Acute carnosine and β-alanine supplementation increase the compensated part of the ventilation versus work rate relationship during a ramp incremental cycle test in physically active men

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Carnosine in this randomized controlled trial publication.

However, the acute ergogenic effects of Carn-βA supplementation are poorly investigated.

This study aimed at evaluating the acute effects of a single Carn-βA supplementation on the cardiorespiratory and metabolic response during a ramp cycle-ergometric test.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as young adults and adults, men only.

This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, involved 10 healthy males (age: 22.2±1.9 years, body mass: 72.5±7.9 kg, stature: 1.72±0.08 m, Body Mass Index: 24.47±1.91 kg/m2, mean±standard deviation).

How the Study Was Run

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

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

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received Carnosine.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Carnosine group a baseline to be compared against.

During exercise, gas exchange parameters were measured breath-by-breath, heart rate was monitored by electrocardiography and rate perceived exertion was determined on Borg scales.

From the ramp test, peak cardiorespiratory and metabolic parameters and ventilatory thresholds (VT1 and VT2) were calculated offline.

What Was Measured

This study aimed at evaluating the acute effects of a single Carn-βA supplementation on the cardiorespiratory and metabolic response during a ramp cycle-ergometric test.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Carnosine, Dietary Supplements, Exercise, Exercise Test, Heart Rate, Muscle Fatigue and Muscle, Skeletal.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2021 (The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness), a journal based in Italy.

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