Effects of carnosine supplementation on physical endurance: a placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial

What Was Tested

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

Carnosine (β-alanine-L-histidine) is an endogenous dipeptide found in abundance in highly metabolic tissues such as skeletal muscle and the brain, where it is thought to play a role in intracellular buffering, and thereby, promote anaerobic glycolysis.

Due to its perceived ability to support muscle energetics, carnosine, and its precursor, β-alanine, have found widespread use as performance-enhancing supplements.

Who Took Part

The study group was 299 participants.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were young adults, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

Several assessments of physical performance (hand grip strength, bilateral calf raise, 2-min step test, gait speed) were measured before initiating supplementation (Baseline: Visit-2) and after approximately 6 week (Visit-3) and 12 week (Visit-4) of supplementation.

For Visit-3 and Visit-4, absolute changes and percent changes from baseline were calculated for each physical function measurement.

How the Study Was Run

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

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.

At each clinical visit, blood and urine were also collected.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Carnosine, Dietary Supplements, Physical Endurance, Hand Strength and Muscle, Skeletal.

Author keywords: clinical trial and physical performance.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Carnosine in 299 participants.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2026 (Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition), a journal based in United States.

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