This page shows what was measured, who it was measured in, and what that does not settle.
What Hypoglycine A does in the body
Carnosine is made from two building blocks, and only one of them is in short supply: beta-alanine.
Muscle contains a small molecule called carnosine that mops up the acid produced during hard efforts. Take beta-alanine for a few weeks and muscle carnosine rises measurably, so the muscle can absorb more acid before it stops working. That extra buffering only matters in efforts long enough to build up serious acidity but short enough that acidity is the limiting factor — which turns out to be roughly one to four minutes. Below a minute the muscle runs out of immediate fuel first; well beyond four minutes something else limits you.
Why people take it. Taken before training for high-intensity work, and for the tingling in pre-workout drinks
What happened in people
Four weeks of beta-alanine raised muscle carnosine by 42.1% at 3.2 g/day and 64.2% at 6.4 g/day, measured by biopsy
✎ Source-linked record
Where this came from
A person wrote this into the record with the study named beside it. No reviewer has signed it off.
The recorded finding that sits closest to something a person would notice. Written into the record, not signed off, and it carries no population or interval.
Its recorded molecular formula is C3H7NO2, weighing 89.09.
PubChem record · 239 · read 2026-08-29
Where each sentence above came from
A person wrote this explanation into the record, with the studies named in the path below.
The recorded use, written for a reader without medical training. Not signed off.
A limit recorded against this substance. Not signed off as a reviewed claim.
The four opening statements run to 146 words.
Words this page uses
Four words worth knowing first
Chosen from what this page shows, with each one explained before the word it depends on.
Stand-in result
A stand-in result is a number measured because the real result takes too long.
A picture of it, and where the picture fails
It is like judging a journey by the speedometer rather than by arriving.
Where that stops being true. Speed does predict arrival. Many stand-in results do not predict the real one.
What people get wrong. A stand-in result is often reported as the result itself.
A surrogate endpoint substituted for a clinical endpoint, valid only where the substitution has been shown to hold.
Confidence interval
A confidence interval is the range the true answer is likely to sit in.
A picture of it, and where the picture fails
It is like a weather forecast giving a range rather than one number.
Where that stops being true. A forecast range covers tomorrow. This one covers what the study could resolve.
What people get wrong. The middle number is read as the answer. A range crossing zero means no change is still possible.
An interval estimate that would contain the true parameter in a stated proportion of repeated studies.
Receptor
A receptor is a part of a cell that a signal fits into.
A picture of it, and where the picture fails
A receptor is like a lock waiting for one key.
Where that stops being true. A lock either opens or does not. A receptor can be half-triggered, or worn out.
What people get wrong. Fitting a receptor is read as causing a benefit. It causes a step, and nothing more.
A protein that binds a specific ligand and converts that binding into a cellular response.
Pathway
A pathway is a chain of steps inside a cell, each one setting off the next.
A picture of it, and where the picture fails
A pathway is like a row of dominoes.
Where that stops being true. Dominoes fall one way. Pathways loop back and can switch themselves off.
What people get wrong. Changing one step is read as changing the outcome. Other steps often absorb it.
An ordered series of molecular interactions producing a defined cellular change.
What happened in people◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
What was measured, goal by goal
One row for each goal a registered study measured something for. One column for each kind of thing that could be measured.
Registered studies list 21 outcome measures that RNAWiki could read. A registered study says what someone planned to measure. It does not say what they found. 0 of the matched studies tested this substance, and 0 posted a result.
There is no single score. A strong test result and a weak life result are different facts.
Goals down the side, kinds of measurement across the top. Each cell says what kind of thing was registered, not what was found.
Goal
Life outcome
What a body can do
How a person feels
A test result
A step in the body
Harms
How long
Who was studied
Body weight
∅Nothing in the sources checkedNo registered study lists a life outcome for this goal.
∅Nothing in the sources checkedNo registered study lists a performance measure for this goal.
∅Nothing in the sources checkedNo registered study lists a symptom measure for this goal.
△Only a number moved2 registered test measure.
∅Nothing in the sources checkedNo registered study lists a body-step measure for this goal.
—Not recordedHarms were not a registered measure for this goal.
—Not recordedNo finished study window is recorded.
…Waiting for a reviewerWho was studied is listed further down the page.
Which registered measures put each goal on this table
Body weight
body composition; body mass index
Sorted by fixed word lists, version v1. A name the rules do not recognise stays unsorted rather than moving to the nearest column.
What each mark on this table means
∅ Nothing in the sources checked
No registered study lists a life outcome for this goal.
△ Only a number moved
2 registered test measure.
— Not recorded
Harms were not a registered measure for this goal.
… Waiting for a reviewer
Who was studied is listed further down the page.
What happened in people◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
What happened in people
Each card is one study: the exact question it asked, who was in it, and whether it showed what it set out to show.
Plasma beta-alanine after graded doses, and change in vastus lateralis carnosine after four weeks
✓ The study showed what it set out to show
Who was studied
Harris 2006 — beta-alanine pharmacokinetics and muscle carnosine loading
How many people
20
Study design
Human pharmacokinetic and four-week supplementation study with muscle biopsy
Compared against
Not recorded for this study
Kind of result
A number that stands in for health
What was found
Significant muscle carnosine increases of 42.1%, 64.2% and 65.8% on 3.2 g/day beta-alanine, 6.4 g/day beta-alanine and isomolar L-carnosine
Repeated elsewhere
Replicated
What this does not prove. Meeting one endpoint in one population does not carry to other goals or other people.
