Might Taurine supplementaion increase healthspan and/or lifespan?

[Saul]

Taurine slows aging in mice. Will it ever work for people?

There is no evidence yet that taking more of the molecule can help humans

The amino acid taurine, made in the body and available in certain foods like energy drinks, is being studied as a way to boost health and extend lifespan.

Jack Taylor/Getty Images

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By Laura Sanders

13 seconds ago

An ingredient common in energy drinks and baby formula makes mice healthier and extends their lifespans. It also appears to make worms live longer and improves the health of middle-aged monkeys, a large international group of scientists reports in the June 9 Science.

The ingredient, an amino acid called taurine, is made by our bodies, and we eat it in meats (SN: 7/21/22). It’s not known whether extra taurine slows aging in people or if it is even good for us, though the new study turned up an association between lower levels of the amino acid and conditions such as diabetes and obesity.

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Aging “is one of the great biological unknowns,” says biologist and cardiologist Toren Finkel of the University of Pittsburgh, who was not involved in the study. “So any way you can chip away at that edifice is great. And this is a new set of findings that deserves to be followed up.”

The results, 11 years in the making, center on taurine in part because scientists found its levels fall with age in the blood of mice, monkeys and humans. As far as amino acids go, taurine is an oddball: Unlike other more familiar amino acids, it doesn’t get incorporated into proteins. Nevertheless, it has a range of suspected jobs in the body, from helping the developing brain to eye health to digestion.

Molecular physiologist Vijay Yadav of Columbia University Irving Medical Center and colleagues found that extra taurine extended mice’s median lifespans by 10 to 12 percent. For example, the median lifespan for female mice that didn’t get extra taurine was around 29 months. With taurine, that increased to nearly 33 months. Taurine led to a similar lifespan boost for shorter-lived worms; C. elegans went from a median of almost 20 days to about 23 days on the highest doses tested.

Taurine was also linked with health in mice and female monkeys. Extra taurine led to improvements in aspects of bone strength, muscle coordination and memory in experiments with groups of five to 10 mice. Six middle-aged rhesus macaques fed extra taurine for six months seemed healthier, weighed less, had denser bones and showed signs of better metabolic health compared with five monkeys that didn’t get extra.

The mice experiments used taurine levels that would be equivalent to about 3 or 6 grams per day for an adult human, Yadav says. A typical energy drink contains 1 gram. There aren’t obvious, known risks of taurine, but thorough long-term studies at these high doses for people have not been done.

Yadav and his colleagues did look at data of nearly 12,000 people and found that individuals with obesity or diabetes had less taurine in their blood than people without the condition. Those links are correlations; it’s not known whether low taurine had a part in causing those conditions. In a separate experiment, an intense bout of exercise led to more taurine in people’s blood. As to whether taurine supplements improve people’s health, “we need to wait for a clinical trial,” Yadav says.

For now, taurine “is promising as a lifespan and health-span intervention,” says John Tower, a molecular biologist and geneticist who studies aging at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles who wasn’t involved in the study. But lots of questions remain, he says, including what taurine actually does in the body and whether it works similarly in different animals, including people. “We’ve got a long way to go.”

Finkel is circumspect, too. Because aging is so complex, a singular fountain of youth probably doesn’t exist. “I think there are going to be many tributaries of youth,” he says. “And so maybe this is a tributary, not a fountain.”

Questions or comments on this article? E-mail us at feedback@sciencenews.org | Reprints FAQ

Citations

P. Singh et al. Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging. Science. Vol. 380. June 9, 2023, p. 1028. doi: 10.1126/science.abn9257.

[Ron Put]

I take a minute amount daily, because of research I had seen before and because I had not seen anything scary at lower doses. I bought a large bag, so it should last for years.

I combine it with L-citrulline, NAC, glycine, lutein, B-12, hyaluronic acid and magnesium gluconate.

Edited to add all supplements I take, including my recent NAC addition.

