#1

I’ve been seeing various articles on Taurine’s benefits.

With my sceptics hat on if you check www.examine.com (a medical research site I find very useful in dispelling inflated claims for medications and supplements), there are some benefits but they seem minor. Far from useless but not particularly important. I have taken 500-1000mg daily in the past but not at the moment.

Any input would be interesting.

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#2

I think the true benefits arise when you are older and deficient in Taurine. If you’re young and have enough in your system, it’s probably not that beneficial.

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#3

Taurine:
Cost: low
Risk: low
Benefit: Lowers blood pressure, blood glucose, triglycerides. All shown in scientific studies.

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#4

+10% median lifespan in mice with taurine in a (not yet replicated) study

Together with other observations of deficiency in aging, improvement in biomarkers in humans taking it, it being cheap and safe, reduced intake of it from food in veg diets popular in longevity, it seems like something everyone should probably supplement.

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#5
Theoretical Evidence
  • Taurine is an abundant sulfur-containing amino acid involved in osmotic regulation, calcium homeostasis, and anti-inflammatory processes. It acts as an antioxidant and supports mitochondrial function, which may combat neurodegeneration and aging-associated cellular stress.
Population Research
  • Epidemiological studies link higher taurine levels to reduced risks of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, both contributors to aging and neurodegeneration. Populations with taurine-rich diets, such as coastal communities consuming seafood, tend to exhibit longer lifespans.
Clinical Research
  • Interventional studies demonstrate taurine supplementation improves insulin sensitivity, reduces oxidative stress, and enhances mitochondrial efficiency in elderly populations. Neuroprotective effects are evidenced in models of Alzheimer’s disease, suggesting a potential reduction in amyloid beta-induced toxicity.
Case-Controlled Research
  • Case studies in aging individuals with neurodegenerative diseases show taurine’s potential in mitigating symptoms of cognitive decline, though large-scale controlled trials are limited.
Speculative Exploration
  • Combining taurine with mitochondrial boosters like NAD+ precursors or compounds targeting amyloid clearance may synergistically enhance benefits.
Subjective Personal Observations
  • I have yet to measure my circulating levels of taurine – before or after supplementing – but based on my age, I might expect them to be about 20% of what they were in my youth. I have been experimenting with taurine for a year, adding piperine in the last six months. I’m not certain that I noticed much of a difference when supplementing at the 1,000 - 3,000 mg level but I definitely noticed a difference when I added piperine and supplemented at the 5,000 - 6,000 mg level per Life Extension’s recommendations. The changes I believe I can attribute are in energy levels and a generalized sense of well being. I am less certain about the latter attribution. Telmisartan is likely playing a role in that as well.

While questions about taurine supplementation in older age are far from settled (I guess that never happens), the research-based case for it may be stronger than for rapamycin, especially when downside risks are fully considered in the decision matrix.

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#6

In addition to the positive studies, there are also a few negative studies testing chronic administration of taurine in mice. The study below found that taurine had a negative effect on bone structure after long-term, low-dose administration.

The next study tested the effects of taurine at a higher dosage in mice fed a high fat diet and found that it led to exacerbated fatty liver, symptoms of type II diabetes, and kidney damage. Although it conflicts with other research on the same:

Other:

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#7

The second study that showed negative results was due to the fact that the mice were fed a HIGH FAT DIET plus taurine. I think the diet had more of an impact on their metabolic health than the taurine! Another red flag is they didn’t have a control group as a comparison as far as I can tell.

You have to examine these studies carefully. I remember there was another taurine study on mice where they wanted to feed the mice a Red Bull diet to see if taurine caused the mice to become diabetic! (Like the ultra high amounts of sugar in the Red Bull could be excluded?)

Watch out for garbage science.

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#8

Nic (Physionics YouTube channel) does a good job breaking down the taurine studies in several videos (including one in-depth analysis that runs over an hour). A good starting point is this one:

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#9

If you want to know more about the biological effects of Taurine, I recommend this review article. The authors of this article, Stephen Schaffer, president of the International Taurine Society, and Ha Won Kim, president of the Korean Taurine Society. When it comes to embracing the vast knowledge around Taurine in organisms, reviews does not get better than this,

Board – International Taurine Society

(In Japan, they use Taurine as a medication for congestive heart failure. )

One can always wonder how big the effects are when it comes to supplementing with Taurine. There are many processes and many other substances in the body that can affect our health. And it is hard to know which, in my body, are the ones that increase the speed of aging itself or the consequences of aging? And which processes and substances work in the opposite directions, by slowing aging or reducing the consequences of aging.