The limits of this study, and where it came from
Main limit. Plasma taurine increased with beta-alanine ingestion without a corresponding urinary rise, the first signal of transporter competition. No placebo arm for the biopsy component.
How far it carries. This study is recorded from the curated record, not from the registry match.
Form and route. Oral powder, capsule or sustained-release tablet; usually inside a multi-ingredient pre-workout blend
Interval reported. Not recorded in this summary
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim.
Effect of beta-alanine on exercise outcomes, stratified by effort duration
✓ The study showed what it set out to show
Who was studied
Hobson 2012 meta-analysis of beta-alanine and exercise performance
How many people
360
Study design
Meta-analysis of 15 published manuscripts
Compared against
Not recorded for this study
Kind of result
A number that stands in for health
What was found
Overall P = 0.002; 60-240 s P = 0.001; over 240 s P = 0.046; under 60 s P = 0.312; median improvement 2.85%
Repeated elsewhere
Replicated
What this does not prove. Meeting one endpoint in one population does not carry to other goals or other people.
The limits of this study, and where it came from
Main limit. The improvement was in exercise capacity (P = 0.013) rather than exercise performance (P = 0.204) — a distinction between time-to-exhaustion tasks and competitive-style time trials that matters to an athlete.
How far it carries. This study is recorded from the curated record, not from the registry match.
Form and route. Oral powder, capsule or sustained-release tablet; usually inside a multi-ingredient pre-workout blend
Interval reported. Not recorded in this summary
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim.
Effect of chronic beta-alanine supplementation on exercise capacity and performance
✓ The study showed what it set out to show
Who was studied
Saunders 2017 meta-analysis of beta-alanine supplementation
How many people
1461
Study design
Three-level mixed effects meta-analysis of 40 double-blind placebo-controlled studies
Compared against
A dummy treatment
Kind of result
What a body can do day to day
What was found
Overall effect size 0.18 (95% CI 0.08 to 0.28); exercise duration a significant moderator (P = 0.004)
Repeated elsewhere
Replicated
What this does not prove. Meeting one endpoint in one population does not carry to other goals or other people.
The limits of this study, and where it came from
Main limit. Crossover designs were excluded because muscle carnosine washout is very long, which removes the most statistically efficient design from the evidence base and inflates the sample sizes needed.
How far it carries. This study is recorded from the curated record, not from the registry match.
Form and route. Oral powder, capsule or sustained-release tablet; usually inside a multi-ingredient pre-workout blend
Interval reported. 95% CI 0
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim.
Consensus conclusions on muscle carnosine augmentation, performance window and safety
✓ The study showed what it set out to show
Who was studied
ISSN position stand on beta-alanine
How many people
1
Study design
Society position stand and critical review
Compared against
Not recorded for this study
Kind of result
A number that stands in for health
What was found
Four weeks at 4-6 g daily significantly augments muscle carnosine; performance improvement most pronounced in open-end-point tasks and time trials of 1 to 4 minutes
Repeated elsewhere
Replicated
What this does not prove. Meeting one endpoint in one population does not carry to other goals or other people.
The limits of this study, and where it came from
Main limit. The stand explicitly notes that more research is needed on strength, on endurance beyond 25 minutes, and on health-related benefits of carnosine. Several authors have industry relationships within this field.
How far it carries. This study is recorded from the curated record, not from the registry match.
Form and route. Oral powder, capsule or sustained-release tablet; usually inside a multi-ingredient pre-workout blend
Interval reported. Not recorded in this summary
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim.
RNAWiki holds 4 written-up human studies for this substance, each with the question it asked.
How we know it
Each card names the study, the number of people and what the study set out to measure.
What this does not prove
These summaries were written by a person and have not been signed off as reviewed claims.
Why it matters
A study that failed is as informative as one that worked, and both are here.
What we still do not know
No reviewed claim exists, so no exact population, effect size or interval is published yet.
What happened in people◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
How close this is to real life
The top step is something a person would feel or care about. The bottom is a guess from software. Filled steps are where evidence exists for this substance.
□Living longer, or avoiding a major eventNo evidence recorded. Death, a heart attack, a stroke, a hospital stay.No registered study measures this.
■What a body can do day to dayEvidence recorded. Walking, dressing, breathing, recovering.4 registered measures of this kind.
■Measured performanceEvidence recorded. How much was lifted, how far was run, how fast.4 registered measures of this kind.
□Symptoms and quality of lifeNo evidence recorded. Pain, tiredness, mood, sleep, as the person rated it.No registered study measures this.
■A number that stands in for healthEvidence recorded. Cholesterol, blood sugar, bone density. A stand-in, not the thing itself.12 registered measures of this kind.
■A step measured inside a personEvidence recorded. Something measured in human tissue or human cells.A human record sits on the stored organism ladder.
