Hi all,
At one time, I accepted without question the LEF position that 1000mg of carnosine per day was necessary to overcome the carnosinase enzyme, and that carnosine degradation was a bad thing.
Then I read an article entitled "Low dosages of L-carnosine are effective" in the latest edition of the IAS anti-aging magazine, which attacks the LEF position that the carnosinase enzyme must be overcome to obtain any benefit from carnosine. The article argues that carnosine degradation is actually a GOOD thing, because some anti-aging scientists believe that "....some of the benefits of carnosine are derived AFTER carnosine has actually been degraded by carnisinases, therefore degradation may actually be a good thing!" Here is a link from the IAS magazine website which discusses the concept:
Carnosine article
The conclusion of the magazine article:
1. "The assertion that at least 1000mg of Carnosine needs to be taken daily in order to by-pass L-Carnosine degradation is not true."
It is partly true that "....some of the benefits of carnosine are derived AFTER carnosine has actually been degraded by carnisinases", in the sense that carnosine's degradation products (beta-alanine and histidine) do have benefits of their own, but that isn't the issue: the issue is, how can one get the
specific benefits of carnosine
per se, such as the delay or reversal of cellular senescence and the disaggregation or accelerated degradation of glycated and otherwise-modified proteins. The other benefits follow inevitably as the first
n milligrams of intake are degraded.
To do this requires that one take in enough carnosine to actually increase tissue concentrations above normal levels, and this does require the "swamping" of the carnosinase enzyme. Assessment of the appropriate dose rests on animal experiments, as human trials involving tissue biopsies are expensive and difficult to get past ethics review committees. These studies (citations appended) clearly show the need for daily doses equivalent to > 945 mg/day in humans (after adjustment for Kleiber's metabolic scaling law) to raise tissue concentrations and gain in vivo "anti-aging" benefits.
In fact, because primates have a
specific carnosinase enzyme over and above the nonspecific "carnosinase" activity in rodents, it is actually likely that a somewhat
higher dose is needed.
Carnosine should be taken on an empty stomach, as it competes with various dipeptides and amino acids for access to the active transporter in the GI.
To your health!
AOR
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Chan WK, Decker EA, Chow CK, Boissonneault GA. Effect of dietary carnosine on plasma and tissue antioxidant concentrations and on lipid oxidation in rat skeletal muscle. Lipids. 1994 Jul;29(7):461-6.
Tamaki N, Funatsuka A, Fujimoto S, Hama T. The utilization of carnosine in rats fed on a histidine-free diet and its effect on the levels of tissue histidine and carnosine. J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo). 1984 Dec;30(6):541-51.
Hipkiss AR, Brownson C, Carrier MJ. Carnosine, the anti-ageing, anti-oxidant dipeptide, may react with protein carbonyl groups. Mech Ageing Dev. 2001 Sep 15;122(13):1431-45.
Stvolinsky S, Kukley M, Dobrota D, Mezesova V, Boldyrev A. Carnosine protects rats under global ischemia. Brain Res Bull. 2000 Nov 1;53(4):445-8.
Yuneva MO, Bulygina ER, Gallant SC, Kramarenko GG, Stvolinsky SL, Semyonova ML, Boldyrev AA. Effect of carnosine on age-induced changes in senescence-accelerated mice. J Anti-Aging Med. 1999 Winter;2(4):337-42.
