Carnosine (β-alanyl-L-histidine) is found in high concentrations in skeletal muscle and chronic β-alanine (BA) supplementation can increase carnosine content. This placebo-controlled, double-blind study compared two different 8-week BA dosing regimens on the time course of muscle carnosine loading and 8-week washout, leading to a BA dose-response study with serial muscle carnosine assessments throughout. Thirty-one young males were randomized into three BA dosing groups: (1) high-low: 3.2 g BA/day for 4 weeks, followed by 1.6 g BA/day for 4 weeks; (2) low-low: 1.6 g BA/day for 8 weeks; and (3) placebo. Muscle carnosine in tibialis-anterior (TA) and gastrocnemius (GA) muscles was measured by 1H-MRS at weeks 0, 2, 4, 8, 12 and 16. Flushing symptoms and blood clinical chemistry were trivial in all three groups and there were no muscle carnosine changes in the placebo group. During the first 4 weeks, the increase for high-low (TA 2.04 mmol/kgww, GA 1.75 mmol/kgww) was ~twofold greater than low-low (TA 1.12 mmol/kgww, GA 0.80 mmol/kgww). 1.6 g BA/day significantly increased muscle carnosine within 2 weeks and induced continual rises in already augmented muscle carnosine stores (week 4-8, high-low regime). The dose-response showed a carnosine increase of 2.01 mmol/kgww per 100 g of consumed BA, which was only dependent upon the total accumulated BA consumed (within a daily intake range of 1.6-3.2 g BA/day). Washout rates were gradual (0.18 mmol/kgww and 0.43 mmol/kgww/week; ~2%/week). In summary, the absolute increase in muscle carnosine is only dependent upon the total BA consumed and is not dependent upon baseline muscle carnosine, the muscle type, or the daily amount of supplemented BA.

When ingested at a rate designed to saturate intestinal CHO transport systems, MD drinks with added fructose or galactose were twice as effective as MD + glucose in restoring liver glycogen during short-term postexercise recovery.

A B S T R A C T Atmospheric blocking is an important source of low-frequency variability. We apply a blocking detection and tracking method to ERA-40 data for the Atlantic-European region to assess linkages to extreme events, that is, cold and dry spells in the extended winter season (November-April). The method is feature-oriented, identifies 500-hPa geopotential height maxima, and connects them with a next-neighbourhood search in time. The analysis reveals a statistically significant decrease of number of blocking events over the period of ERA-40. Winters with an increased number of blocking events are associated with negative temperature anomalies over Central to Eastern Europe and dryer conditions, whereas Southern Europe experiences warmer and wetter conditions during such episodes. Using extreme value statistics we show evidence that cold spells, and to some extent dry spells, are strongly associated with extremes in blocking frequency. The number of cold spell days increases with the duration of blocking events indicating that cold spells need time to establish during blocking events, thus return periods of cold spells are longer than those for blocking events. This behaviour is not found for the relation of dry spells with blocking events. Still, blocking episodes have a higher occurrence of dry spells than climatology.

Supplementation with essential amino acids blunts the fructose-induced increase in IHCL but not hypertriglyceridemia. This is not because of inhibition of VLDL-[(13)C]palmitate production. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01119989.