■AnimalsEvidence recorded. Mice, rats, dogs. Useful for ideas, not proof about people.Stored records in Drosophila (fruit fly). A result in animals says what to test next. It does not say what happens in people.
■Cells in a dishEvidence recorded. Cells or chemistry on a bench, far from a whole body.Stored mechanism abstracts describe steps measured in cells or tissue.
□A guess from softwareNo evidence recorded. Nobody measured it. RNAWiki never publishes one as a finding.RNAWiki stores no prediction for this record. Software can suggest a link. RNAWiki does not publish one as a finding.
Higher on these steps means closer to something a person would feel. It does not mean better done.
What it changes in the body◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
The path through the body
From what a person takes to what changes. A solid line is a step measured in people. A dashed line is a step nobody has measured that way.
Start
Hypoglycine A
What a person takes: Oral powder, capsule or sustained-release tablet; usually inside a multi-ingredient pre-workout blend.
The measurement behind this step
Sold in the United States as a dietary supplement under DSHEA, so no agency reviewed efficacy or safety before sale. Beta-alanine is almost never sold alone at consumer scale — it is a near-universal component of pre-workout formulas alongside caffeine, citrulline and creatine, which makes any consumer attribution of effect impossible and means the tingling is often the only ingredient a user can perceive. Divided 1.6 g doses and sustained-release formulations produce equivalent carnosine loading with markedly less paraesthesia. Alpha-alanine has the same molecular formula and molecular weight, is far cheaper, and is biologically useless here, which makes isomer-resolving analysis the meaningful identity test.
Getting in
Absorbed quickly, cleared within two hours
Beta-alanine appears in the blood fast and is gone again within a couple of hours, with almost none lost in urine. That short window is why the dose is split across the day.
──Measured in people. Written by a person from the study named beside the step. Not signed off as a reviewed claim.
The measurement behind this step
Harris et al. measured plasma peaks of 47 +/- 13, 374 +/- 68 and 833 +/- 43 micromolar after 10, 20 and 40 mg/kg, with concentrations back at baseline by two hours and urinary loss under 5%. The steep, short plasma curve is what makes divided dosing sensible on pharmacokinetic grounds as well as for tolerability.
It enters muscle through a transporter it shares with taurine
Muscle takes beta-alanine in through a specific door — the same door taurine uses, which is why the two get in each other's way.
──Measured in people. Written by a person from the study named beside the step. Not signed off as a reviewed claim.
The measurement behind this step
SLC6A6, the sodium- and chloride-dependent taurine transporter, also carries beta-alanine. Harris et al. observed plasma taurine rising on beta-alanine ingestion without increased urinary loss. Uptake, not synthesis, is the more likely rate-limiting step in loading, which is why muscle carnosine accumulates over weeks rather than days.
Inside the muscle cell an enzyme links beta-alanine to histidine, making carnosine. Histidine is plentiful; beta-alanine is the part that runs out.
╌╌Described, with no measurement named. No measurement is named for this step, so it is drawn as an unconfirmed link.
The measurement behind this step
CARNS1 ligates beta-alanine and L-histidine in an ATP-dependent reaction. Intramuscular histidine is not limiting under normal conditions, which is why supplying beta-alanine alone raises carnosine and why supplying histidine alone does not. Carnosine is concentrated in type II fast-twitch fibres, matching the exercise durations in which the benefit appears.
During hard efforts the muscle fills with acid. Carnosine absorbs it, so the cell can keep contracting for longer before pH stops it.
╌╌Described, with no measurement named. No measurement is named for this step, so it is drawn as an unconfirmed link.
The measurement behind this step
The imidazole ring of carnosine has a pKa close to intracellular pH during high-intensity exercise, which is what makes it an effective physicochemical buffer in exactly the range that matters. This is an intracellular mechanism, distinct from sodium bicarbonate's extracellular buffering, and the two are additive in principle.
The result is more work in a one-to-four-minute effort, and nothing shorter
The benefit appears in efforts long enough for acid to build up and short enough for acid to be what stops you. Below a minute there is nothing.
╌╌Described, with no measurement named. No measurement is named for this step, so it is drawn as an unconfirmed link.
The measurement behind this step
Hobson et al. found improvement at 60 to 240 seconds (P = 0.001) and over 240 seconds (P = 0.046), with no benefit under 60 seconds (P = 0.312), and a median 2.85% improvement. Saunders et al. put the pooled effect size at 0.18 (95% CI 0.08 to 0.28) across all durations, with duration a significant moderator (P = 0.004).
No suggested links are held for this record, so nothing is hidden from this path.
What we know
The record describes 5 steps from taking it to an effect in a person.
How we know it
Each step names the study behind it in the technical detail beside it.
What this does not prove
A change inside the body is a reason to look. It is not a result in a person.
Why it matters
A reader can see exactly where the chain stops being measured in people.
What we still do not know
No reviewed claim binds any of these steps to a named population.
What it would be like to take◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
Felt, measured, or meaningful
Three different things that get called the same word. Registered studies measured all three, and mixing them is how a blood test becomes a health claim.
Felt
Things a person could notice without a test.
No registered study measured anything of this kind.
