Sources and method
Which studies are listed
The database lists peer-reviewed papers on carnosine that are indexed in PubMed or have a DOI. It includes trials, observational studies, case series, reviews and meta-analyses. Laboratory studies are listed when they explain a mechanism that the clinical papers rely on.
Studies of beta-alanine are listed when they measured muscle carnosine or when they are the main meta-analyses of the field. Studies of zinc-L-carnosine and N-acetylcarnosine are listed because those are the forms in which carnosine has reached the clinic. Each such entry is tagged with the substance given.
A study is listed whether its result was positive, negative or unclear.
How each entry is written
- The citation is copied from the source record.
- The design, number of subjects, dose and duration come from the abstract or the full text.
- The summary reports what the authors stated. It does not add an interpretation.
- The limits section states the plain weaknesses of the design, such as no control group, small numbers, short duration, a species that lacks serum carnosinase, or industry funding where the paper declares it.
- Each page shows the date the entry was checked and what it was checked against. Where the abstract came from a publisher page, a repository or an index such as OpenAlex rather than PubMed, the source field says so.