Edited June 12, 2023 by Ron Put

[IgorF]

I remember taurine was recommended somewhere here in the forums and also I saw a two volume set Springer's publication from the conference dedicated to taurine 10-15 years ago or something alike, so I think it deserves further dig but I was not able to get into it for the last years.

I am taking 1/4-1/6th of teaspoon of it, started a bit bigger but after 3 tests for serum aminoacids I found it too high and I think my body has no use for it in such a dosage, going upper for a probably other way to utilize it requires to read a lot first, thus I tuned down to lesser dose and the topic is waiting for me to get back to it .

My data is:

8 <12 mg/l

30 <12 mg/l

21 <12 mg/l

184 <96 umol/l

The first two values on CR and mild protein undertaking, the first one w/o taurine supplement, the last two almost without CR, with supplement.

(perhaps some urine metabolites could be more useful but I have no availability for them to be done)

I think unless one looks for a kind of "therapeutic" effect it should be supplemented with smaller dosing than I do. But I don't feel even basically confident on this now.

Br,

Igor

 

 

[tanuki]

Unfortunately in study they didn't observe increase in maximal lifespan only median so might not be so useful for people having healthy lifestyle and low risk of diabetes, low inflammation etc.
Might be useful biomarker to keep track on as one ages and supplement when needed.
 

[Saul]

1 hour ago, tanuki said:

Unfortunately in study they didn't observe increase in maximal lifespan only median so might not be so useful for people having healthy lifestyle and low risk of diabetes, low inflammation etc.

Hi Tanuki!

Most (I think all) of the animal data collected was on caged animals.  Whether they like it or not, caged animals are on a healthy lifestyle.

(Concerning maximal lifespan:  each study was probably too small for maximal lifespan to be very meaningful.)

I agree with Finkel:

'Finkel is circumspect, too. Because aging is so complex, a singular fountain of youth probably doesn’t exist. “I think there are going to be many tributaries of youth,” he says. “And so maybe this is a tributary, not a fountain.” '

  --  Saul

 

 

[Ron Put]

A good analysis of the Taurine Deficiency as a Driver of Aging study.

I take about 500mg per day, which I feel is likely safe based on what I have read.

But for me, some questions remain:
- The longest living human populations generally consume less taurine in their diet.
- There are some potentially significant red flags (too) briefly mentioned in relation to the graph at 59:25, showing how taurine supplementation correlates with lipids going the wrong way.

Edited July 13, 2023 by Ron Put

[Alex K Chen]

Quote

- The longest living human populations generally consume less taurine in their diet.

That's because there are SO many benefits of vegetarianism that more than make up for this deficiency, but it still doens't prevent them from living longer IF they addressed this one deficiency. Wikipedia says taurine in vegans is 74% of that of non-vegans (tho I'm sure there's lots of variation)

[Gordo]

I have been studying taurine recently.  There's a nice summary article on Healthline that includes all the scientific references you could want to see:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/what-is-taurine

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi3025

Taurine linked with healthy aging (Reversing age-associated taurine loss improves mouse longevity and monkey health)

Because of the excellent safety profile and pretty well documented benefits shown in published data, I decided to start taking 2g per day, about an hour or two before bed on an empty stomach.  It has very little taste (slight bitter) and dissolves quickly.  Cost is just 3 cents per dose: https://amzn.to/454FWAZ

(I like that it is pure, no other ingredients, and its 3rd party lab tested, good reviews).

Just my probably worthless personal anecdote, but I have found that starting about 30 minutes after I take it, it feels like a relaxed elevated mood starts kicking in (possibly because it acts on GABA receptors in the brain, which are associated with mood?).

Edited September 29, 2023 by Gordo

[TomBAvoider]

Interesting. Any reason 2gm? I've been taking 500mg taurine daily for some 10 years now, because of purported CV benefits for exercisers, and because it supposedly helps maintain gut wall integrity. However I'm wondering if a different dose would be better for benefits I had not anticipated when I first started supplementing with it. FWIW, I take it with my last meal of the day. I get the Solgar brand and on the bottle they recommend taking it on an empty stomach - I don't, as it's not clear to me why I should (seems all aminoacid supplements make that suggestion).

