I already touched upon food supplements and took a closer look at protein supplements. I was quickly reminded by my weight lifting friends that amino acid supplements are quite different from protein supplements, despite the fact that proteins are composed of amino acids. So I made another exploration, this time on the effect of amino acid supplements on muscle buildup, regeneration and other potential fitness related benefits.
Broad chain amino acids
First, the most famous, the BCAA. There are three branch chain amino acids, which are used for muscle building. They are also essential amino acids, meaning we must get them by food, since our body cannot synthesize them alone. These three branched chain amino acids are leucine, isoleucine, and valine. This selected trio should, in theory, improve regeneration and muscle buildup. In a recent article the authors have combined all the studies available to date. And there are some similar articles of an older date here and here. All these articles conclude that there might be some benefit in terms of regeneration if you ingest BCAA. However, the number of all participants was relatively low since the total number in all studies in the latest article is less than 300 subjects. The BCAA supplementation and training regimes varied videly from study to study and age/sex composition of the studied groups was very narrow. No wonder the results were inconclusive and are not applicable to everybody. Some markers studied were affected by BCAA, but some were not. And we are talking about markers, not actual effects, which makes it even less certain. The only thing that we can say for certain is that we need more studies to tell anything at all.
Nevertheless, let’s look at the biggest study. It included 40 subjects, half of them were ingesting 450 mg/kg of BCAA before and after exercise, while the other half were given placebo (dextrin, a carbohydrate). Inflammatory biomarkers increased significantly in both groups after exercise. While the increase was greater in the placebo group, there was no statistical difference between the groups. So we cannot make any conclusion in this regard. To be clear, 40 subjects in this study is way too low in my opinion to get any meaningful result, even in a narrowly selected group. No wonder, the results are inconclusive – and we can only hope the result would remain the same if we increase the number of subjects.
Other studies showed some effect in some cases, while others did not. All in all, these studies had an even lower number of subjects. Therefore the results are even less certain. BCAA are also a part of our everyday diet, which was not controlled in the studies and might make a big difference.
If we cannot be certain about the BCAA, we can be even less certain about the other amino acids and supplements. Nevertheless, there are some other favorite supplements, so let’s look at some of the most popular ones. We will take a detailed look at beta-alanine, carnitine and taurine.
Beta-alanine
While beta alanine is not an amino acid, it is its close cousin: beta amino acid. There is some evidence that beta alanine can enhance sports performance and endurance. While some sources (even Wikipedia) are more inclined to confirm its effectiveness, others are more reserved. As usual, there is no clear cut answer, since the studies performed are simply too small. Studies by the same authors, for instance, show effects in one study while they are nor confirmed in another study. What is certain is that long term beta alanine ingestion (e.g. 4 weeks, 6g/day) increases the amount of carnosine in the muscles. If this has any significant effect is less clear. The effect is definitely not big, otherwise it would be surely noted in the studies. There are probably many other confounding factors which similarly affect performance and they therefore mask any potential effects of beta alanine. Adding beta alanine will therefore not significantly increase your performance, and similar effect (if any) could be achieved by changing other factors (e.g. nutritional intake, sleep patterns, or optimized training). Anyways, you are always getting some beta alanine from your regular food – for instance chicken breast contains around 60mg/100g.
Taurine
Finally, taurin is a substance you hear a lot about, since it is in many energy drinks. It is also an amino acid, but the acid is not common carboxylic acid but sulfonic acid, so this is aminosulfonic acid, to be precise. Fascinatingly, it accounts for up to 0.1% of total human body weight. And consequently it is also present in a lot of animal food sources like seafood (8 mg/g) and poultry (3 mg/g). Meaning you get it everyday from your food, besides the amount your body is making. But this is not nearly close to the amounts of 3-6 g daily that some people suggest. It seems that ingesting such huge amounts does not have any unwanted effects. But does it do anything? Well, according to recent articles, taurine supplementation does influence some processes in our bodies. The studies are still inconclusive, but it seems that taurine supplementation can reduce some oxidative stress biomarkers and have the benefit of reducing glycemic indices. From the exercise and performance perspective, things are even less clear. What I can conclude at this point is that ingesting taurin in reasonable amounts (few grams daily) will not have any detrimental effects on your health. It will, however, influence your body functions in many ways and in different degrees. Which functions it will influence is hard to say, but we can be certain about the degree – it won’t be much.
