Β-alanine supplementation effect in athletes, physically active and sedentary
Abstract
The aim of this article was to investigate, by systematic review, the effects of β-alanine supplementation on performance of athletes, physically active and sedentary individuals during high intensity exercises. For the bibliographic research the following databases were used: PubMed, Scielo, Science Direct, Scopus and Cochrane. We selected 15 original articles published in eight different countries during, including 118 male athletes from five different sports, and 257 physically active and sedentary individuals, of both sexes, aged between 21 and 29.2 years old, and further 44 elderly individuals aged between 64 to 72.8 years old, from both sexes. This sample received a daily dose of 2 to 6.4g of β-alanine supplementation during 4 to12 weeks. There vised articles showed that β-alanine supplementation demonstrated a beneficial effect for athletes in delaying muscle fatigue and increasing power and muscle strength during high-intensity exercise, while for non-athletes, the main result found was delay fatigue. These results were attributed to the increase of muscle carnosine, due to β-alanine administration. However just thre estudies evaluated this content directly, confirming this hypothesis. No side effects were observed with β-alanine supplementation, considering the administered doses. We can conclude that β-alanine supplementation may be effective in improving performance of athletes, increasing the physical capacity of physically active and sedentary individuals, including elderly people.
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