Also, FWIW, Peter Attia has roundly dismissed the paper this recent hype is based on, claiming that taurine is metabolized drastically differently in humans and mice, and in humans the kidneys get rid of excess taurine rather efficiently unlike in mice, so the research is particularly unsuited to be translated to humans from animal models. I don't know.

I do know a higher dose can affect BP, but I don't know if there are good grounds for going above my current dose, so I'm curious.

[Ron Put]

7 hours ago, Gordo said:

I decided to start taking 2g per day

It'd be great if you could compare cholesterol levels before and after supplementation.

[mccoy]

As far as I could see, pure Taurine seems to be blocked by the blood brain barrier, so unless it's a derivative or a prodrug or a special formulation it should not have substantial effects on neurological conditions, such as the purported GABA-ergic properties.

Maybe the supplements presently commercialized address this particular issue.

[IgorF]

I posted my tests with taurine supplementation above and so far I thought that _maybe_ having the gradient higher will make it more concurent on transporters (if it is not transported mostly by a specific transporter, no idea if it is the case) and suddenly found a pecular thing:

Quote

Regarding the active transport system, presence of the taurine transporter TAUT (SLC6A6) has been shown in rat brain ECs (Kang et al., 2002). This transporter is Na⁺ and Cl^–-dependent, it is also voltage-dependent and sensitive to hypertonic conditions (Kang et al., 2002; Rasgado-Flores et al., 2012; Hawkins et al., 2013). It can be regulated at a transcriptional level by TNFa which also diminishes the efflux of taurine through the BBB in vivo (Lee and Kang, 2004). In 2012, Rasgado-Flores et al. (2012) demonstrated in experiments with isolated vesicles from plasma membrane that this active transporter was only located in the abluminal membrane of the BBB. This indicates that taurine can be depleted from the brain even against a concentration gradient across the abluminal membrane.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2020.00973/full

Transport of Amino Acids Across the Blood-Brain Barrier
Rosa Zaragozá* https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2020.00973

If this true in vivo then not only having higher blood concentration is useless from bbb crossing perspective but also an interesting question is raised - why such a thing survived evolutionary. But without quantitative research it is hard to guess how relevant this in reality is.

 

Br,

Igor

 

Edited September 28, 2023 by IgorF

[Gordo]

20 hours ago, TomBAvoider said:

Any reason 2gm? I've been taking 500mg taurine daily for some 10 years now, because of purported CV benefits for exercisers, and because it supposedly helps maintain gut wall integrity. However I'm wondering if a different dose would be better for benefits I had not anticipated when I first started supplementing with it. FWIW, I take it with my last meal of the day. I get the Solgar brand and on the bottle they recommend taking it on an empty stomach - I don't, as it's not clear to me why I should (seems all aminoacid supplements make that suggestion).

 

Regarding empty stomach, based on a quick google search: "Taurine, like most amino acids, is best taken on an empty stomach because other amino acids present in food can compete with Taurine for absorption."

Why 2gm?  "Serious adverse effects have not been reported with taurine supplementation. The highest dose used in a human trial was 10 grams per day for 6 months, and the longest human trial was 12 months and used a dose of 0.5–1.5 grams per day. Based on the available evidence, it’s suggested that 3 grams per day can be consumed indefinitely without risk of side effects." [Andrew Shao, John N Hathcock. Risk assessment for the amino acids taurine, L-glutamine and L-arginine Regul Toxicol Pharmacol (2008 Apr)]

 

Looking at the primate study: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn9257

"We find that concentrations of circulating taurine decline with aging in mice, monkeys, and humans. A reversal of this decline through taurine supplementation increased the health span (the period of healthy living) and life span in mice and health span in monkeys.   

...found an improved functioning of bone, muscle, pancreas, brain, fat, gut, and immune system, indicating an overall increase in health span. We observed similar effects in monkeys." 

