Taurine in general health as well as in mitochondrial health
Taurine is a supplement that deserve more attention from the antiaging community, and I wish the ITP program could test Taurine’s effects on aging. Taurine has many interesting effects. It has distinct effects on mitochondrial health and on cardiovascular health.
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Three papers focusing on Taurine and its potential effects on health and longevity.
The Role of Taurine in Mitochondria Health: More Than Just an Antioxidant - PMC (nih.gov)
“Taurine is a naturally occurring sulfur-containing amino acid that is found abundantly in excitatory tissues, such as the heart, brain, retina and skeletal muscles. Taurine was first isolated in the 1800s, but not much was known about this molecule until the 1990s. In 1985, taurine was first approved as the treatment among heart failure patients in Japan. Accumulating studies have shown that taurine supplementation also protects against pathologies associated with mitochondrial defects, such as aging, mitochondrial diseases, metabolic syndrome, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and neurological disorders. In this review, we will provide a general overview on the mitochondria biology and the consequence of mitochondrial defects in pathologies. Then, we will discuss the antioxidant action of taurine, particularly in relation to the maintenance of mitochondria function. We will also describe several reported studies on the current use of taurine supplementation in several mitochondria-associated pathologies in humans.”
“Taurine is a sulfur-containing amino acid and known as semi-essential in mammals and is produced chiefly by the liver and kidney. It presents in different organs, including retina, brain, heart and placenta and demonstrates extensive physiological activities within the body. In the several disease models, it attenuates inflammation- and oxidative stress-mediated injuries. Taurine also modulates ER stress, Ca2+ homeostasis and neuronal activity at the molecular level as part of its broader roles. Different cellular processes such as energy metabolism, gene expression, osmosis and quality control of protein are regulated by taurine. In addition, taurine displays potential ameliorating effects against different neurological disorders such as neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, epilepsy and diabetic neuropathy and protects against injuries and toxicities of the nervous system.”
https://www.biomolther.org/journal/view.html?volume=26&number=3&spage=225&year=2018
“Taurine is an abundant, β-amino acid with diverse cytoprotective activity. In some species, taurine is an essential nutrient but in man it is considered a semi-essential nutrient, although cells lacking taurine show major pathology. These findings have spurred interest in the potential use of taurine as a therapeutic agent. The discovery that taurine is an effective therapy against congestive heart failure led to the study of taurine as a therapeutic agent against other disease conditions. Today, taurine has been approved for the treatment of congestive heart failure in Japan and shows promise in the treatment of several other diseases. The present review summarizes studies supporting a role of taurine in the treatment of diseases of muscle, the central nervous system, and the cardiovascular system. In addition, taurine is extremely effective in the treatment of the mitochondrial disease, mitochondrial encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS), and offers a new approach for the treatment of metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, and inflammatory diseases, such as arthritis.”
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Staffan Olsson michael lustgarten
Taurine is used in many PWO products. In my self-experimentation with taurine I have evaluated its effect on exercise capacity. I have taken different doses (between 2 – 5 gr) of Taurine at night, before going to bed. I have observed an increased cardiovascular performance when running the morning after. And I have observed a dose dependent effect, but that observation is not as pronounced as the effect itself. ( I have also observed that Taurine improves my sleep)
When running I always measure heart rate and the time it takes to run certain distances. My maximal performance is improved when running at maximal speed the morning after having taken Taurine before bed. And that goes for all distances from 400 m to 10 k.
I have also noticed that after I having taken 2-5 gr Taurine before bed my heart rate goes down while doing slow ZON 2 running the next morning. With Taurine my heart rate doing Zon 2 running is then 5-6 % lower than without Taurine.I find this interesting since Taurine is expressed particularly in the excitable tissues such as the heart, retina, brain and muscles. The intracellular concentration of taurine is commonly 5–50 mM and the plasma concentration of taurine is approximately 100 μM. When taurine is supplemented, the plasma taurine content usually reaches its peak within 1 h to 2.5 h of taurine intake. In an analysis on the pharmacokinetics of oral taurine supplementation (4 g) in healthy adults. These individuals, who had fasted overnight, showed a baseline taurine content in a range of 30 μmol to 60 μmol. Then, 1.5 h after taurine intake, the plasma taurine content increased to approximately 500 μmol. Plasma taurine content subsequently decreased to baseline level 6.5 h after taurine intake.
Since plasma taurine content subsequently decreases to baseline level 6.5 h after taurine intake then one explanation of my increased performance taurine might have been absorbed in the excitable tissues in the body (like in the heart and other muscles). This could explain the increased capacity for maximal performance when plasma levels are back to the normal levels. (something similar to creatine loading).
I have also observed an improved cardiovascular performance if I take much smaller amount (0,5 – 1 gr) of Taurine 45 minutes to 3 hours before running. 400 mg to 1000 mg. One can speculate that this is an indication that there is both an effect on performance when loading cells (heart and other muscles) with taurine as well as an immidiate effect of having increased levels of Taurine in plasma. I would really like to see a study on taurine loading.
I am male 60 y old. My resting heart rate in the morning is between 50 – 55. When it comes to long term effects of Taurine supplementation, I leave that to the research community. Long term effects require experiments with an (n) much larger than (n=1).
But in my case when I only change one variable and then I measure a functional capacity directly after the intervention and I see the same kind of results over and over? Then the observed effect has high reliability (at least for that particular n=1 which is me).
It is hard to generalize the result. For instance, the observed effects could depend on my individual biology. I could for instance have an undetected weakness in my heart or other individual weaknesses that Taurine addresses.
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Staffan Olsson Thanks for posting this research information. Your experiments with Taurine show very useful information.
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Since these replies are 8 months ago I wanted to point out this article from June 2023 which reports that Taurine supplementation in mice resulted in an 18% to 25% increase in life span! This is a sizeable number for an inexpensive and safe nutrient.