My conclusion is that having low Taurine or being deficient in Taurine makes you prone to disease or biological dysfunctions in many kinds of cells. And that being deficient in Taurine makes you suffer more from the age related changes in the body.

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#10

Thanks to everyone who contributed. That’s a nice load of links to help me do research and I think the balance of evidence means I should add Taurine to my stack. I’m always a bit wary of extrapolating mouse/rat experiments to humans. Of course nowadays experiments which are detrimental to a group of people get stopped by the ethics committee so it is tricky to parse the evidence. But there seems to be few negatives and many positives to Taurine.

Good stuff, I am very pleased! :slight_smile:

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#11

There are plenty of studies that were done in humans.

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#12

DeStrider probably is right. However, for whatever immediate benefit it might offer, you were not taking nearly enough.

Personal experience: At the age of 73, I began taking 2 grams per day. Wonky kidneys like it, and mine can use all the help they can get. Two days later, I began to experience quite extraordinary mental benefits. They were not a placebo effect, because I had never heard that such a thing was possible. Besides, they have lasted three years now. I have experienced the placebo effect before, and it did not last nearly this long.

Details:

Before taking taurine, I had to stop in the middle of entering a six-digit security code to remind myself of the last three digits. Two days after beginning taurine, my memory suddenly was working again. For convenience, I memorized my credit-card numbers after three readings. A few months later, I needed a part for my air conditioner. I remembered a part code consisting of 15 letters and digits after two readings. (I had to read it again the next day to make sure I had the last four digits right. I did.) I could still remember it two months later.

Also within two days, I recovered cognitive functions I was not aware of having lost. When faced with a task before taking taurine, I would plod through it in the most one-foot-after-the-other sort of way, even when something that would have simplified things was sitting there in front of me. After, I automatically reached for whatever would make the job quicker and easier. Wish I could give examples, but at this point that experience is so alien that I have put it far behind me.

(I remember what I want to and almost instantly forget anything else. I have been that way since my late 20s.)

Some time later, I read a journal article reporting that taurine lengthened the lifespan of rats. Converting the rat dosage to human and sizing it to my weight, then 170 lb, I increased my dose to 5.5g per day. My cognition became a little quicker and clearer, not much but enough to be noticed.

N = 1, but if you are over 60 or so, I think it is well worth trying.

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#13

There are. But in the context of life extension where the intent is to take substances indefinitely, we often lack human data. So chronic and subchronic studies in animals remain relevant. A 90 day study in rodents is thought to be equivalent to about 7 to 10 years in man. And rats are more predictive for outcome in man than mice, which is why most chronic toxicity studies are in rats vs mice. And for the same reason, lifespan studies are ideally performed in rats versus mice, which we are genetically more similar to and telomere maintenance and function is more comparable.

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#14

I’ve given up worrying about life extension in humans. It’s going to take a long time to get data about any supplements extending human life. Do what you can to extend health span. Life span hopefully will follow health span.

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#15

But we do have surrogate data that is instructive. For instance, a supplement that increases muscle mass at a greater rate with exercise is likely enhancing longevity and health at the same time.

In fact health enhancement would almost always enhance longevity. When would a supplent or treatment improve one and not the other?

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#16

a supplement that increases muscle mass at a greater rate with exercise is likely enhancing longevity and health at the same time

Steroids are a counter example. There’s evidence to suggest lots of protein isn’t great for aging either. Both examples I can think of contradict this.

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#17

Terrible example, not a supplement and has obvious side effects. Whereas taurine has NONE of any significance.

I guess I did not think it was necessary to point out that any drug or hormone with strong negative side effects would not qualify, as none of these are net positives for healthspan or longevity by definition.

So…there I added that. Not that common sense would require all these qualifications.

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#18

Disagree on protein rate and aging when one looks at holistically. So don’t agree on that premise either.

Both bad examples in this context.

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#19

I am all for personalization when it comes to choosing which supplements to take, but Taurine is one of those rare supplements that just about everyone would benefit from, and I can’t think of any reason why anybody shouldn’t be taking it (besides cost, which isn’t high for taurine anyway). It’s an S tier supplement to me.

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#20

Taurine seems quite safe (certainly up to 6g/day), and I have been personally taking it for more than a decade (before the recent mouse study and hype), but it was a very low daily 500mg. For the past year though I’ve upped my dose to between 3-4g daily, initially because I wanted to lower my BP, but I was happy to get any other benefits. However, I’m starting on rapamycin - in fact today - and out of an abundance of caution decided to skip taurine on the day of rapamycin and the day after, so now 5 days a week. What I’m saying is that while taurine is likely quite safe, we don’t know everything about possible interactions with drugs or supplements. Probably safe to take with rapamycin, but that’s a personal decision. YMMV.

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