"Mechanistically, taurine reduced cellular senescence, protected against telomerase deficiency, suppressed mitochondrial dysfunction, decreased DNA damage, and attenuated inflammaging. In humans, lower taurine concentrations correlated with several age-related diseases and taurine concentrations increased after acute endurance exercise. Thus, taurine deficiency may be a driver of aging because its reversal increases health span in worms, rodents, and primates and life span in worms and rodents. Clinical trials in humans seem warranted to test whether taurine deficiency might drive aging in humans."

"In 15-year-old monkeys, serum taurine concentrations were 85% lower than in 5-year-old monkeys (Fig. 1B). Likewise, taurine concentrations in elderly humans were decreased by more than 80% compared with the concentration in serum of younger individuals"

 

"To test whether taurine has health and antiaging effects in nonhuman primates, we fed aged rhesus monkeys (15 ± 1.5 years old, equivalent to 45 to 50 years old in humans) control solution or taurine [250 mg per kg body weight (T250), equivalent to T1000 in mice] at 10:00 am once daily for 6 months and then measured the health variables"

 

So they were giving these monkeys very high doses, translated to a 70kg human, that would be 17.5g daily dose.  The recommended dose on the supplement packaging was 2g and the scoop it came with was for 2g.  Seemed like a good starting place. 😇

The full paper is a good read.

 

See also: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8952284/

Rafiee Z, García-Serrano AM, Duarte JMN. Taurine Supplementation as a Neuroprotective Strategy upon Brain Dysfunction in Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes. Nutrients. 2022 Mar 18;14(6):1292. doi: 10.3390/nu14061292. PMID: 35334949; PMCID: PMC8952284.

 

2.1. Brain Taurine Transport

Taurine in the brain results from its transport from the periphery (believed to be the main source) and local de novo synthesis. In most mammals, taurine is mainly synthetized in the liver and then actively transported through the blood-brain barrier into the brain parenchyma.

Taurine, as well as hypotaurine, β-alanine, and other β-amino acids, are taken up through the blood–brain barrier into the brain by a high-affinity, low-capacity Na⁺- and Cl⁻-dependent transport system [66,67]. The passive diffusion of taurine across the blood-brain barrier is negligible [14]. Taurine uptake or efflux at both luminal and albumen membranes has been proposed to be mediated by SLC6A6 transporter, also called TauT [68]. The blood-brain barrier also expresses the GABA transporter SLC6A13, known as GAT-2, which is capable of carrying taurine across membranes [69,70]. Both TauT and GAT-2 are also able to efficiently carry hypotaurine [71]. Genetic deletion of the taurine transporter (TauT) in mice reduces taurine concentrations in plasma and tissues, including the brain [37]. In contrast, genetic deletion of GAT-2 in mice increases brain taurine levels, suggesting that GAT-2 is mainly functioning as a brain-to-blood efflux system for taurine [69].

[Ron Put]

Interesting, thanks.

My understanding based on my research before I started supplementing with 250 to 500mg, taurine should lower your LDL cholesterol. (I seem to recall that yours is optimum already).

But it will increase VLDL and TG.

And it may screw up your nitrogen balance, especially at a higher dose, so it's good to keep an eye on kidney values.

[mccoy]

9 hours ago, Gordo said:

Taurine in the brain results from its transport from the periphery (believed to be the main source) and local de novo synthesis. In most mammals, taurine is mainly synthetized in the liver and then actively transported through the blood-brain barrier into the brain parenchyma.

Some other articles tend to stress the difficulties for Taurine in crossing the BBB, but perhaps this difficulty is related to chronic conditions (I wouldn't know how to reconcile the two articles otherwise).

