Is the Secret to Eternal Youth in Your Energy Drink?

Increasing your intake of a substance found in most energy drinks makes you live longer and become more energetic, sharp and healthy. At least, this has been demonstrated for mice and monkeys. But the ingredient seems to have anti-aging power for humans as well. That’s the conclusion of an impressive publication in the scientific journal Science.

Imagine a nutrient circulating in your blood that is crucial for your immune system, heart, blood vessels, brain, eyes, bones and kidneys. And for the mitochondria, the organelles that supply your cells with energy. And suppose you discover that as you age, there is less and less of that vital substance in your blood…. While low levels are associated with a long list of health problems such as weight gain, waning immune defenses, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline.

Scientists are on the trail of one such crucial substance: taurine, an amino acid with a long range of functions in our bodies. According to a recent study, the blood of an elderly person contains up to eighty percent less taurine than the blood of a young person.

Taurine has become popular as an ingredient in sports and energy drinks. Manufacturers put it in because taurine is said to boost energy metabolism. A can or bottle usually contains 750 to 1,000 mg of taurine. The fact is that taurine is important for the functioning of mitochondria [source], the organelles that provide energy in our cells. There is also evidence that taking extra taurine in athletes speeds recovery after physical exertion [source], but the quick boost you may experience after drinking a can of Red Bull or Monster Energy is probably mostly due to the high dose of sugar and caffeine that usually accompany taurine. Consuming many such energy drinks will add more to your weight than to your athletic performance and energy levels, according to The International Society of Sports Nutrition [source]. So should you after reading this blog want to increase your taurine intake, by all means do not do so by consuming more energy drinks.

Cats go blind from taurine deficiency

Taurine was first isolated from the bile of an ox (“taurus” in Latin) in the nineteenth century, hence its name. It is a nutrient that most people consume an average of about 58 milligrams of daily [source]. It is mainly found in meat and shellfish, so a vegetarian or vegan consumes less of it. With a low intake, however, you won’t run into immediate trouble because the liver can make some taurine (from the amino acids methionine and cysteine with help from vitamin B6 [source]). If cats do not get taurine through their food, they will go blind and die because they cannot make it themselves in the liver as we can. Therefore, commercial cat food is always fortified with taurine.

When all is said and done, taurine makes up about 0.1 percent of your weight, so a 70-kilogram person has an average of 70 grams of taurine in his of her system [source]. The amino acid is ubiquitous in your body, but it is most abundant in tissues that use a lot of energy and/or face a lot of oxidative stress: the retina, white blood cells, platelets, lungs, brain, kidneys, skeletal muscle and heart muscle [source].That taurine likes to nestle in active and vulnerable tissues and cells is no coincidence. Taurine has powerful antioxidant activity in and around our cells, especially by stimulating antioxidant enzymes. Much of the taurine in our blood is taken up by mitochondria and protects these cellular power plants from the overproduction of free radicals; in addition, the amino acid is also required for the complex mechanism by which mitochondria convert food into energy [source].

But that’s not the only thing. A recent scientific review article lists the long list of tasks and influences of taurine in our bodies. A selection: taurine counteracts inflammatory processes (especially in the brain), inhibits the age-related decline of the important hormone and IGF-1 (growth factor for muscles, among other things), is involved in suppressing nuclear factor kappa B (thereby reducing the risk of chronic diseases), is needed in cellular processes that enable muscle contraction and influences neurogenesis (formation of new neurons) in the hippocampus, a structure in the brain important for memory. Taurine, as a (calming) neurotransmitter, influences emotions and brain functions, plays a role in forming bone tissue and protecting cells from harmful byproducts of metabolism. Last but not least, taurine regulates the volume and calcium balance of cells and has a stabilizing effect on cell membranes.

Taurine prevents long-term health damage

According to the prominent American scientist Bruce Ames, taurine is a “longevity vitamin,” because many functions of taurine are important in preventing long-term damage: a subtle taurine deficiency won’t make you acutely ill, but it will put you at greater risk of developing problems later in life with ailments such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, brain disease and mitochondrial disease [source].

