Beta-Alanine Dosing and the Tingle

Table of Contents

1. Doses Used in Studies at a Glance
2. Daily Amounts in the Research
3. Divided Doses: What Studies Found
4. Loading Over Weeks: The Total-Dose Finding
5. The Tingle: What Paresthesia Actually Is
6. Why It Happens: MrgprD Receptors (a Mouse Finding)
7. Divided Doses, Sustained-Release Tablets, and the Tingle
8. Washout and Lower Follow-On Doses
9. Timing, Meals, and Product Forms: What Is Known
10. Key Research Papers
11. External Authoritative Resources
12. Connections
13. Featured Videos

Doses Used in Studies at a Glance

• Daily amount: the ISSN position stand (Trexler and colleagues 2015) concludes that 4 to 6 g daily for at least 2 to 4 weeks has been shown to improve exercise performance; trials have used 3.2 and 6.4 g per day (Harris and colleagues 2006).
• Divided doses: trials gave the daily amount as multiple doses of 400 or 800 mg (Harris and colleagues 2006); the ISSN reports that the tingle can be attenuated by divided lower doses (1.6 g).
• Duration: muscle carnosine rose within 2 weeks at 1.6 g per day (Stellingwerff and colleagues 2012) and was still higher at 10 weeks than at 4 weeks in another trial (Hill and colleagues 2007).
• Meals: in one study, carnosine loading in the soleus muscle was greater when beta-alanine was taken with meals than between meals (Stegen and colleagues 2013).
• The tingle: temporary, linked to larger single doses, and the only side effect reported in a 2019 risk assessment (Dolan and colleagues 2019).

The studies behind each point follow. The carnosine rise they measured is the basis of the effects described on the Exercise & Carnosine page.

Back to Table of Contents

Daily Amounts in the Research

The ISSN position stand concludes that four weeks of beta-alanine at 4 to 6 g daily significantly raises muscle carnosine, and that 4 to 6 g daily for at least 2 to 4 weeks has been shown to improve exercise performance. Individual trials used other round amounts: Harris and colleagues (2006) gave 3.2 or 6.4 g per day as multiple doses of 400 or 800 mg, and estimated muscle carnosine increases of 42.1% and 64.2% after 4 weeks.

Stellingwerff and colleagues (2012) compared two 8-week regimens in 31 young men: 3.2 g per day for 4 weeks followed by 1.6 g per day, or 1.6 g per day throughout. In the first 4 weeks the higher daily dose raised carnosine about twice as much. Across the study, the carnosine increase depended only on the total amount of beta-alanine consumed (2.01 mmol/kg wet weight per 100 g taken), within daily intakes of 1.6 to 3.2 g, and not on baseline carnosine, the muscle type, or the daily amount. A review of all eight studies that measured muscle carnosine directly likewise found a linear relationship between the total grams consumed (daily intakes 1.6 to 6.4 g) and the carnosine increase (Stellingwerff and colleagues 2012, review).

Back to Table of Contents

Divided Doses: What Studies Found

Studies report two findings that bear on dividing the daily amount:

1. The tingle. Décombaz and colleagues (2012) note that oral doses larger than 800 mg commonly cause paresthesia, and in their trial the sensation followed the rise and fall of blood beta-alanine. The ISSN position stand states that divided lower doses (1.6 g) can attenuate it.
2. Absorption and loss. In Harris and colleagues (2006), blood beta-alanine returned to baseline within 2 hours of a dose, and less than 5% was lost in urine at single doses of 10 to 40 mg per kg of body weight. In the Décombaz trial, 1.6 g taken as a pure solution was 96.3% retained by the body, against 98.9% for slow-release tablets. Stegen and colleagues (2013) found that only a small portion of ingested beta-alanine (about 3%) was incorporated into muscle carnosine, and that most was metabolized.

The sources cited here did not compare different numbers of daily doses for their effect on carnosine loading.

Back to Table of Contents

Loading Over Weeks: The Total-Dose Finding

Muscle carnosine builds slowly. At 1.6 g per day it rose significantly within 2 weeks (Stellingwerff and colleagues 2012); Hill and colleagues (2007) measured increases of 58.8% after 4 weeks and 80.1% after 10 weeks. Baguet and colleagues (2009) gave 4.8 g per day for 5 to 6 weeks and found increases of 39% in the soleus, 27% in the tibialis anterior, and 23% in the gastrocnemius.

