What Causes Beta Alanine Tingles

What Causes Beta Alanine Tingles? EndurElite Chief Endurance Officer Matt Mosman discusses the scientific reason why beta-alanine causes the pins and needles feeling on your skin.

• The pins and needles feeling you get on your skin after taking beta-alanine is called paresthesia. It is a harmless side effect and is not an allergic reaction or an inflammatory response.
• It is caused by MAS-related and sensory neurons response to the beta-alanine.
• Beta-alanine excites these neurons and this is why it causes your skin to tingle; especially in your face and hands.
• To minimize these side-effects take beta-alanine every day, eat something before you take beta-alanine, or spread the 3.2 grams dose out equally throughout the day.

Full Video Transcription:

Why Beta-Alanine Is An Endurnace Enhancing Supplement

Good morning, Family of FAST. Matt Mosman, the chief endurance officer over at EndurElite.

Have you ever felt like your face is melting off or you get that pins and needle sensation on your skin after taking beta-alanine and ever wonder why?

Well, that's the question we're gonna answer today. So, from previous videos, you know beta-alanine is a very effective endurance enhancing supplement.

3.2 grams daily can help buffer muscle acidity especially when exercise intensity gets really high. So, it can help you go longer and stronger.

So, overall a really good endurance enhancing supplement, but it does have one annoying side effect called paresthesia, which is again it feels like your face is melting, the pins and needles sensation on your skin.

One Harmless Side Effect Of Beta-Alanine Is Paresthesia

Now right off the bat paresthesia is a harmless side effect and that tingling has nothing to do with like an allergic reaction or inflammation.

It has more to do with a certain set of genes in your body. Now, we're not talking about Levi's we're talking like DNA type genes.

So, here is why beta-alanine causes this tingling or prickling sensation on your skin after you take it.

Beta-Alanine Activates MAS-genes And Sensory Neurons

So, beta-alanine activates a group of genes known as Mas-related genes, which are closely related to sensory neurons.

Now, sensory neurons, you can think of as the neural highway through our body that runs and ends at the skin.

So, when you ingest beta-alanine this really excites these sensory neurons and that's why you get this tingling sensation all over your skin. Now, some people express these genes a little bit more than others.

So, they may feel the effects of beta-alanine a lot more than somebody that may not feel it at all, and you're especially gonna feel it in your hands and your face because this is a lot of where the sensory neurons are located.

Or you might turn bright red.

Like I know a lot of people have taken beta-alanine and they have just freaked the eff out because it feels like they're burning alive from the inside. But I assure you it is a harmless side effect again called paresthesia that is caused by the beta-alanine intake.

Is There Anything You Can Do To Minimize Paresthesia From Beta-Alanine

Now is there anything you can do about this to minimize this paresthesia? Because for some people, like they really like it, it kind of signifies it's gone time and for other people, it's really annoying.

It feels like you're gonna itch the skin right off your face. And there are a couple of different things you can do to maybe minimize or get rid of these effects of paresthesia altogether.

1. One is you can eat a little something before you take in your beta-alanine, whether it's in PerformElite or a standalone beta-alanine product. You can eat something like a banana and then drink or take your beta-alanine and that may minimize the effects.
2. Also, you can space out dosages throughout the day if you have that option. So, 3.2 grams daily, you can divide that up into three equal doses or two equal doses and that may just eliminate the paresthesia altogether. Also, the more you take beta-alanine it seems like the less the paresthesia happens.

So, for that first I'd say week or week and a half if you're really sensitive to the beta-alanine, that's how long it might take when you're taking it every day to kind of to downplay or minimize that tingling sensation which again can be really, really flipping annoying.

So, that is your scientific non bro-science answer on why beta-alanine causes that prickly and tingling sensation in your skin after you take it. So, that is all I have for today.

If you have a friend who freaks the eff out after taking beta-alanine because of these effects, please share this video with them. If you want other videos like this on endurance training, nutrition, supplementation, busting the BS and my other random musings subscribe to the EndurElite YouTube channel or head on over to the EndurElite blog at www.endurelite.com.

Get social with us on Instaslam and the EndurElite Family of FAST Facebook page. And until next time my endurance friends, stay fueled, stay focused, stay fast and stay informed.