Measured
Things only a test, a scale or a device shows.
muscle carnosine concentration
exercise performance
maximal exercise capacity
submaximal exercise capacity
gastrocnemius carnosine concentration
soleus carnosine concentration
plasma creatine concentration
plasma creatinine concentration
plasma guanidinoacetate concentration
urinary creatinine concentration
and 6 more.
Meaningful
Things that change how a life goes, not only a number.
No registered study measured anything of this kind.
A registered study says what someone planned to measure. It does not say what they found. A number moving is not the same as a life going better. The two are shown apart here.
Felt, but not shown to help. A person notices a change. No study showed it leads anywhere good.
Measured, but not felt. A number moves. The person notices nothing. Both can be true.
Measured, but not shown to matter. A number moves in the good direction. Nobody showed that lives went better.
Matters, but takes years. The result that counts may take longer than anyone would keep watching.
Names that fit none of the three (5)
muscle carnosine content before and after supplementation
monocyte chemoattractant protein 1
interleukin 8
time to perform a fran crossfit workout
power
These are harms, study-process measures, or names the rules did not recognise. They are shown rather than dropped.
What is missing or unclear◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
Were people like you studied?
RNAWiki cannot tell whether a study fits you. It can show who was in it, and where the result stops carrying.
Who was studied
People similar to this profile were included.
Athletes in events lasting one to four minutes — middle-distance running, rowing, swimming, combat sports — and a much larger population taking it inside multi-ingredient pre-workout formulas without knowing it is there.
Who is missing from the studies
Which groups were under-represented in the studies has not been recorded for this substance. Pregnancy, breastfeeding, children, older adults, and people with liver or kidney conditions are commonly excluded from trials; nothing here says whether they were.
Where the result stopped carrying
Supplementing carnosine itself, which serum carnosinase destroys before it reaches muscle
Beta-alanine for efforts under 60 seconds, where proton accumulation is not the limiting factor
This is a scope explorer, not a diagnosis engine.
It shows who was studied so you can see whether people similar to you were included.
RNAWiki cannot tell whether a study fits you. It can show who was in it.
What it would be like to take◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
Why it might seem to do nothing
A real effect and a noticed effect are different things. These are the recorded reasons the two come apart.
It was studied for a different goal
The studies measured something else entirely.
On this record: Some registered studies measured things that match no goal on this page.
It was studied in different people
The people in the studies were not much like the reader.
On this record: Which groups were under-represented in the studies has not been recorded for this substance. Pregnancy, breastfeeding, children, older adults, and people with liver or kidney conditions are commonly excluded from trials; nothing here says whether they were.
The evidence may simply be wrong
Small early studies often do not hold up.
On this record: RNAWiki has not yet published a reviewed conclusion for this use.
The product may not be what it says
Contents of a sold product are not always what the label states.
On this record: This is sold as a supplement, so no agency checked what is in a given tub before it was sold.
Other reasons RNAWiki checked and found nothing for (9)
A different form was studied
The studied form is not the form on the shelf. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
There was nothing to correct
Where a level is already normal, topping it up may change nothing. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
Something else had to happen too
In the studies it was paired with training, a diet or another treatment. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
The change is too small to feel
A real change can still sit below what a person notices. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
Day-to-day swing hides it
Sleep, food, stress and time of day move most numbers more than this would. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
Not enough time yet
The studies ran longer than the person has waited. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
It was not taken as studied
Missed days change the result, and studies count them. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
Something else changed at the same time
Two changes at once cannot be told apart afterwards. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
No recorded reason
RNAWiki has nothing stored that would explain it. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
None of these is a reason to take more. Taking more is not a step this page ever suggests.
What it would be like to take◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
What taking it involves
The recorded facts about getting hold of it and using it. Nothing here is a suggestion about what you should do.
How it is supplied
Varies by country
❝ Quoted from a source
Where this came from
Copied from a source RNAWiki stored, with the source named.
Read from the recorded approval status.
No source is stored against this line.
Form and route
Oral powder, capsule or sustained-release tablet; usually inside a multi-ingredient pre-workout blend
✎ Source-linked record
Where this came from
A person wrote this into the record with the study named beside it. No reviewer has signed it off.
The form and route recorded on this substance.
No source is stored against this line.
Who oversees it
Not usually supervised: sold as a supplement or food ingredient where recorded. That is a legal category, not a safety judgement.
❝ Quoted from a source
Where this came from
Copied from a source RNAWiki stored, with the source named.
The identity record classes it as a supplement ingredient; no medicines register records an approval.
No source is stored against this line.
What is in the pack
Sold in the United States as a dietary supplement under DSHEA, so no agency reviewed efficacy or safety before sale.
✎ Source-linked record
Where this came from
A person wrote this into the record with the study named beside it. No reviewer has signed it off.
Recorded notes on how this is sold. The rest of the recorded wording: Beta-alanine is almost never sold alone at consumer scale — it is a near-universal component of pre-workout formulas alongside caffeine, citrulline and creatine, which makes any consumer attribution of effect impossible and means the tingling is often the only ingredient a user can perceive. 6 g doses and sustained-release formulations produce equivalent carnosine loading with markedly less paraesthesia. Alpha-alanine has the same molecular formula and molecular weight, is far cheaper, and is biologically useless here, which makes isomer-resolving analysis the meaningful identity test.