Anyway, its beneficial effect on the CNS seems to be well known. I'm almost convinced, started to search Taurine supplements online.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6536745/

 

Highlights

• •
  Taurine is a naturally occurring sulfur-containing and semi-essential amino acid found within the body.
• •
  Taurine plays several modulatory and regulatory roles in different physiological processes.
• •
  Taurine shows versatile pharmacological role to ameliorate several neurological disorders.
• •
  Due to limitations in crossing the BBB, taurine depends on other mechanisms for functionality.
• •
  The design of taurine formulations may provide potential drugs/supplements for maintaining health and treating disorders of the CNS.

 

 

 

[Gordo]

 

5 hours ago, mccoy said:

Some other articles

We were so uninformed way back in 2019 😂

[TomBAvoider]

Thanks, Gordo, that was very interesting. I have to confess, the issue of dosage is still somewhat difficult for me to assess. I am slightly below 70kg (142lbs), so taking upward of 17.5g of taurine based on monkey results (250mg/kg) strikes me as rather massive. And I'm very wary of simply translating animal to human results in this way. 

So the question becomes at which dose is there at least a chance of some beneficial results of taurine supplementation. One documented effect of taurine supplementation is on lowering of BP - and the amounts seem to be generally around 1.5g - 1.6 g, at the lower range. At 1.6g there does seem to be some kind of effect:

https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.115.06624

Taurine Supplementation Lowers Blood Pressure and Improves Vascular Function in Prehypertension

Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study

Qianqian Sun, Bin Wang, Yingsha Li, et al.

 

[...]We randomly assigned 120 eligible prehypertensive individuals to receive either taurine supplementation (1.6 g per day) or a placebo for 12 weeks. Taurine supplementation significantly decreased the clinic and 24-hour ambulatory BPs, especially in those with high-normal BP. Mean clinic systolic BP reduction for taurine/placebo was 7.2/2.6 mm Hg, and diastolic BP was 4.7/1.3 mm Hg. Mean ambulatory systolic BP reduction for taurine/placebo was 3.8/0.3 mm Hg, and diastolic BP was 3.5/0.6 mm Hg. In addition, taurine supplementation significantly improved endothelium-dependent and endothelium-independent vasodilation and increased plasma H₂S and taurine concentrations[...]

 

Now mind you, this is in pre-hypertensive individuals. I'm not pre-hypertensive, so I don't need taurine to lower my BP. However the point is, that a dose of 1.6g has measurable physiological effects in human beings. 

 

If 1.6g affects BP and improves endothelium-dependent and independent vasodilation, then it's possible that there are other effects, and so, Gordo's 2g seem like a sensible dose.

 

Regarding the BBB. Peter Attia latest show was a review-update on rapamycin with Matt Kaeberlein and David Sabatini. There was a lengthy discussion about whether rapamycin crosses the BBB. It seems rather difficult with lower doses, yet indisputably rapa seems quite efficacious wrt. life/healthspan. At one point Matt (I think it was Matt?), made the observation that as organisms age, the effectiveness of BBB declines, and molecules which previously did not pass the BBB in young organisms, does so in older ones. That could be one explanation for why rapa seems effective even in the old.

 

One may posit a similar question - isn't it possible that taurine might more easily cross the BBB in the elderly subjects compared to the young? If so, then that's one way in which this might work without having to conjugate taurine with some other molecules to bypass the BBB. I don't know to what degree the permeability of the BBB is globally true for everyone - say, it may be more permeable in Bob at 65 than Joe at 75 or whatnot, but some kind of increase in permeability appears to be true with age.

 

In all honestly I can't say that I have subjectively experienced any effects of my 500mg daily supplementation over the past decade or so, or seen its effect in any blood test results on any biomarkers (that I could trace to taurine), so it's possible that the dose is just too low. This makes Gordo's 2g sound interesting. Out of curiosity, what brand did you settle on, if you don't mind? Thanks!

[mccoy]

I'm ordering the Yamamoto brand, which is a pure product from a reputable producer (I also use the Yamamoto creapure creatine).

Beyond the effects on health & longevity, the neurological issue is very interesting. Apparently, Taurine has a strong affinity to the NMDA (glutamate) receptor, so it's a glutamate antagonist, which means that it binds to the NMDA receptor and fewer receptors are available for glutamate to carry out its excitatory function (anti-glutamatergic effect)

From the above, it would descend the relaxing effect, cited by Gordo. 

