himsahimsa
Member
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2014
- Messages
- 148
Beta-alanine is the limiting substrate for the production of Carnosine. Carnosine (not carnitine) is the primary intracellular buffer for lactate. Histidine can take two (at least) metabolic pathways. It can end up as histamine or, if there is a good supply of beta-alanine, the histidine is combined with the beta-alanine to form carnosine. So supplying beta-alanine simultaneously depletes histamine and repletes carnosine. Both are advantageous from a R.Peat perspective as I see it. I have been taking three or four grams of beta-alanine a day for about 6 years. I had read in an exercise magazine that beta-alanine improves oxygen transfer capacity and that seemed like a good idea. Subsequent research indicated that it didn't produce much of an improvement in performance (of runners) but the accumulation of carnosine did have a noticeable beneficial effect. If, for instance, you do resistance exercise to failure, that painful burn does not occur because the lactate is eliminated so quickly. I can vouch for that.
If you are interested in trying it , you have to break up the doses so you don't get more than about a gram at a time or it produces that tingly sensation that niacin gives and evidently it will be wasted by the kidneys. A quarter teaspoon is about 0.9 gram. It has no flavor and is very soluble so I just dump it in my food or in some water and drink it. You can take carnosine itself but it is disassembled in the intestines and taking beta-alanine is much more effective and much cheaper.
I buy it in bulk from Hard Rhino on Amazon.
If you are interested in trying it , you have to break up the doses so you don't get more than about a gram at a time or it produces that tingly sensation that niacin gives and evidently it will be wasted by the kidneys. A quarter teaspoon is about 0.9 gram. It has no flavor and is very soluble so I just dump it in my food or in some water and drink it. You can take carnosine itself but it is disassembled in the intestines and taking beta-alanine is much more effective and much cheaper.
I buy it in bulk from Hard Rhino on Amazon.