No source is stored against this line.
Where it is registered
Regulatory records are listed in the technical disclosure at the foot of this page.
# Counted from records
Where this came from
A count of rows RNAWiki holds. It describes our records, not your body.
Register entries are stored per jurisdiction and shown with their dates.
No source is stored against this line.
Why people stop
Not recorded.
∅ Nothing recorded
Where this came from
RNAWiki holds nothing here and says so rather than guessing.
No record of why people stopped taking it is stored for this substance.
No source is stored against this line.
What it would be like to take◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
What can go wrong
Sorted by where each line came from. A regulator's label and a report somebody sent in are not the same kind of fact.
·Worth asking a clinician aboutWritten into the record from the studies named on this page
Paraesthesia — tingling of the face, neck and hands beginning within about 20 minutes of a bolus dose and resolving within an hour — is the only side effect reported in the position stand literature, and it is dose-rate dependent rather than dose dependent. Chronic supplementation lowers muscle taurine through competition at the shared SLC6A6 transporter; the clinical significance of this in humans has not been established and no trial has been designed to test it. Safety data beyond a few months of supplementation are limited, and carnosine washout from muscle takes many weeks, which means any long-term effect would accumulate slowly and clear slowly.
Nobody counted how many people took this and were fine, so this cannot be turned into a rate.
Over a long time. No completed tested study window is recorded, so long-term effects are not established by the registry record.
Groups the studies covered thinly. Which groups were under-represented in the studies has not been recorded for this substance. Pregnancy, breastfeeding, children, older adults, and people with liver or kidney conditions are commonly excluded from trials; nothing here says whether they were.
What is missing or unclear◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
Does the exact form matter?
Evidence belongs to the exact thing that was tested. A different salt, a different mixture or a different preparation is a different question.
The form that was studied
Oral powder, capsule or sustained-release tablet; usually inside a multi-ingredient pre-workout blend
✎ Source-linked record
Where this came from
A person wrote this into the record with the study named beside it. No reviewer has signed it off.
The form used in the studies cited on this page.
No source is stored against this line.
What is sold
A recorded note compares this form with the others that are sold. It is kept below, word for word.
§ A fixed RNAWiki sentence
Where this came from
Wording RNAWiki always uses, not a finding about this substance.
The recorded note, unchanged: Beta-alanine is almost never sold alone at consumer scale — it is a near-universal component of pre-workout formulas alongside caffeine, citrulline and creatine, which makes any consumer attribution of effect impossible and means the tingling is often the only ingredient a user can perceive. Divided 1.6 g doses and sustained-release formulations produce equivalent carnosine loading with markedly less paraesthesia. Alpha-alanine has the same molecular formula and molecular weight, is far cheaper, and is biologically useless here, which makes isomer-resolving analysis the meaningful identity test.
No source is stored against this line.
What is recorded as being sold
2702 marketed supplement labels list this ingredient, classed as amino acid/protein and amino acid.
Those labels carry all other, nutrient and structure/function claims. A claim of that kind is written by the manufacturer and is not assessed by any regulator, so its presence says nothing about whether it is true.
Evidence carries across two names for one substance. It does not carry across a salt, a mirror form or a mixture.
What it would be like to take◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
What you could measure
Watching one thing carefully can tell you whether it moved. It cannot tell you what moved it.
This is sold without a prescription, so a person can sensibly watch one thing and see whether it moves.
Pick one goal. One goal only. Two at once cannot be told apart afterwards.
Pick one thing to watch. Registered studies measured things like: muscle carnosine concentration; exercise performance; maximal exercise capacity.
Measure before you start. Take the same measurement several times first. One reading is not a starting point.
Know the swing. Write down how much it moves on its own across a normal week.
Change one thing. Change nothing else at the same time, including training and sleep.
Give it the study length. No finished study window is recorded, so no length is suggested here.
Track whether you took it. Missed days are the most common reason a home test shows nothing.
Read the trend. Look at the line across weeks. A single reading tells you almost nothing.
What not to measure
Anything that swings more day to day than the change you are looking for.
A wearable estimate of sleep stages, which is an estimate and not a measurement.
Weight on one morning, which mostly records water.
A feeling you did not write down before starting.
When to stop
Stop if something new and unpleasant starts, and ask a pharmacist or doctor.
Stop if you cannot keep everything else steady, because the result will not mean anything.
Stop at the end of the window you set, and read the trend then.
Tracking can show whether something changed for you. It cannot show what caused it.
RNAWiki does not work out an amount for anyone.
What is missing or unclear◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
Claims that go past the evidence
Things said about this substance that sound reasonable, and the exact step that is missing between the evidence and the claim.
✗Goes past the evidence
That the tingling indicates efficacy, when it is a peripheral sensory effect unrelated to carnosine loading
Why it sounds right. It follows from something real on this page: a body step, an animal result or a related finding.
The missing step. Nobody measured this in people for this use, or the study that did measure it did not show it.
What would change this
A study in people, for this exact use, measuring this exact thing, that a reviewer signs off.
RNAWiki has not yet published a reviewed conclusion for this use.
