Taurine – an amino acid often used by bodybuilders and added to energy or sports drinks, could be an “elixir of life”, according to the author of a new study. But for now, only when it comes to worms, mice and monkeys.
Would it be useful or potentially harmful to humans? As there are still not enough studies to prove the effectiveness of the compound, the best thing is to save money, experts say.
A study published on Thursday (8) in the journal “Science” points out that middle-aged female mice fed high levels of taurine lived 12% longer, on average, than mice that did not receive the substance.
Male mice lived about 10% longer, said lead study author Vijay Yadav, assistant professor of genetics and development at Columbia University in New York.
“The study suggests that taurine may be an elixir of life within us,” Yadav said in a statement about the study.
read more:
Ready for the headlines?
Considered a non-essential amino acid, taurine exists in the brain, retina, and almost every muscle tissue and organ in the body. Studies have found that it can have anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects in older brains, but is potentially harmful to the developing brain of teenagers. Taurine deficiencies are linked to heart, kidney and retinal damage.
Absorbed from foods like shellfish and meat and distributed through the liver, taurine levels decline with age, “but if you go back to younger levels, there’s this effect among mice that live healthier longer,” said co-author Henning Wackerhage, professor of exercise biology at the Technical University of Munich, Germany.
Tests on monkeys found that those who took taurine supplements were leaner, had better blood sugar levels, less liver damage, increased bone density, younger immune systems and gained less weight, according to the study.
“Studies across species show that taurine abundance declines with age, and reversing this decline leads to animals living longer, healthier lives,” Yadav said. “In conclusion, the findings should be relevant to humans.”
But worms, rats and monkeys are not people, and science is years away from proving taurine’s anti-aging value in humans – if it exists, experts warn.
“It doesn’t seem like something ready to hit the headlines, and it could be harmful if people start eating more animal foods to increase their taurine intake,” said nutrition researcher Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was not part of the study.
“In our cohorts of more than 130,000 men and women followed for up to 30 years (with more than 30,000 deaths), higher animal protein intake was linked to higher overall mortality and mortality from most major diseases,” said Willett. “Some additional human studies using taurine supplements would be interesting, but we are far from suggesting its use.”
The only human trial in the study found that exercise — which is often called the key to longevity — improved taurine levels in people. However, it may not be a direct relationship, as exercise also lowers cholesterol; improves blood flow; lowers blood pressure; strengthens muscles, including the heart; increases energy; improves sleep and fights chronic diseases.
“I don’t like claims of extreme longevity in humans because we just don’t know it,” said Gordon Lithgow, professor and vice president of academic affairs at the Buck Institute in Novato, Calif., an independent biomedical research institute focused solely on aging. .
“I’m not saying it’s not possible, but we need to have proper double-blind clinical trials in people to see what happens,” continued Lithgow, whose lab did the worm research included in the new study.
Unfortunately, many drugs, supplements, herbs and vitamins that appear to be beneficial may fail spectacularly once the science ends all research.
“Take the case of vitamin E. People took vitamin E for decades and then we found out that it certainly does no good and can even be harmful”, exemplified Lithgow. “We have to wait for clinical trial data, which is the only real measure in biomedicine.”
Despite these caveats, “it’s hard not to get excited about this study,” he said. “We have something like 400 million years of separation between worms and people, and yet we find beneficial effects with the same restoration of this natural metabolite (taurine) in worms and primates.”
an extensive investigation
The research took ten years and involved more than 50 scientists in laboratories around the world who investigated the impacts of taurine on various species: yeast, worms, mice and monkeys.
Worms fed taurine lived longer and looked healthier, but taurine “had no effect on yeast,” Yadav said.
Taurine-supplemented mice, however, “were leaner, had increased energy expenditure, increased bone density, improved muscle strength, reduced depressive and anxious behaviors, improved memory, reduced insulin resistance, and a stronger immune system. younger”.
How does taurine do this? The answer is still unclear, according to German researcher Wackerhage, “but it is my subjective opinion that taurine somehow seems to hit the engine room of aging.”
For Yadav, on a metabolic level, taurine appears to improve the health of mitochondria, the cellular powerhouse in the body that creates “90% of the energy needed to sustain life and support organ function,” according to the United Mitocondrial Disease Foundation.
Tissue analysis in mice supplemented with taurine also showed that the amino acid suppresses so-called “zombie” or senescent cells – older, damaged cells that refuse to die and begin to excrete inflammatory factors that trigger diseases like Alzheimer’s and hasten aging.
Taurine also increased stem cells present in some tissues, reduced DNA damage and improved a cell’s ability to detect nutrients, the study found.
“Taurus steps on the aging brake. It doesn’t put the vehicle in reverse”, compared Yadav. “It slows down the aging process [desses animais]which is why they are living longer and healthier lives’.
wait for the evidence
Early results on other potential anti-aging compounds – such as the diabetes drug metformin; the antifungal antibiotic rapamycin; resveratrol, an antioxidant found in grapes; and NAD precursors, which help with healthy aging – have been sold in large numbers to a young audience despite a lack of scientific evidence.
“We don’t recommend buying without medical advice,” advised Yadav. “Our view is that people need to wait for human clinical trials to be completed. Benefits as opposed to risk factors will depend on the age of the study population.”
Additionally, Yadav added, users need to be sure that any taurine supplement purchased over the counter is “non-adulterated.”
