Carnosine is a dipeptide (two linked amino acids, beta-alanine and histidine) found in muscle and in meat such as beef and pork. As a supplement it is taken for exercise and blood sugar.
Also known as: L-carnosine, beta-alanyl-L-histidine.
There is no intake value or upper limit. The meta-analyses below pooled trials using different amounts of carnosine or beta-alanine.
It is sold in the US as a dietary supplement. Under the 1994 dietary supplement law (DSHEA), FDA does not approve dietary supplements before they are marketed, and the maker, not FDA, is responsible for safety and labeling. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) says carnosine helps muscle buffer acid during high-intensity exercise, but that eating carnosine is an inefficient way to raise muscle carnosine because it is digested into its two amino acids; beta-alanine reliably raises it instead.
What studies show: a 2021 meta-analysis (4 human and 16 rodent studies) found carnosine or beta-alanine may lower fasting glucose, HbA1c and insulin resistance, with moderate certainty for the human results (Matthews 2021). A 2025 meta-analysis of 8 trials (377 people with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes) found lower fasting blood sugar and HbA1c than with placebo, and called for more rigorous studies (Li 2025). Both pooled carnosine and beta-alanine trials, so they do not isolate carnosine.
The sources here do not describe side effects or drug interactions in detail.
We could not find a single published half-life or time to peak for carnosine that applies to a supplement dose, so we do not list one. ODS notes that carnosine eaten by mouth is digested into beta-alanine and histidine.
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