What Is Taurine?
Taurine is a naturally produced biogenic amine in our bodies.
Conditionally essential amino acids are nutrients that the body cannot produce on its own, and which must be obtained through diet. While these amino acids are not technically amino acids, they are still necessary for proper bodily function.
Taurine is not an amino acid because it only has an amine group and no carboxylic acid group.
Why Do People Supplement with Taurine?
Most people use taurine not as a supplement, but as an ingredient in energy drinks.
While taurine is often associated with energy drinks, people also use it as a supplement to reduce anxiety and calm their minds.
Some people use taurine to try to reduce cramping associated with exercise, when increasing hydration and potassium intake are not effective.
Some people see taurine as a way to improve their overall health. Taurine is present in many tissues, including the heart, and has antioxidant properties. By taking a bit of taurine each day, some people believe that they can preserve their health.
Why Is There Taurine in My Energy Drink/Pre-Workout?
It would be beneficial to address why taurine, which is sometimes used to create a feeling of calmness and relaxation, is present in many energy drinks.
Why? So that the drink would be “for those who want to be strong like a bull”. We don't know for sure, but there are two potential reasons that I really like. The first one is more on the funny side, and I really hope it's not true. Taurine was included in Red Bull originally because it sounds like Taurus, the astrological sign for bulls. Why? So that the drink would be “for those who want to be strong like a bull.”
I hope that is not the case. If it is not, then it is just a fortunate coincidence between the molecule name and the product name.
Taurine also interacts with other molecules in energy drinks that are filled with sugar.
- Taurine has sedative roles in the body and may have been included in an attempt to “take the edge off” of the stimulants.
- Taurine may slow the absorption of glucose from the intestines/liver into the blood, reducing the rate of uptake (the “spike” of glucose in the blood) which should theoretically mean less of a sugar crash.
Since Red Bull was first marketed, taurine has been included in almost every other energy drink on the market.
What Does Taurine Do in Your Body?
Taurine is an antioxidant that is widely distributed and seems to be beneficial for the heart and brain. In some cases, it acts as a neurotransmitter, although it is not as potent as some other neurotransmitters (such as serotonin or dopamine).
It is synthesized in the liver and used to produce some bile acids, which have powerful antioxidant properties, or it can be used on its own as an antioxidant.
What Are the Benefits of Taurine?
I believe that the most relevant topics to discuss when it comes to putting taurine into your mouth are the following:
Taurine and Sleep
Taurine is one of many compounds that occur naturally in the body and it helps you sleep by increasing melatonin in the body. It does this by activating receptors in the thalamus, which is the part of the brain that regulates sleep. Taurine is also involved in the creation of melatonin in the pineal gland.
This means that taurine is essential for sleep. It is produced in the body and helps to create the hormone melatonin, which makes you feel sleepy. The more you are awake, the more taurine is produced, making it easier for you to fall asleep.
There are not many studies on taurine supplementation and sleep. Some studies show amazing results in drosophila (fruit flies), while other studies show minimal effects in rats, and still other studies show lackluster results in a single human study.
There is not enough evidence to say whether or not taurine supplementation helps improve sleep in humans.
Enhances Athletic Performance
There is a lot of evidence to suggest that taurine supplements can improve athletic performance.
Many athletes take taurine supplements in powder or tablet form, or drink energy and performance-enhancing drinks that contain taurine.
Animal studies have shown that taurine supplements affect how muscles behave. By supplementing with taurine, an individual can increase the contraction of their muscles, which in turn helps them produce more force.
The positive effects of caffeine on sports and fitness are well-known. Caffeine can improve weightlifting performance, sprinting speed, and general athletic ability.
A study in 2009 showed that using caffeine and taurine together over a period of two weeks can improve endurance.
Glucose and glycogen are sugar molecules that serve as the muscles' primary energy source. The research also showed that taurine significantly decreased the amount of lactic acid that built up over long running distances. When there is not enough oxygen in the muscles to break down sugar molecules, lactic acid builds up.
The theory that taurine supplements help muscles by reducing inflammation and slowing the onset of muscle fatigue is supported by evidence. Taurine supplements also protect muscles from oxidative stress and reduce cell breakdown.
Results from a 2004 study published in Amino Acids, Springer Journal, which explored the role of taurine supplementation to prevent exercise-induced oxidative stress in healthy young men concluded that:
After taking taurine supplements, people were able to exercise for longer periods of time and at higher intensities. This suggests that taurine has cellular protective properties that help reduce exercise-induced damage and improve exercise performance.
The benefits of taking taurine supplements extends beyond just athletes.