✗Goes past the evidence
That beta-alanine helps maximal short efforts or single heavy lifts, where the meta-analysis found nothing
Why it sounds right. It follows from something real on this page: a body step, an animal result or a related finding.
The missing step. Nobody measured this in people for this use, or the study that did measure it did not show it.
What would change this
A study in people, for this exact use, measuring this exact thing, that a reviewer signs off.
RNAWiki has not yet published a reviewed conclusion for this use.
✗Goes past the evidence
That an overall effect size of 0.18 describes the benefit inside the window where the mechanism operates
Why it sounds right. It follows from something real on this page: a body step, an animal result or a related finding.
The missing step. Nobody measured this in people for this use, or the study that did measure it did not show it.
What would change this
A study in people, for this exact use, measuring this exact thing, that a reviewer signs off.
RNAWiki has not yet published a reviewed conclusion for this use.
✗Goes past the evidence
That beta-alanine and taurine are complementary, when they compete for the same transporter
Why it sounds right. It follows from something real on this page: a body step, an animal result or a related finding.
The missing step. Nobody measured this in people for this use, or the study that did measure it did not show it.
What would change this
A study in people, for this exact use, measuring this exact thing, that a reviewer signs off.
RNAWiki has not yet published a reviewed conclusion for this use.
What is missing or unclear◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
What nobody knows yet
Open questions, each with why it is open and what would close it.
How much did people take in the studies?
The sources RNAWiki checked hold nothing for this field.
Why it matters. A result belongs to an amount. Without the amount the result floats free.
What would answer it
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Missing populations
Which groups were under-represented in the studies has not been recorded.
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Missing long-term data
No completed tested study window is recorded.
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Missing interaction studies
No interaction was found in the registers checked. Not finding one is not the same as showing there is none.
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Last checked 2026-09-04. Searched: The sources listed in the receipts at the foot of this page.
Formulation uncertainty
Several salts, forms or products of Hypoglycine A are recorded. Results from one form may not transfer to another.
Why it matters. Recorded by the evidence model as a gap on this record.
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A study that measures it, and a reviewer to sign it off.
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Mechanism not reviewed
No reviewed mechanism story exists for this substance.
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What happened in people◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
Check any of this yourself
Every line above traced back to the study it came from. This is the technical layer, and the vocabulary changes here.
Every line above can be traced to the study named beside it. Follow the link and read it.
Muscle carnosine rose 42 to 66 percent, measured directly in biopsies
In plain words
Four weeks of beta-alanine raised the amount of carnosine in muscle by between forty and sixty-six percent, measured in muscle taken from the leg.
What was measured
Plasma beta-alanine concentration after graded doses, and percentage increase in vastus lateralis carnosine after four weeks
Effect estimate
No reviewed effect estimate exists for this record.
Limits
See the technical detail.
From the source
Harris and colleagues established both the pharmacokinetics and the pharmacodynamics in one paper. Plasma beta-alanine peaked at 47 +/- 13, 374 +/- 68 and 833 +/- 43 micromolar after 10, 20 and 40 mg per kg body weight respectively, and at 428 +/- 66 micromolar after histidine dipeptides in chicken broth equivalent to 40 mg/kg, returning to baseline by two hours, with under 5% lost in urine. Dietary supplementation for four weeks with 3.2 g/day or 6.4 g/day of beta-alanine, given as multiple 400 or 800 mg doses, or with isomolar L-carnosine, produced significant increases in muscle carnosine estimated at 42.1%, 64.2% and 65.8% respectively. Two details in that paper are load-bearing for the whole category. Carnosine was not detected in plasma after the chicken broth, with only traces in urine, which establishes that dietary carnosine is hydrolysed before reaching muscle and that beta-alanine is the deliverable form. And plasma taurine rose with beta-alanine ingestion, the first sign of the transporter competition between the two.
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim
The benefit sits exactly where the mechanism says it should: 60 to 240 seconds
In plain words
Pooling fifteen studies, beta-alanine improved efforts lasting one to four minutes and did nothing at all for efforts under a minute — precisely what a proton buffer should do.
What was measured
Median effect size for exercise outcomes stratified by effort duration, and percentage improvement per cumulative dose
Effect estimate
No reviewed effect estimate exists for this record.
Limits
See the technical detail.
From the source
Hobson and colleagues meta-analysed 15 published manuscripts reporting 57 measures within 23 exercise tests across 18 supplementation regimes in 360 participants (174 beta-alanine, 186 placebo). Beta-alanine improved exercise outcomes more than placebo (P = 0.002), with median effect sizes of 0.374 (IQR 0.140 to 0.747) against 0.108 (IQR -0.019 to 0.487). Splitting by duration produced the finding that matters: exercise lasting 60 to 240 seconds improved (P = 0.001), exercise over 240 seconds improved (P = 0.046), and exercise lasting under 60 seconds showed nothing (P = 0.312). The improvement was in exercise capacity (P = 0.013) rather than exercise performance (P = 0.204). The median effect was a 2.85% improvement (range -0.37 to 10.49%) at a median cumulative dose of 179 g of beta-alanine. A supplement whose benefit appears only in the duration window where its proposed mechanism is rate-limiting is doing something more convincing than a supplement that helps a little at everything.