Because the rise depends on the total amount taken (Stellingwerff and colleagues 2012), the trials measured it over weeks. The 2012 meta-analysis by Hobson and colleagues reported a median total of 179 g of beta-alanine supplemented across the studies it pooled.

Back to Table of Contents

The Tingle: What Paresthesia Actually Is

After a larger dose, many people feel a tingling, prickling sensation on the skin. In the Décombaz trial, “pins and needles” appeared on the skin of the arms and trunk after 1.6 g of beta-alanine in solution, reached their peak about 15 minutes after the dose, and followed the rise and fall of blood beta-alanine. The medical term is paresthesia.

The 2019 risk assessment by Dolan and colleagues found paresthesia to be the only reported side effect of beta-alanine, with an odds ratio of 8.9 compared with placebo, and similar dropout rates in the beta-alanine and placebo groups. None of the studies cited here links experiencing, or not experiencing, the tingle to how much carnosine is built or to any other outcome.

Back to Table of Contents

Why It Happens: MrgprD Receptors (a Mouse Finding)

The receptor behind the tingle was identified in mice. Liu and colleagues (2012) showed that in mice, beta-alanine elicited itch-related behaviour that required MrgprD (Mas-related G-protein-coupled receptor D), a receptor carried by a subpopulation of sensory neurons that supply only the skin. Those mouse neurons responded to beta-alanine, heat, and mechanical noxious stimuli but not to histamine.

In people, the same study found that beta-alanine injected into the skin caused itch but neither a wheal nor a flare, which suggests that the itch was not caused by histamine. The authors concluded that the sensory neurons responsive to beta-alanine are likely part of a histamine-independent itch circuit. In the mouse work, the neurons involved supply the skin, a different site from carnosine synthesis in muscle.

Back to Table of Contents

Divided Doses, Sustained-Release Tablets, and the Tingle

Two approaches have been studied:

• Smaller, divided doses. The ISSN position stand states that the tingle can be attenuated by divided lower doses (1.6 g), and Décombaz and colleagues note that doses larger than 800 mg commonly cause it.
• Sustained-release (slow-release) tablets. In the Décombaz trial, 1.6 g in slow-release tablets gave a lower blood peak (82 vs 248 µmol/L) and a later one (1.0 vs 0.5 hours) than the same amount in solution, with no difference in the area under the blood-concentration curve, less beta-alanine lost in urine, and sensory symptoms that could not be told apart from placebo. In the 24-week Saunders trial, which used a sustained-release form at 6.4 g per day, participants reported no side-effects (Saunders and colleagues 2020).

Stegen and colleagues (2013) found slow-release and pure beta-alanine about equally effective for raising muscle carnosine over 6 to 7 weeks. None of the sources cited here tested taking beta-alanine with food as a way to reduce the tingle.

Back to Table of Contents

Washout and Lower Follow-On Doses

Muscle carnosine falls slowly after supplementation stops:

• Washout. Baguet and colleagues (2009) found that carnosine declined at about 2 to 4% per week; at 3 weeks only one-third of the increase had disappeared, and levels returned to baseline within 9 weeks at group level. High responders took about 15 weeks to return to baseline and low responders about 6 weeks. Stellingwerff and colleagues (2012) measured washout of about 2% per week.
• Lower follow-on doses. In the Stellingwerff trial, 1.6 g per day given after 4 weeks at 3.2 g per day produced continued rises in the already raised carnosine stores.
• Stopping and restarting. None of the sources cited here studied cycles of stopping and restarting beta-alanine.

Back to Table of Contents

Timing, Meals, and Product Forms: What Is Known

1. Timing relative to training. The carnosine rise depends on the total amount taken over weeks (Stellingwerff and colleagues 2012). None of the sources cited here compared taking beta-alanine before training with taking it at other times.
2. Meals. In Stegen and colleagues (2013), carnosine loading in the soleus muscle was greater when pure beta-alanine was taken at the start of meals (+64%) than between meals (+41%), which the authors suggest reflects insulin stimulating carnosine loading.
3. Product forms. Beta-alanine is sold as powder, capsules, and sustained-release tablets, and is an ingredient of pre-workout blends. The forms compared in the trials cited here were pure beta-alanine and slow-release tablets.
4. Food sources. Meat supplies carnosine, and Everaert and colleagues (2011) found that vegetarians had 26% less carnosine in the gastrocnemius muscle than omnivores; among omnivores, muscle carnosine did not differ between high and low dietary intakes of beta-alanine. The beef, chicken, and pork pages cover dietary carnosine.
5. Tested athletes. Beta-alanine itself is not a banned substance in sport; the anti-doping concern is contamination of supplement products, covered on the Safety & Stacking page.

