Agmatine
Supplements · Sports Performance · Supplement, Typed Supps
A by-product of arginine, studied for blood flow and nerve signalling.
Stage by stage
- Intake (Capsule or powder): Absorbed in the small intestine.
- Small intestine (Absorbed): Absorbed alongside standard digestion.
- Bloodstream (Circulates): Circulates throughout the body.
- Blood flow & nerve signalling (Limited human research): Studied for nitric oxide-related blood flow and nerve signalling, though human research is thinner than for citrulline.
What the evidence supports
- Reducing neuropathic pain — limited evidence. Small open-label series and one small randomised trial (around 2.67 g/day) in disc-related radiculopathy and small-fibre neuropathy are promising, but the studies are small and largely from a single research group.
- Enhancing blood flow, 'pump' or muscle gains as a pre-workout — insufficient evidence. Widely marketed in pre-workouts, but there is essentially no human trial evidence for a performance or pump benefit.
- Evidence on Being safe long term — insufficient evidence. Human data are limited to short trials of a few weeks; long-term safety is genuinely unknown.
Typical dose
About 1.3–2.67 g/day, the range used in the neuropathic-pain trials
Upper limit: No established UL; doses up to about 3.5 g/day were tolerated short term with only mild gastrointestinal effects
Timing
Before exercise, in most studied protocols.
Time to effect
- ~1 hr: Acute effect studied in limited research.
Common myth
“Agmatine has the same evidence base as citrulline.” In reality: Human research on agmatine is considerably thinner than on citrulline.
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