Supplement
Alanine is an amino acid your body uses to build proteins and to shuttle nitrogen and fuel between muscle and liver, where it helps make glucose. With no main use established, the best-supported finding is about blood sugar: in diabetic rats, alanine supplements improved blood glucose, and lab work showed it switched on an energy-sensing enzyme in liver cells. The evidence is very limited, though, because it comes almost entirely from animal and lab studies and no human supplementation trials exist.
Sources: PMID 33346923; PMID 16955228
- Updated
- How we grade
- 7 studies cited
- Best evidence
- Grade D
- Conditions studied
- 2
- Outcomes
- 3
- Graded outcomes
- 0003
Evidence by condition
- Strong
- Moderate
- Limited
- Very limited
| Grade | Outcome | Effect | Size | Studies | People | Studies list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blood Glucose Regulation In vitro studies show L-alanine consistently activates AMPK in rat, mouse, and human hepatocytes, reducing glucose output via an insulin-independent mechanism. In alloxan-induced diabetic rats, L-alanine supplementation improved blood glucose levels and biochemical indices, but no human supplementation trials exist. | Improves (the measure goes down) | Moderate effect | 5 studies | |||
Studies that measured blood glucose regulation
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| Grade | Outcome | Effect | Size | Studies | People | Studies list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exercise Performance (with BCAAs) In exercising mice, a BCAAs plus L-alanine combination improved muscle force output, reduced fatigability, and enhanced the pAMPK/AMPK ratio compared to controls. The effect of L-alanine independent of BCAAs is unclear, and no human trials have tested this combination for performance outcomes. | Improves (the measure goes up) | Small effect | 4 studies | |||
Studies that measured exercise performance (with bcaas)
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General
| Grade | Outcome | Effect | Size | Studies | People | Studies list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hypoglycemia Recovery In a rat model of insulin-induced hypoglycemia, L-alanine at 100 mg/kg accelerated glycemia recovery more efficiently than glucose itself, likely via rapid hepatic gluconeogenesis through the glucose-alanine cycle. No human replication studies have been conducted. | Improves (the measure goes up) | Moderate effect | 3 studies | |||
Studies that measured hypoglycemia recovery | ||||||
Key findings
- Blood Glucose RegulationImproves (the measure goes down)
- Exercise Performance (with BCAAs)Improves (the measure goes up)
- Hypoglycemia RecoveryImproves (the measure goes up)
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- Grade D
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Studies cited
7 studies from PubMed
- Side effects of amino acid supplements
- L-alanine supplementation improves blood glucose level and biochemical indices in alloxan-induced diabetic rats
- Ergogenic Effect of BCAAs and L-Alanine Supplementation: Proof-of-Concept Study in a Murine Model of Physiological Exercise
- Blood amino acids concentration during insulin induced hypoglycemia in rats: the role of alanine and glutamine in glucose recovery
- Cerebral alanine transport and alanine aminotransferase reaction: alanine as a source of neuronal glutamate
- Alanine flux in obese and healthy humans as evaluated by 15N- and 2H3-labeled alanines
- Amino acid metabolism in exercising man