Carnosine and anserine ingestion enhances contribution of nonbicarbonate buffering

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Carnosine, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of supplementation with chicken breast extract (CBEX), which was a rich source of carnosine and anserine, on acid-base balance and performance during intense intermittent exercise.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, men only.

Eight male subjects performed intense intermittent exercise that consisted of 10 x 5-s maximal cycle ergometer sprints with a 25-s recovery period between each sprint.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

Because people in this Carnosine study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Carnosine, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Carnosine could be set against what happens without it.

Each person switched between Carnosine and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

Arterial blood samples were collected at rest and during exercise to estimate the carnosine and anserine concentrations, pH, and bicarbonate concentration ([HCO3-]).

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Analysis of Variance, Anserine, Bicarbonates, Blood Gas Analysis, Buffers, Carnosine and Chickens.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Carnosine.

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2006 (Medicine and science in sports and exercise), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Carnosine compound page, all human trials.