Now the problem: The amount of taurine in our bodies decreases as we age, presumably because it becomes increasingly difficult for us to absorb it from food and we produce less of it ourselves. The question is: is that harmful to our bodies? A teenager has an abundance of taurine and is generally in perfect health. In a fifty-year-old, the taurine levels are already halfway depleted, and from that age, issues such as wrinkles, gray hair, porous bones, poor eyesight, unhealthy blood vessels, cognitive decline, and more begin to appear

However, the fact that a low taurine status is associated with more signs of old age does not necessarily mean that a taurine deficiency causes signs of old age. The issue here is the difference between an associative and a causal relationship. Many elderly people wear reading glasses, but the fact that reading glasses are associated with old age does not mean they are the cause of it.

Does low taurine status cause aging?

Is low blood taurine a consequence or a cause of aging? By taking extra taurine, can you slow aging? These important questions can only be properly answered using a large-scale, long-term double-blind randomized placebo-controlled study. A large group of subjects must then be recruited. Of these, half will randomly (randomized) take a pill containing an inactive substance every day (placebo) and the other half will take a pill containing taurine – without the subjects and the researchers knowing who is taking what (double-blind). An X number of years later, scientists look to see if health differences can be measured between the two groups. The thing about these types of studies is that they are extremely expensive and also take a long time. The chances of there being such a study on the anti-aging effects of taurine in the foreseeable future are slim. And if it comes along, it could be another 20 years before we have the results.

Scientists, however, have a well-stocked bag of tricks for getting close to answers to complex cause-and-effect questions without large-scale intervention studies: studies with laboratory animals, short-term intervention studies with small numbers of subjects, and observational studies that contrast the behavior of groups of people with their health status. In an impressive paper published recently in the prestigious journal Science, researchers pulled out all these methods to find out if taurine plays a causal role in the aging process. The title of the article is very clear: ‘Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging.’

It was as if the mice were undergoing a rejuvenating cure.

For starters, the researchers found that in mice, monkeys and humans alike, the amount of taurine decreases dramatically with age. They don’t have an explanation for this, by the way. Next, they fed mice that were 14 months old (middle-aged by human standards) extra taurine at a dose that converted to humans amounts to 3 to 6 grams per day. The researchers found that all the organs and tissues they checked in the animals – brain, bones, pancreas, fat and muscle mass, immune system, intestines – functioned better as a result. It was as if the mice were undergoing a rejuvenation cure. Compared with peers who did not receive extra taurine, they became more agile, more inquisitive, less anxious and stronger; their memory improved, they had healthier sugar metabolism, greater bone density and defenses more like those of younger conspecifics. And they remained leaner than untreated peers, even though they hadn’t eaten a bite less. Not insignificantly, the researchers clocked an increase in average lifespan of 10 (males) to 12 (females) percent.

When the researchers focused on what was happening at the cellular level to the mice given extra taurine, they saw a range of things improve that usually actually deteriorate with age: taurine reduced the number of “zombie cells” (aging cells that should disappear but instead linger in a twilight state between life and death, releasing harmful substances), increased the number of stem cells in some tissues (which aid in wound healing and tissue regeneration), improved the performance of mitochondria, reduced signs of DNA damage and stimulated autophagy – a process by which breakdown products in cells are cleared away.It also improved the cells’ ability to sense nutrients, typically a fundamental function that diminishes with aging.

After mice, the researchers turned their attention to animals more like us: monkeys. They gave 15-year-old rhesus monkeys (45-50 years old by human standards) supplemental taurine every day for six months. Like the mice, improvements occurred in the monkeys on numerous fronts, including body weight, fat percentage, blood sugar balance, immune system, liver function and bone density.

Enough reasons for middle-aged mice and rhesus monkeys to start taking taurine.But what about humans?

People with higher taurine levels are healthier and less fat.

The researchers looked at the relationship between taurine levels and about 50 health parameters in 12,000 European adults aged 60 and older. Overall, people with higher taurine levels were healthier, less likely to suffer from type 2 diabetes, had lower body fat, were less prone to hypertension, and had lower levels of inflammation.
‘These are associations that do not establish causation,’ the lead researcher says of them, ‘but the results indicate the possibility that taurine deficiency contributes to aging in humans [source].’

