LactiGo vs beta-alanine, oral carnosine, bicarb, and heat rubs
Five things people put LactiGo next to. What each one is, how it is taken, what the research measured, and who tends to use which. No winner declared.
The short version
Beta-alanine is the best-studied of the lot: swallow it daily for four weeks or more, your muscle carnosine rises, and a large meta-analysis found a small average benefit for efforts lasting 30 seconds to 10 minutes. Oral carnosine capsules mostly get broken down in the blood before they reach muscle. Sodium bicarbonate is a different idea altogether, a buffer taken in a large dose before a race, famous for upsetting stomachs. Heat rubs and menthol gels act on the skin's nerve endings and do nothing to carnosine. LactiGo is carnosine put on the skin over the muscle 30 to 45 minutes before you use it, with no loading phase. Its evidence is newer and smaller: see the research page.
Beta-alanine powder
What it is: an amino acid your body combines with histidine to make carnosine. Sold as a powder or capsule, usually 3.2 to 6.4 g a day.
How it is taken: swallowed daily for at least four weeks before any change in muscle carnosine shows up. Many people get a tingling, prickling skin sensation (paraesthesia) 15 to 60 minutes after a dose. It is harmless and fades, but people dislike it.
What the research measured: dozens of trials. A 2017 systematic review and meta-analysis of 40 studies (Saunders and colleagues, British Journal of Sports Medicine, PubMed 27797728) found a small average effect, strongest for efforts of 30 seconds to 10 minutes. The International Society of Sports Nutrition has a position stand on it.
Against LactiGo: better evidence, slower, cheaper per month, tingling, and you have to remember a daily dose. LactiGo is the finished molecule going in by a different door, on the day, with no loading. Nothing in the published work rules out using both.
Oral carnosine capsules
What it is: carnosine itself, swallowed.
The catch: blood carries an enzyme called carnosinase that breaks carnosine into its two amino acids within minutes of absorption. That is why the supplement industry sells beta-alanine rather than carnosine for muscle. Oral carnosine research exists, mostly in older adults and metabolic health, at 1 to 2 g a day, but it is not a sports loading strategy.
Against LactiGo: LactiGo exists because of the carnosinase problem. Putting carnosine on the skin over the muscle is an attempt to go round it. Whether enough gets through in people has been measured in horses, not yet in humans.
Sodium bicarbonate
What it is: baking soda. A buffer that raises blood pH.
How it is taken: about 0.3 g per kilogram of body weight, 60 to 180 minutes before a hard effort, often in capsules or an enteric-coated product. Well studied for efforts of 1 to 7 minutes.
The catch: gut upset. Bloating, cramps, and worse are common enough that athletes trial it in training first.
Against LactiGo: different mechanism, different route. Bicarbonate buffers the blood from the inside on race day. Carnosine is a buffer inside the muscle cell. LactiGo contains no bicarbonate and nothing is swallowed. Some athletes use bicarbonate and carnosine strategies together; no study has tested bicarbonate with LactiGo.
Heat rubs and liniments
What they are: Deep Heat, Tiger Balm, Dencorub, and the like. Methyl salicylate, camphor, capsaicin, or similar.
What they do: stimulate warmth receptors in the skin. You feel heat; blood flow at the skin surface rises. They are used for how they feel before or after exercise.
Against LactiGo: no overlap. LactiGo Regular has no heating agent, no scent, and no sensation. It is not a rub. People who expect to feel something are the ones who say it does nothing; see the mistakes list.
Menthol gels and cooling sprays
What they are: Biofreeze, cold sprays, menthol roll-ons. Menthol triggers cold receptors in the skin.
Against LactiGo: LactiGo's US Menthol version adds 1.25% menthol for the feel, but the carnosine is the point. The Australian Regular tube has no menthol. If you want a cooling feel, you want a menthol product; if you want carnosine, the feel is irrelevant. Regular vs Menthol.
Which one, if any
- You want the strongest evidence and do not mind tingling or a four-week wait: beta-alanine.
- You race efforts of 1 to 7 minutes and can handle the stomach: sodium bicarbonate, trialled in training first.
- You want carnosine on the day, nothing swallowed, nothing to load: LactiGo. Its evidence is one good small trial, two lab studies, and one uncontrolled report. Read them before you decide.
- You want to feel warm or cool: a rub. That is a different purchase.
Nothing here is a medical recommendation. Athletes under anti-doping rules should check every product against the current testing and certification position.
Ready to try it?
A$80 a tube, or A$72 on monthly subscription. A$10 shipping. Ships from the Gold Coast. First tube covered by the 30-day guarantee.
Order one tube from LactiGo AustraliaChecked 23 October 2026. Prices and policies are LactiGo's and may change. This page does not claim LactiGo will change your performance or recovery. Not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.