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim
The larger meta-analysis put the overall effect size at 0.18
In plain words
A bigger pooled analysis of forty studies in 1,461 people found an overall effect size of 0.18 — real, statistically clear, and small.
What was measured
Overall pooled effect size for exercise capacity and performance, with exercise duration as a meta-regression moderator
Effect estimate
No reviewed effect estimate exists for this record.
Limits
See the technical detail.
From the source
Saunders and colleagues used a three-level mixed effects model across 40 individual studies employing 65 different exercise protocols and totalling 70 exercise measures in 1,461 participants, restricted to double-blind placebo-controlled studies of chronic supplementation, with crossover designs excluded because muscle carnosine washout takes months. The significant overall effect size was 0.18 (95% CI 0.08 to 0.28), and meta-regression confirmed that exercise duration significantly moderated the effect (P = 0.004). An effect size of 0.18 is small by any convention. What makes it interpretable rather than dismissible is the duration moderation: pooling across all exercise types averages a real effect in a narrow window together with no effect everywhere else, which necessarily produces a small number. Reported as a headline without the moderation, 0.18 understates what beta-alanine does for a 1,500-metre runner and overstates what it does for a powerlifter.
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim
The tingling is the only reported side effect, and it can be engineered away
In plain words
The pins-and-needles feeling from a pre-workout drink is beta-alanine, and it is a side effect. Splitting the dose or using a slow-release form removes it without removing the benefit.
What was measured
That paraesthesia indicates the supplement is working, when it is a peripheral sensory effect independent of muscle carnosine accumulation
Effect estimate
No reviewed effect estimate exists for this record.
Limits
See the technical detail.
From the source
The ISSN position stand states that the only reported side effect of beta-alanine is paraesthesia, and that it can be attenuated by using divided lower doses of 1.6 g or a sustained-release formula. The mechanism is peripheral: beta-alanine activates MrgprD receptors on cutaneous sensory neurons, producing a transient tingling wholly unrelated to muscle carnosine loading. The audit point is a commercial one. Paraesthesia is dose-rate dependent and eliminable, and the formulations that eliminate it load carnosine just as well. That a large share of the pre-workout market instead delivers beta-alanine as a single bolus, at a dose calibrated to produce a strong sensation, is a formulation decision aimed at perceived efficacy rather than measured efficacy. Consumers who report that a product "isn't working" because it no longer tingles are describing habituation of a sensory nerve.
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim
Dietary carnosine cannot reach muscle, which is why the substrate is sold instead
In plain words
Eating carnosine directly does not work: an enzyme in the blood destroys it before it arrives. That is the reason the supplement is the building block rather than the finished molecule.
What was measured
Plasma carnosine after dipeptide ingestion, and muscle carnosine increase after isomolar L-carnosine versus beta-alanine
Effect estimate
No reviewed effect estimate exists for this record.
Limits
See the technical detail.
From the source
In the Harris study, histidine dipeptides given in chicken broth at an amount equivalent to 40 mg/kg of beta-alanine produced a plasma beta-alanine peak of 428 +/- 66 micromolar, but carnosine itself was not detected in plasma, with only traces of carnosine and anserine found in urine. Serum carnosinase hydrolyses circulating carnosine rapidly, so ingested carnosine is delivered to muscle as beta-alanine and histidine. Consistent with this, isomolar L-carnosine supplementation for four weeks raised muscle carnosine by 65.8%, essentially the same as 6.4 g/day of beta-alanine at 64.2% — the same result by a more expensive route. This is a rare case where a supplement category correctly identified the rate-limiting substrate rather than selling the end product, and it is worth crediting.
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim
It lowers muscle taurine, and the two are sold in the same tub
In plain words
Beta-alanine and taurine compete for the same door into the muscle cell. Chronic beta-alanine use lowers muscle taurine, and both are common pre-workout ingredients.
What was measured
That beta-alanine and taurine are complementary ingredients, when they compete for the same transporter and beta-alanine lowers tissue taurine
Effect estimate
No reviewed effect estimate exists for this record.
Limits
See the technical detail.
From the source
Beta-alanine and taurine are both substrates for the sodium- and chloride-dependent transporter SLC6A6, and Harris et al. observed that plasma taurine increased with beta-alanine ingestion without a corresponding rise in urinary loss — consistent with displacement from tissue. Rodent work has since shown substantial muscle taurine depletion under chronic beta-alanine loading. Whether this matters clinically in humans is genuinely unresolved, and no human trial has been designed to answer it. What is not unresolved is that the interaction is real, mechanistically specific, and that beta-alanine and taurine appear together in a large fraction of multi-ingredient pre-workout formulas with no acknowledgement of it on any label.
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What is not here
5 questions this page could not answer
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The record as stored
The full record, for auditing
Everything above is built from what is below. This layer keeps the technical vocabulary, record identifiers and every stored row, so a reader who wants to check the page can.
The older medicine-wide conclusion held in this record
Written for a clinical reader, and about the medicine as a whole rather than about one indication, population and set of trials. RNAWiki does not treat it as a programme conclusion and no reviewer has signed it off in that form. It is here word for word because it is what the record holds.