The relationship between taurine status and health also surfaced in 2009 in a large observational study. Taurine consumption was then found to be the main factor associated with reduced risk of heart disease.The study had used data from 61 populations in 25 countries. Residents of the Japanese island of Okinawa scored the highest intake of taurine and had the least incidence of coronary heart disease and the longest lifespan [source].

Physical activity increases taurine levels

Back to the report in Science. In their search for answers, the researchers tested whether taurine levels respond to an intervention known to be super-healthy: exercise. The researchers measured blood taurine levels before and after an intense cycling workout in both male athletes (sprinters, endurance runners and natural bodybuilders) and average couch-loving mortals. All subjects showed a significant increase in blood levels of taurine after training. The effect was so marked that the researchers raise the possibility that exercising is healthy in part because of the stimulatory effect on taurine.

In summary, we can conclude that the authors of the article in Science have done everything possible to get to the bottom of the health effects of taurine, except check what happens to human guinea pigs when they start taking it as a supplement. According to the diverses scientific search engines, there have been more than eighty randomized placebo-controlled studies with taurine supplementation in recent decades – albeit with small numbers of subjects.
Just last year, a study was published in which 24 women aged 55 to 70 had taken 1.5 grams of taurine or a placebo daily for 16 weeks. In those who consumed taurine, this was found to increase the important antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase. According to the researchers, the supplement may be useful in containing oxidative stress during aging [source].

‘Taurine improves endurance’

Also there are several meta-analyses of such taurine studies, studies in which the results of multiple placebo-controlled intervention studies are aggregated and critically weighted.

The results of such meta-analyses are considered the highest level of evidence within medical science.
In 2022, authors of such a meta-analysis concluded that taurine supplementation reduces signs of inflammation and oxidative stress [source]. According to a 2020 meta-analysis, in people with liver problems, taurine supplementation reduces hypertension and improves blood lipid levels. [source]. A 2018 meta-analysis of studies on taurine and sports performance concluded, “Human endurance performance can be improved by oral intake of a single dose of taurine in varying amounts (1-6 g)” [source]. In the same year, authors of another meta-analysis concluded, ‘These preliminary findings suggest that intake of taurine in the indicated doses (1-6 grams) and supplementation periods (1 day – 12 weeks) can lower blood pressure to a clinically relevant degree, without adverse side effects (but more research is needed)” [source].

All in all, it is tempting to start supplementing with taurine from middle age onward, but keep in mind that taurine supplementation has always been tested with small numbers of people. Currently, intense exercise seems to be the best and safest way to boost blood levels of taurine. In addition, you can choose to add more taurine-rich products to your diet, but to do so you will have to rely on animal products. Fish and seafood are the best sources. Tuna can contain about 960 mg of taurine per 100 grams; scallops can contain up to 827 milligrams of taurine per 100 grams. Other good options are oysters with 520 milligrams and clams with up to 655 milligrams per 100 grams. There are also small amounts of taurine in meat, chicken, milk, cheese, eggs and dairy products. Seaweed is an option for vegans. Nori, the thin seaweed product used in making sushi, contains up to 1,300 milligrams of taurine per 100 grams. Although you won’t eat that much in one sitting, incorporating a sheet of nori into a dish or eating it with sushi can add about 40 milligrams of taurine to your meal [source].

But whether this can fully compensate for the age-related decline is unclear. According to Bruce Ames’ definition, taurine is an “AGE-essential”: a vitamin-like substance that you obtain in sufficient amounts from food when you are young, but can become deficient in as you age.

Starting in middle age, you might therefore consider taking taurine as a supplement. At least there are no known serious side effects from that as long as you keep the dose modest. The highest dose used in a human study was 10 grams per day for 6 months, and the longest-running human study lasted 12 months and used a dose of 0.5-1.5 grams per day. Based on the available evidence, it is considered that 3 grams per day can be consumed indefinitely without risk of side effects [source]. According to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), 6 grams of taurine per day is the highest safe dose [source]. A common protocol to lower blood pressure with taurine is 1.5 grams per day divided into 3 servings of 0.5 grams [source].

Text Pim Christiaans | Life Unlimited