Muscle Damage Research Analysis

Human Effect Matrix

The Human Effect Matrix looks at human studies (it excludes animal and in vitro studies) to tell you what supplements affect muscle damage

Grade	Level of Evidence [show legend]
	Robust research conducted with repeated double-blind clinical trials
	Multiple studies where at least two are double-blind and placebo controlled
	Single double-blind study or multiple cohort studies
	Uncontrolled or observational studies only

Outcome	Magnitude of effect ? The direction and size of the supplement's impact on each outcome. Some supplements can have an increasing effect, others have a decreasing effect, and others have no effect.	Consistency of research results ? Scientific research does not always agree. HIGH or VERY HIGH means that most of the scientific research agrees.	Notes
HMB	Notable	High See all 3 studies	Decrease creatine kinase exists following acute supplementation (15-30 minutes before a workout) of HMB free acid to about a third of control, and is effective in trained individuals
Creatine	Minor	Moderate See all 6 studies	Not overly protective, but there appears to be a degree of protection.
L-Carnitine	Minor	Very High See all 4 studies	Biomarkers of muscle damage including creatine kinase and muscle soreness are both fairly reliably reduced following ingestion of carnitine and pairing with exercise
Vitamin C
Blueberry
Coenzyme Q10
Melatonin
Methylsulfonylmethane
Panax ginseng
Rhodiola Rosea
Vitamin E
Anatabine
Astaxanthin
Fish Oil
Glutamine
Phosphatidylserine
Taurine
Ashwagandha

All comparative evidence is now gathered in our A-to-Z Supplement Reference.

The evidence for each separate supplement is still freely available here.