CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 20, 2026--
Natural Alternatives International, Inc. (NAI) is launching CarnoSyn® 4X, the most advanced CarnoSyn® beta-alanine formulation to date. The ingredient delivers more than four times the bioavailability of standard beta-alanine without paresthesia, the tingling sensation often associated with beta-alanine usage.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260420814198/en/
The proprietary, patent-pending ingredient gives sports nutrition brands a new way to deliver trusted CarnoSyn® beta-alanine benefits to a wider audience with greater efficiency, improved user experience, and lower cost-in-use potential.
“The CarnoSyn® brand name has stood for trusted performance in sports nutrition for more than 20 years, and CarnoSyn® 4X represents the next evolution of that legacy,” said Kenneth Wolf, President and Chief Operating Officer of NAI. “CarnoSyn® 4X gives formulators a way to expand the beta-alanine audience, reaching consumers who may have avoided it because of the tingling sensation, while reinforcing the CarnoSyn® name as a trusted on-pack signal of performance.”
Backed by more than 55 clinical studies, the CarnoSyn® portfolio remains the only beta-alanine with New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) status. This innovation gives sports nutrition brands flexibility to pursue line extensions and launch new products featuring beta-alanine across more usage occasions and consumer needs. CarnoSyn® Brands continues to build on its leadership in performance nutrition by delivering clinically supported beta-alanine solutions that meet the evolving needs of brands and consumers alike.
CarnoSyn® 4X is available now. To learn more, visit carnosyn.com/carnosyn-4x.
About CarnoSyn® Brands:
CarnoSyn® Brands feature four clinically studied, patented ingredients available exclusively from Natural Alternatives International, Inc.: CarnoSyn® instant release beta-alanine powder, SR CarnoSyn® sustained release beta-alanine tablets, CarnoSyn® 4X beta-alanine powder, and TriBsyn™ powder. For more information, visit carnosyn.com and tribsyn.com.
About Natural Alternatives International, Inc. (NAI):
NAI is a leading formulator, manufacturer, and marketer of nutritional supplements and provides strategic partnering services to its customers, including scientific research, proprietary ingredients, customer-specific nutritional product formulation, product testing and evaluation, marketing management and support, packaging and delivery system design, regulatory review, and international product registration assistance. For more information about NAI, please visit nai-online.com.
For decades, CarnoSyn® has helped everyday and elite athletes train harder and recover faster. CarnoSyn® 4X quadruples bioavailability in a proprietary formula for efficacious dosing without paresthesia.
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A stunned Louisiana city struggled to come to grips Monday with the massacre of eight children carried out by a father who was separating from his wife and used an assault-style weapon despite a 2019 felony firearms conviction.
The violence reverberated across Shreveport a day after one of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings in recent years. Schools brought in counselors for the victims' young classmates and neighbors grieved at a growing memorial. Community leaders called for a city-wide reckoning about how to stop domestic violence.
“We can not afford to wait until the next crisis,” said Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry Whitehorn. “This is the responsibility of all of us. We owe it to the eight children who were lost.”
The shooter, identified as Shamar Elkins, killed seven of his children and another child, police said. His wife also was shot and wounded.
His wife's sister, who called for help minutes after the shooting started, escaped with a child by jumping from the roof, police and family members said Monday.
“She said she was running for her life,” said Lionel Pugh, an uncle of the two women shot. “The only ones he didn’t kill was the ones who got away.”
Elkins died after fleeing and a police pursuit that ended with officers firing on him. It was not clear whether he was killed by officers or from a self-inflicted gunshot, Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said.
Officials said the children who died — three boys and five girls — ranged in age from 3 to 11 years old.
Elkins and his wife, identified by family members as Shaneiqua Elkins, were separating and had been due in court Monday, said Crystal Brown, a cousin of a woman shot in the attack. She said the couple had been arguing about the separation before the shooting.
Family members described Shaneiqua Elkins as a doting mother, who celebrated her children’s success in school and carefully dressed them before family events.
“She raised those kids right,” Pugh said. “They were the center of her universe.”
While the shooter did not appear to have an extensive criminal history, court records showed Elkins was placed on probation in 2019 after pleading guilty to illegal use of weapons. In that case, Elkins fired five rounds at a vehicle and told police that someone inside it had pulled a gun on him, according to a police report.
Based on Louisiana law, a person convicted of certain violent felonies — including illegal use of weapons — are banned from having a gun for at least 10 years after completing their sentence and probation.
Authorities said Monday that how and when Elkins got the gun is being investigated.
Louisiana, a reliably red state, has expanded access to guns in recent years. For years, Democrats in Louisiana have proposed bills to tighten gun control – or at least put “red flag” measures in place. But Republicans have routinely blocked such legislation.
Investigators were not aware of other domestic violence issues involving Elkins, said police spokesperson Chris Bordelon.
Elkins had served in the Louisiana National Guard from 2013 to 2020 as a signal support system specialist and a fire support specialist, said guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Noel Collins. Elkins held the rank of private and had no deployments, Collins said.
Authorities said the shooting erupted before dawn at two homes.
Elkins shot a woman in a neighborhood south of downtown and a few blocks away at a home where the children were found, police said. Elkins' nephew was among the slain children, according to the Caddo Parish coroner’s office.
One of the victims, 5-year-old Braylon Snow, was getting ready for preschool graduation next month, said Laurance Guidry, president and CEO of Caddo Community Action Agency, which runs the Head Start program where Braylon was a student.
“They have the cap and gowns just like you would have when you were graduating from high school,” Guidry said.
Mourners lit candles for the victims Sunday night in a nearby parking lot.
“It just makes you take your children and hug them and hold them and tell them how much you love them because you just don’t know,” said Kimberlin Jackson, who attended the vigil and is an advocate at the Head Start program where one of the victims was a student. She said the last time she saw him was Friday.
Francine Monro Brown, a cousin of Shaneiqua Elkins, said she would often see the children playing in the yard on Sunday mornings when she drove past the house on her way to church.
“Happy children, joyful children. Shaneiqua is a great mother, She provided a great home for the kids,” Brown said as she stood near a growing memorial of stuffed teddy bears, flowers and pink and blue balloons.
Betty Pugh, another cousin of Shaneiqua Elkins, said she was always with her children. “That was the way we were taught: to love our kids, to take care of our kids. And that’s what she did,” Pugh said.
The mayor of Shreveport, a city of about 180,000 residents in northwestern Louisiana, called it one of the city's worst days.
The shooting was the deadliest in the U.S. since January 2024, when eight people were killed in a Chicago suburb, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
Contributing were Associated Press reporters Jack Brook in New Orleans; Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; and Jake Offenhartz in New York.
Shreveport Marshal James Jefferson speaks during a news conference about the children were killed during a mass shooting the day before in Shreveport, La., Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A woman walks to leave flowers and balloons on the front lawn of the home where children were killed during a mass shooting the day before in Shreveport, La., Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Attendees pray at the conclusion of a news conference about the children killed during a mass shooting the day before in Shreveport, La., Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A person passes the home where a mass shooting occurred the day before in Shreveport, La., Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Councilman Reverend James Green consoles people outside the scene of a mass shooting, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Shreveport, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Council woman Tabatha Taylor, right, hugs an unknown person outside the scene of a mass shooting in Shreveport, La., Sunday, April 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Police work outside the scene of a mass shooting, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Shreveport, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
People light candles during a prayer vigil for the victims of a mass shooting earlier in the day, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Shreveport, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A man holds a candle during a prayer vigil for the victims of a mass shooting earlier in the day, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Shreveport, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