This amino acid helps to shorten the recovery phase by preventing muscle damage and soreness.
Reduces Anxiety
Taurine has pronounced benefits for anxiety. As one of the few compounds that crosses the blood/brain barrier, taurine plays a predominant role in mood regulation.
It helps to calm anxiety by increasing the levels of glycine and Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which reduces the amount of glutamine, which causes anxiety.
GABA is a neurotransmitter that helps the brain to feel happy and relaxed. People who have low levels of GABA often take tranquilizing drugs to try to increase it, but taurine supplementation is a much more effective method.
GABA-specific supplements cannot cross the brain/blood barrier to target GABA molecules.
Taurine supplements offer a more effective treatment as they combat one of the major causes of anxiety: poor sleep. The two are intrinsically linked. Not enough sleep causes anxiety, and worrying about getting to sleep makes it harder to drift off. Fortunately, a taurine anxiety supplement can often double as a cure for insomnia too.
Taurine has been shown to improve sleep quality by stimulating GABA receptors in the brain. Like melatonin, taurine levels increase when you've been awake for a while, as your body tries to make you sleepy. Taking a taurine supplement has the dual effect of stimulating the brain to encourage sleep and calming anxiety so you're less likely to worry yourself awake.
Taurine and Diabetes
. A few studies have been conducted to investigate taurine's role in diabetes.
It appears that taurine found naturally in the body is linked to improved reaction to healthy diets in type II diabetes patients; those with less taurine had worse changes in blood sugar and insulin resistance after eating healthier. Taurine is also a source of sulfur, and sulfur-containing foods are often considered beneficial for diabetics.
When someone has diabetes, they are more likely to have damage to their blood vessels because of something called oxidative stress. This is when there are harmful chemicals in the body that can damage cells. Taurine is an antioxidant, which means it helps to protect cells from damage. Diabetics often have low levels of taurine in their bodies, so giving them taurine can help to prevent some of the damage to their blood vessels.
While taurine has been shown to offer some protection for those with high blood sugar levels, there is not enough evidence to indicate whether it can improve insulin sensitivity or lower elevated glucose. Instead, it seems to work more as a general protective agent.
Taurine and Obesity
Taurine has been found to reducing inflammation in fat cells, however, during obesity, taurine levels in the body are reduced.
In this case, it seems that increasing taurine intake reduces inflammation and reverses some of the adverse changes seen during obesity. This has been seen in humans given 1,500 mg of taurine over the course of eight weeks.
Taurine did not cause more weight loss than placebo, but it did improve inflammation.
It appears that taurine is reduced during states of obesity, and that supplementation can restore taurine levels. This, in turn, may offer health benefits and reduced inflammation; however, it does not seem to promote significant fat loss.
What’s the Clinically Effective Dose of Taurine?
A daily dose of 1,500 mg of taurine supplementation is shown to have health benefits over the course of eight weeks.
What Types of Results Should I Expect with Taurine?
Don't expect too much from this. Above states could see some subtle benefits, but it's not a game changer. It's a good step, but not a huge one.
The benefits of taurine are not typically experienced by those who are not diabetic, do not exercise, and do not have some degree of chronic, unmanageable stress.
Does Taurine Have Any Side Effects?
Taurine is usually only associated with toxicity at doses between 1,500 to 3,000 mg daily, which is much higher than what is usually used in studies on humans. However, some people who have had times in our lives where we lived on multiple energy drinks a day may experience benefits from this higher dosage range.
University, I think it’s called?
Although there is little evidence investigating doses higher than 3 grams daily, the study that found strong evidence for a safe upper dose of 3 grams daily did so because there is a lack of human evidence investigating doses higher than that.
The LD50 values of taurine in rodents is 1 to 7 g/kg body weight, which is generally recognized as safe in the US.
Even though taurine might be harmful if someone takes a very large dose of it, taking 1 to 3 grams of taurine each day doesn't seem to cause any problems.
The Bottom Line on Taurine
In short, taurine is a good antioxidant supplement that has benefits for obesity and heart health, as well as improving endurance during exercise.
Caffeine is not as amazing as one would think given its prominence in energy drinks. It is very reasonable to assume it is in energy drinks for a similar reason as the B vitamins—it was included in the first product “that just worked” and people did not want to mess with the formula.
In general, energy drinks are healthy, and if you stick to 1-2 a day, they won't do any harm. There's even evidence that they could have some positive effects on certain parts of your body.
Though not especially noteworthy, this product is still preferable to others like it which are often mixed into energy drinks without the consumer's knowledge.
