Progression of β-alanine research from the athlete to the soldier and older adult

In the past 20 years investigations examining the efficacy of β-alanine as a dietary supplement have produced more than 600 papers. Most of this work stems from the research of Professor Roger Harris who proposed that β-alanine was the rate limiting step in carnosine formation and that increases in muscle carnosine could be beneficial for the competitive strength/power athlete. His work in animals and later in humans showed that elevations in muscle carnosine increase intracellular buffering capacity and could be very effective for maintaining high intensity exercise performance. In the ensuing years, research by his students and colleagues provided convincing evidence that β-alanine supplementation for enhancing anaerobic skeletal muscle performance in athletes was efficacious. As a result, β-alanine has become one of the more popular supplements used by competitive athletes today. These studies stimulated further examination of the potential benefits of β-alanine for the tactical athletes that produced similar results. Investigations in in soldiers reported significant improvements in cognitive function during stress, suggesting that β-alanine may cross the blood brain barrier to increase brain carnosine levels. This led to additional investigative focus on the ability of β-alanine ingestion to increase resiliency to various stresses including cognitive dysfunction in older adults. Results of these studies have also provided interesting data suggesting that older adults with baseline cognitive function at or below threshold levels of cognitive dysfunction may benefit from β-alanine supplementation. This paper describes the progression of β-alanine use from the athlete to the older adult.