Is it true that taurine supplements improve endurance and prolong youth?
Is it true that taurine supplements improve endurance and prolong youth? This amino acid is found in food, energy drinks and pre-workout supplements.
What is taurine
Taurine is an amino acid that is found in various tissues of the body and is present in large quantities in the brain, heart and skeletal muscles.
This substance enters the body with food of animal origin: meat, fish, poultry and dairy products. Even infants receive it with food, since it is contained in women’s breast milk and added to infant formulas. In addition, it can be synthesized in the liver from other amino acids.
In the body, taurine performs several functions:
- Regulates cell volume and maintains their integrity.
- In the liver, it interacts with bile acids, forming bile salts, which are necessary for the digestion and absorption of fats .
- Participates in the transmission of signals between nerve cells and affects the excitability of the nervous system.
- Protects cells from oxidative stress by helping fight free radicals.
Probably, many people first heard about taurine from advertising of energy drinks, where it is present along with caffeine . This amino acid is also added to pre-workout complexes and fat burners, and is also sold separately as a biologically active supplement.
What beneficial properties are attributed to taurine?
There are three lines of research related to taurine supplementation. We will look at what is known so far.
1. Maintaining the cardiovascular system
Scientists suggest that taurine may influence vascular tone and the electrical activity of the heart, help the organ contract better and protect it from oxidative stress and inflammation .
In two small studies, 4 to 6 weeks of taurine supplementation in addition to usual care improved heart health and function in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF).
Three other studies have shown that in people with CHF, taking taurine can significantly improve exercise capacity.
The supplement may also affect blood pressure. The authors of one meta-analysis reviewed 12 studies and found that taking 0.5–6 g of taurine per day for 15 to 60 days can lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure, reduce cholesterol levels, and reduce the amount of triglycerides — fats that float in the blood and increase the risk of atherosclerosis .
But it should be noted that most of the observations included in the meta-analysis were conducted with the participation of patients suffering from some diseases: diabetes, hepatitis, fatty liver disease, obesity, chronic alcoholism and heart problems.
Thus, taurine may be useful for people with heart disease, liver disease, and metabolic disorders, but its effectiveness has not yet been established. Therefore, the supplement is not included in official recommendations for maintaining heart health or treating any disease.
Whether it can serve as a preventative measure is an open question and has not yet been studied.
2. Prevention of aging
As we age, the amount of taurine in our bodies decreases . And since supplements with this amino acid can extend the lives of worms, mice, and monkeys, scientists hope that something similar can be done with humans.
In one study, women aged 55 to 70 took a supplement containing 1.5 grams of taurine for 16 weeks. By the end of the study, the participants had increased levels of taurine and superoxide dismutase, an enzyme that acts as an antioxidant. The researchers concluded that taurine supplements help reduce oxidative stress, which is inevitable as we age.
Unfortunately, this is where the evidence of taurine’s benefits for prolonging people’s youth ends. Perhaps in the future, scientists will conduct large-scale and long-term studies and prove that the supplement helps delay aging. But for now, this is nothing more than a theory.
3. Improving athletic performance
A 2018 meta-analysis reviewed 10 studies and found that taurine may affect fatigue. Taking 1–6 g of the supplement before running, swimming, and other endurance-based activities can help delay the onset of fatigue.
For example, in one study, 1 g of the amino acid taken 2 hours before a 3 km run improved runners’ times by 1.7%. In another, the supplement helped cyclists increase their time to exhaustion by 10%. And because the athletes performed the test in hot conditions, the scientists suggested that taurine might affect thermoregulation .
But there is other data. In one study, taking 6 g of taurine 120 minutes before a 400-meter swim had no effect on the time it took swimmers to complete the distance. Nor did the authors of a study in which participants took 6 g of the amino acid 90 minutes before the test and ran on a treadmill at maximum intensity notice any effect. After taking the supplement, the runners were just as tired as those who drank a placebo .
There is also some evidence that taurine may speed recovery from resistance exercise. In two studies, young men who took supplements with the amino acid were able to more quickly recover strength lost due to muscle damage .
Thus, taking taurine before intense endurance exercise can increase the time to fatigue and slightly improve results. It can also help you recover faster after a grueling strength workout to muscle failure.
Can Taurine Supplements Harm Your Health?
Generally, taking 2-6 grams of taurine per day does not cause side effects. However, exceeding this dose can lead to digestive upset and neurological symptoms such as dizziness, tremors, and headaches.
Despite the relative safety of taurine, you should not use this supplement during pregnancy and breastfeeding, if you have bipolar disorder , epilepsy, kidney problems, or are taking medications for high blood pressure or drugs that regulate the heart and nervous system.
At least until you consult with your doctor.
Should You Take Taurine Supplements?
If a person eats a typical Western diet , their body receives about 40–400 mg of taurine every day from fish, meat and dairy products.
People who give up meat and dairy get much less of this amino acid from food. But the concentration of taurine in the blood plasma and breast milk of vegans is only slightly lower than that of omnivores. And it is not known whether this harms their body.
And since there is no good evidence that taurine has any health or athletic benefits , there is no point in buying supplements with this amino acid.