Commercially available NMDA-receptor antagonists also include ketamine, dextromethorphan, memantine, and amantadine. Memantine is pretty well known for its relaxing effects, similar to magnesium with its moderate inhibition of NMDA receptors.

Again, the above would work providing the BBB is permeable to pure taurine.

 

Edited October 1, 2023 by mccoy

[Gordo]

On 9/29/2023 at 8:42 PM, TomBAvoider said:

Out of curiosity, what brand did you settle on, if you don't mind?

I went with this Naturebell one because it was pure, 3rd party lab tested, had good reviews, and was lower cost per g than most other listings: https://amzn.to/454FWAZ

500 two gram doses, shelf life of two years.

People also seem to report that it helps improve sleep.  I didn't have any sleep issues to begin with, but my wife reported that her sleep has improved, and both of us noticed having intense vivid dreams and better dream recall. I wonder if the dream thing is somehow connected to improved sleep? I'd be very curious to see others' reports on this aspect if you take it before bedtime.

 

[TomBAvoider]

Thanks, Gordo. I'm seriously considering upping my taurine to 2g as well, but want to do some more reading and thinking.

[Gordo]

Longevity doctor shares No. 1 supplement he's been taking every day to 'slow down aging'—and how he feels now

Published Fri, Oct 27 2023 10:06 AM EDT

[mccoy]

On 10/2/2023 at 2:30 PM, Gordo said:

People also seem to report that it helps improve sleep.  I didn't have any sleep issues to begin with, but my wife reported that her sleep has improved, and both of us noticed having intense vivid dreams and better dream recall. I wonder if the dream thing is somehow connected to improved sleep? I'd be very curious to see others' reports on this aspect if you take it before bedtime.

 

So far no perceivable effect with 0.5 grams, but I think I'm going to increase the dose.

[Saul]

I don't supplement taurine, but almost always have excellent sleep.  Probably the most important sleep cycle is the non-REM (deep sleep) cycle.  

My sleep habits improved strongly after I took an MBSR course (Mindfully Based Stress Relief), offered free to employees of the University of Rochester.  A good meditative practice (I practice insight meditation -- different from the types of meditation covered in the MBSR course.) is probably helpful  Yogic breathing exercises are also helpful.

  --  Saul

[TomBAvoider]

I did go ahead and buy the taurine from Amazon, recommended by Gordo. The bag has a supplied plastic spoon, which supposedly holds 2000mg (i.e. 2g) of taurine, that is one dose, just as Gordo mentions. 

Well, I gotta admit, I'm really wondering if my senses are out of wack, because the supplied spoon looks to me to not be big enough to hold 2g of the taurine powder, no way no how. I mean, I assume they mean the spoon without it "heaping", just level is 2g, but even with "heaping" I find it super surprising that it's 2g. I have been taking taurine in capsule form for over a decade, 500mg per capsule. That's 25% of the dose claimed to be held by the supplied spoon. But eyeballing it, it seems to me that the spoon would barely hold the 500mg from the Solgar capsule. I just find it very hard to believe it holds 2g!

I've had to nuke my kitchen due to a flea infestation (we have cats), and I packed away my kitchen stuff offsite, so as not to contaminate, and my sensitive sub-gram scale is packed away somewhere, so I don't have easy access to it atm.

Gordo - or anyone who has the same product - have you measured how much of the taurine is held by that spoon? Maybe I'm crazy, but my eyes simply cannot believe the claim - of course, I imagine the company supplying the product must know what they're talking about, but it's just so hard to believe.  

[Shezian]

In the video, it was mentioned that Taurine lowers white blood cells. My NK and B cells are just on the border of being below normal range. Maybe not so good for me to take given this fact. Have already ordered some Taurine, but now after knowing this not sure if it is safe to take.  Any thoughts?