Four weeks of supplementation raises muscle carnosine by 40 to 65 percent on biopsy, and the performance benefit appears exactly where the buffering mechanism predicts — improved in exercise of 60 to 240 seconds, absent below 60 seconds — with a pooled effect size across 40 studies and 1,461 participants of 0.18, and paraesthesia as the only reported side effect.
Recorded evidence blocks (10)
Q1
What did Hypoglycine A's largest trial (80 people) and its longest (6.5 years) measure?
80 people in Hypoglycine A's largest registered study, 6.5 years in its longest registered window, measuring muscle carnosine concentration. ClinicalTrials.gov · 2026-09-01
17 na, 2 phase4; NCT07650162; 2026-06-01; no ageing endpoint recorded. Last human test completed 2026, NCT07650162.
Interpretation These counts include studies where Hypoglycine A was a comparison treatment, a background treatment or an exposure in an observational study, and the longest window may be a planned end date. Trial roles have not yet been classified for this record.
Show the evidence
na
17
phase4
2
Last recorded human testNCT07650162
2026-06-01
recorded 2026-09-01 · last checked 2026-09-04
Q2
From Drosophila to human: where has Hypoglycine A shown lifespan?
Interpretation Specific Wrestling Performance Test (SWPT)
Show the evidence
TrialNCT07641907
"An Initial Investigation Into the Effects of β-Alanine on Performance and Physiological Responses During Simulated Wrestling Matches"; n 16; "Specific Wrestling Performance Test (SWPT)"; 2026-10-01
recorded 2026-09-01 · last checked 2026-09-04
Q7
Which 14 trials of Hypoglycine A posted no result?
Posted no result
14 of 14 completed trials
Registrations
NCT00813553, NCT01745016, NCT02819505, NCT02821481, NCT03655041 and NCT04250480, and 8 more
Completion dates
oldest 2009-10; newest 2023-08-31
Show the evidence
Trial
NCT00813553
2009-10
NCT01745016
2013-04
NCT02819505
2015-08
NCT02821481
2016-06
NCT03655041
2017-12-15
NCT04250480
2018-04-15
8 further recorded trials
NCT02770417
2019-02
NCT03803800
2019-12-09
NCT03708185
2021-06-28
NCT05096793
2021-08-31
NCT05334121
2022-05-31
NCT04862533
2022-10-01
NCT05329610
2023-07-20
NCT05772988
2023-08-31
Q8
At the median, Hypoglycine A's trials enrolled 27 people — anything larger?
Median enrolment
27
Largest enrolment
80
Registered trials counted
19
Q9
Was Hypoglycine A studied with exercise?
exercise is named in Hypoglycine A's label sentences: "This study investigated the effect of beta-alanine supplementation on short-duration sprints and final 4-km simulated uphill cycling time-trial performance during a comprehensive and novel exercise protocol representative of the demands of road-race cycling, and determined if changes were related…" openfda-label+europepmc · 2021-06-22
1 recorded statement; exercise
Show the evidence
exercise
This study investigated the effect of beta-alanine supplementation on short-duration sprints and final 4-km simulated uphill cycling time-trial performance during a comprehensive and novel exercise protocol representative of the demands of road-race cycling, and determined if changes were related to increases in muscle carnosine content.
recorded 2021-06-22 · last checked 2026-09-04
Q10
What is recorded about Hypoglycine A and autophagy?
"Metabolites pathway analysis demonstrated that hPMSCs appeared to generate more ornithine with the arginine and proline metabolism pathway and utilized more pantothenic acid to synthesize acetyl-CoA in the beta-alanine metabolism pathway when autophagy was activated." — where Hypoglycine A and autophagy appear together. Europe PMC · pathway abstract search · 2022-01-04
"Metabolites pathway analysis demonstrated that hPMSCs appeared to generate more ornithine with the arginine and proline metabolism pathway and utilized more pantothenic acid to synthesize acetyl-CoA in the beta-alanine metabolism pathway when autophagy was activated."
PMID 34982741
"The first SNP, rs77149046, located in the endosome-lysosome associated apoptosis and autophagy regulator family member 2 (ELAPOR2) gene, conferred an HR of 5.40 (CI, 3.23-9.02; p = 1.32×10 -10 ), followed by 4 SNPs within the region coding for sodium-dependent taurine and beta-alanine transporter (SLC6A6), with HRs ranging from 3.35 to 3.43."
NAD+
PMID 10556626
"Photo-induced inhibition of membrane-bound NADH-ubiquinone reductase by arylazido-beta-alanine ADP-ribose is incomplete and results in a 20-fold reduction of the NADH oxidase and 2.5-fold reduction of the energy-dependent NAD(+) reductase activities."
PMID 4074667
"Photoirradiation of BDH plus or minus NAD in the absence or presence of (arylazido)-beta-alanine caused little or no inhibition."
recorded 2022-01-04 · last checked 2026-09-04
Where it is registeredIdentifiers, relations and other names
ClinicalTrials.gov — US Government work · Europe PMC — metadata only, under the recorded legal gate · derived from this page's own recorded fields; no external licence · mixed register set; per-register licences in docs/specs/corpus-20k-sources.md · openFDA / DailyMed — US Government work
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✓ source coverage passed: 8 source rows
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