context of training performance?

How Does Beta-Alanine Help Training Performance?

Improves High-Intensity Performance

Studies have shown improvements in performance during multiple bouts of high-intensity exercise and single bouts of exercise lasting over 60 seconds.¹

Rowing and sprinting are good examples of moderate- to high-intensity cardiovascular exercise performance.

Improves Muscular Endurance

One study has suggested that 28 days of beta-alanine supplementation was associated with less fatigue and a greater workload at peak exhaustion.¹

Increases Lean Mass

Some studies have suggested beta-alanine has a hypertrophic (muscle building) effect. Though, it is not fully understood whether this is an inherent cause or as a result of greater workload.¹

Reduces Fatigue

Supplementing with beta-alanine has been shown to be effective at reducing fatigue and improving time to exhaustion.¹

Beta-Alanine Dosage

A standard daily dose of beta-alanine is around 2-5g. This is often the dose found in many pre workout supplements, even though beta-alanine is not timing-dependant.

CarnoSyn® is the patented form of beta-alanine found in Performance Lab Pre. This is one of the most effective beta-alanine supplements that buffers hydrogen by increasing muscle levels of carnosine, enabling the muscles to contract for a longer period without the feelings of fatigue and lactic acid buildup.

Beta-Alanine: How to Stop the Itch

Large doses of beta-alanine result in parasthesia, which is a tingling feeling and harmless side effect.

While this side effect is harmless, it can be unpleasant and distracting during a training session.

It’s often described as an unusual sensation, or “tingling of the skin”, usually experienced in the face, neck and back of the hands.

The tingling tends to be more intense depending on the size of the dose, though there is no evidence to suggest that paraesthesia is harmful in any way.

The best way to avoid this side effect is to consider splitting your daily dose into smaller doses during the day. Alternatively, some people may use a time-release formulation of beta-alanine to help prevent the tingling.

Take-Home Message

Beta-alanine is one of the most commonly used sports supplements which provides a whole host of performance-enhancing benefits.

However, these benefits do not come without the well-known “tingling of the skin”, AKA paraesthesia, which is a harmless yet unpleasant side effect of beta-alanine.

You can attempt to avoid this side effect by splitting your daily dose into multiple small doses during the day or using a time-release formulation.

However, we would recommend Performance Lab Pre if you want the best beta-alanine supplement on the market!