While thinking about supplements, physical fitness, and improved athletic performance, beta-alanine can hardly skip your mind. Nonetheless, what you might not think is how older adults can utilize the supplement. It is a no-brainer that aging and reduced exercise ability goes hand in hand. This can be associated with age-related muscle deterioration, also known as sarcopenia. Beta-alanine can help older adults, delivering benefits including;

Increased endurance

Muscle endurance is the primary contribution that continues to propel beta-alanine’s popularity. Beta-alanine is naturally found in your body. It is a non-essential amino acid that, together with histidine, produces carnosine. After production, carnosine, responsible for reducing the lactic acid accumulation in the muscles, is stored in skeletal muscles. Here is where beta-alanine supplementation comes in; its levels, unlike histidine, are lower, meaning that carnosine production is limited. Supplementing increases its levels, facilitating more carnosine production.

During exercise sessions, your body breaks down glucose into lactic acid that’ converted into lactate, leading to the production of hydrogen ions. The hydrogen ions lower the pH levels in your muscles, meaning that they become more acidic. Acidity leads to fatigue as it blocks glucose breakdown to get the needed fuel. This means that your muscle’s ability to contract is reduced, and you can’t manage longer exercise sessions. That’s where the stored carnosine comes in, serving as a buffer against the acidity as you exercise. As such, with higher beta-alanine levels boosted by the supplement, you can produce more carnosine, and the sessions can last longer. Simply put, supplementing with beta-alanine improves high-intensity exercise sessions by improving muscle endurance through reduced overall fatigue.

Improved muscle strength

While exercising, your muscles work harder. This translates to enhanced muscle size, power, strength, and endurance. What’s more, performing the right exercises lets you build muscle mass. Exercising means that you are challenging the muscles. As muscles’ fibers incur damages, your body fuses them as a repair mechanism, increasing muscle size and mass. While the building part isn’t essential for older adults, the takeaway is the enhanced strength. Skeletal muscle is arguably the most significant consideration, noting the contraction that causes movements. With enhanced size, mass, and strength, and continuous exercise, as you can manage it more with beta-alanine, you can age well without experiencing significant deterioration.

Better quality of life

Aging doesn’t always happen gracefully. However, if you can manage to exercise, you can considerably improve the quality of your life. With enhanced endurance, beta-alanine supplementation keeps you going, helping you to exercise actively. As you keep exercising, you’ll be healthier, including keeping your heart at its best with improved blood flow. The stress levels are also lower, keeping your mental health at better levels and further enhancing your cardiovascular health as you won’t be dealing with increased cardiac reactivity that could lead to significant health issues.

Another secondary benefit is that older adults can significantly lower fall risk. Slip and fall personal injuries in older adults are significant issues that make it harder for them to maintain an active lifestyle. This means that many have to be confined in wheelchairs and other assistive devices. Including beta-alanine in your routine makes it easier to maintain desirable physical exercise levels.

Here is the kicker; beta-alanine is known to increase your time to exhaustion. This means that while aging might mean you can’t hold on for long, beta-alanine will give you the extra push needed to go further. This will keep your muscles stronger for longer, and with better contractions facilitating movements, you won’t easily slip and fall. You can carry on various activities of daily living with ease even at an older age compared to those who don’t exercise and with improved mental and cardiovascular health, lead a longer, healthier, and active life.

Aging comes with a pack load of challenges. You’ve experienced a fair share of troubles, some that make it harder for your body to stay at its best. The trauma of losing loved ones, hassles of a busy and demanding schedule leaving little to no room for self-love, physical trauma, among other considerations, can significantly affect your body and overall health as you age. As such, it is recommendable to do all you can to ensure that the onset of aging doesn’t turn your life inside out. Physical exercise is the most straightforward approach, and with beta-alanine supplementation, you can up your efforts and realize considerable benefits.