For the safety picture, the taurine-transporter question, and how beta-alanine combines with other supplements, continue to the Safety & Stacking page.

Back to Table of Contents

Key Research Papers

1. Stellingwerff T, et al. (2012). Effect of two beta-alanine dosing protocols on muscle carnosine synthesis and washout. Amino Acids — PubMed PMID: 21847611
2. Stellingwerff T, et al. (2012). Optimizing human in vivo dosing and delivery of beta-alanine supplements for muscle carnosine synthesis. Amino Acids — PubMed PMID: 22358258
3. Décombaz J, et al. (2012). Effect of slow-release beta-alanine tablets on absorption kinetics and paresthesia. Amino Acids — PubMed PMID: 22139410 (erratum: Amino Acids 2013;45(4):1015)
4. Liu Q, et al. (2012). Mechanisms of itch evoked by beta-alanine. Journal of Neuroscience — PubMed PMID: 23077038
5. Harris RC, et al. (2006). The absorption of orally supplied beta-alanine and its effect on muscle carnosine synthesis in human vastus lateralis. Amino Acids — PubMed PMID: 16554972
6. Baguet A, et al. (2009). Carnosine loading and washout in human skeletal muscles. Journal of Applied Physiology — PubMed PMID: 19131472
7. Artioli GG, et al. (2010). Role of beta-alanine supplementation on muscle carnosine and exercise performance. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise — PubMed PMID: 20479615
8. Trexler ET, et al. (2015). International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: Beta-Alanine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition — PubMed PMID: 26175657
9. Hill CA, Harris RC, Kim HJ, Harris BD, Sale C, Boobis LH, Kim CK, Wise JA (2007). Influence of beta-alanine supplementation on skeletal muscle carnosine concentrations and high intensity cycling capacity. Amino Acids 32(2):225-233 — PubMed PMID: 16868650
10. Stegen S, Blancquaert L, Everaert I, Bex T, Taes Y, Calders P, Achten E, Derave W (2013). Meal and beta-alanine coingestion enhances muscle carnosine loading. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 45(8):1478-1485 — PubMed PMID: 23439427
11. Dolan E, Swinton PA, Painelli VS, Stephens Hemingway B, Mazzolani B, Infante Smaira F, Saunders B, Artioli GG, Gualano B (2019). A systematic risk assessment and meta-analysis on the use of oral β-alanine supplementation. Advances in Nutrition 10(3):452-463 — PubMed PMID: 30980076
12. Saunders B, Franchi M, de Oliveira LF, da Eira Silva V, da Silva RP, de Salles Painelli V, Costa LAR, Sale C, Harris RC, Roschel H, Artioli GG, Gualano B (2020). 24-Week β-alanine ingestion does not affect muscle taurine or clinical blood parameters in healthy males. European Journal of Nutrition 59(1):57-65 — PubMed PMID: 30552505
13. Hobson RM, Saunders B, Ball G, Harris RC, Sale C (2012). Effects of β-alanine supplementation on exercise performance: a meta-analysis. Amino Acids 43(1):25-37 — PubMed PMID: 22270875
14. Everaert I, Mooyaart A, Baguet A, Zutinic A, Baelde H, Achten E, Taes Y, De Heer E, Derave W (2011). Vegetarianism, female gender and increasing age, but not CNDP1 genotype, are associated with reduced muscle carnosine levels in humans. Amino Acids 40(4):1221-1229 — PubMed PMID: 20865290

PubMed Topic Searches

1. PubMed: Beta-alanine dosing protocols
2. PubMed: Beta-alanine paresthesia and sustained-release
3. PubMed: Beta-alanine, MrgprD, and itch
4. PubMed: Beta-alanine absorption kinetics

Back to Table of Contents

External Authoritative Resources

• NIH Office of Dietary Supplements — Exercise and Athletic Performance
• ISSN Position Stand on Beta-Alanine (dose and delivery)
• Examine.com — Beta-Alanine (dosage section)

Back to Table of Contents

Connections

• All Amino Acids
• Beta-Alanine (Main Page)
• Beta-Alanine Benefits Hub
• Exercise & Carnosine
• High-Intensity Performance
• Safety & Stacking
• Creatine
• Histidine
• Taurine
• Beef
• Chicken
• Pork

Back to Table of Contents

Featured Videos