Influence of l-carnosine on pro-antioxidant status in elite kayakers and canoeists

What Was Tested

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

Due to the interesting role of carnosine, the aim of the study was observe the effects of carnosine intake on pro-antioxidant status in highly trained athletes exposed to intense exercise.Fourteen male athletes from the Polish national kayak and canoe teams participated in placebo-controlled and cross-over study.

Why It Was Studied

Carnosine is a dipeptide formed from the amino acids β-alanine and histidine and found in large amounts in the brain and muscle, especially fast twitch muscle.

Blood samples were collected before and 30 min, 24 h and 48 h after 2000 m exercise trial.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as young adults, men only.

How the Study Was Run

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

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Glutathione and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

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

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

A time span of 14 days appears in the methods.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Antioxidants, Athletes, Biomarkers, Carnosine, Dietary Supplements, Dinoprost and Glutathione.

The authors tagged it with the keywords exercise, hydrogen peroxide, nitric oxide and oxidative damage.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, placebo-controlled and crossover study of Glutathione and Carnosine over 14 days.

The publication is from 2014 (Acta physiologica Hungarica), a journal based in Hungary.

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