This is an important issue because supplements are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said Dr. Pieter Cohen, an associate professor of medicine who administers the Supplementary Research Center da Cambridge Health Alliance em Somerville, Massachusetts.
Many supplements contain less or more than is listed on the label, while some may have unknown additives. A recent study from Doctor Cohen on melatonin gummies, for example, found that one brand contained 347% of the amount of melatonin listed on the label, while another contained only cannabidiol, or CBD, which is not mentioned on the label.
“Getting excited about a drug is good because it must go through a rigorous FDA approval process before you can access it,” Cohen said. “But supplements are not regulated, which ends up misleading consumers. They read about the study and can go online and buy taurine and be taking it in a few days.”
Then there is the danger that people, including teenagers, will use energy and sports drinks full of unhealthy sugars and caffeine, along with taurine. The researchers found between 750 and 1,000 milligrams per serving of taurine in energy and sports drinks – the regular diet it usually contains 40 to 400 milligrams a day.
High levels of taurine, especially in combination with caffeine in energy and sports drinks, can be toxic to the developing adolescent brain and body, according to a 2017 review.
“Cardiac effects are exacerbated when taurine and caffeine are taken together, which may be a concern since caffeine alone can increase blood pressure and heart rate,” the review noted.
“While the aging or diseased brain may benefit from taurine or caffeine supplementation, it appears that adolescents are unlikely to benefit from supplementation and may, in fact, suffer ill effects from chronic high-dose ingestion.”
multiple solution
The anti-aging field is full of new things, and taurine is just one of many potential pathways to the holy grail of longer life. Clinical trials are underway to see whether the diabetes drug metformin can reverse aging “because people who use metformin appear to have a lower risk of other diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative diseases,” Lithgow said.
In the end, science will need “a hundred different types of taurine”. “Aging is highly complex, with many biochemical processes and tissues interacting with each other. There won’t be a one-size-fits-all solution to slow aging,” continued Lithgow.
“It’s likely that we’ll need a combination of things we already have in our bodies, along with some drug development and well-known solutions like exercise and nutrition.”
CNN
Taurine – an amino acid often used by bodybuilders and added to energy or sports drinks, could be an “elixir of life”, according to the author of a new study. But for now, only when it comes to worms, mice and monkeys.
Would it be useful or potentially harmful to humans? As there are still not enough studies to prove the effectiveness of the compound, the best thing is to save money, experts say.
A study published on Thursday (8) in the journal “Science” points out that middle-aged female mice fed high levels of taurine lived 12% longer, on average, than mice that did not receive the substance.
Male mice lived about 10% longer, said lead study author Vijay Yadav, assistant professor of genetics and development at Columbia University in New York.
“The study suggests that taurine may be an elixir of life within us,” Yadav said in a statement about the study.
read more:
Ready for the headlines?
Considered a non-essential amino acid, taurine exists in the brain, retina, and almost every muscle tissue and organ in the body. Studies have found that it can have anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects in older brains, but is potentially harmful to the developing brain of teenagers. Taurine deficiencies are linked to heart, kidney and retinal damage.
Absorbed from foods like shellfish and meat and distributed through the liver, taurine levels decline with age, “but if you go back to younger levels, there’s this effect among mice that live healthier longer,” said co-author Henning Wackerhage, professor of exercise biology at the Technical University of Munich, Germany.
Tests on monkeys found that those who took taurine supplements were leaner, had better blood sugar levels, less liver damage, increased bone density, younger immune systems and gained less weight, according to the study.
“Studies across species show that taurine abundance declines with age, and reversing this decline leads to animals living longer, healthier lives,” Yadav said. “In conclusion, the findings should be relevant to humans.”
But worms, rats and monkeys are not people, and science is years away from proving taurine’s anti-aging value in humans – if it exists, experts warn.
“It doesn’t seem like something ready to hit the headlines, and it could be harmful if people start eating more animal foods to increase their taurine intake,” said nutrition researcher Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was not part of the study.
“In our cohorts of more than 130,000 men and women followed for up to 30 years (with more than 30,000 deaths), higher animal protein intake was linked to higher overall mortality and mortality from most major diseases,” said Willett. “Some additional human studies using taurine supplements would be interesting, but we are far from suggesting its use.”
The only human trial in the study found that exercise — which is often called the key to longevity — improved taurine levels in people. However, it may not be a direct relationship, as exercise also lowers cholesterol; improves blood flow; lowers blood pressure; strengthens muscles, including the heart; increases energy; improves sleep and fights chronic diseases.
“I don’t like claims of extreme longevity in humans because we just don’t know it,” said Gordon Lithgow, professor and vice president of academic affairs at the Buck Institute in Novato, Calif., an independent biomedical research institute focused solely on aging. .
“I’m not saying it’s not possible, but we need to have proper double-blind clinical trials in people to see what happens,” continued Lithgow, whose lab did the worm research included in the new study.
Unfortunately, many drugs, supplements, herbs and vitamins that appear to be beneficial may fail spectacularly once the science ends all research.
“Take the case of vitamin E. People took vitamin E for decades and then we found out that it certainly does no good and can even be harmful”, exemplified Lithgow. “We have to wait for clinical trial data, which is the only real measure in biomedicine.”
Despite these caveats, “it’s hard not to get excited about this study,” he said. “We have something like 400 million years of separation between worms and people, and yet we find beneficial effects with the same restoration of this natural metabolite (taurine) in worms and primates.”
an extensive investigation
The research took ten years and involved more than 50 scientists in laboratories around the world who investigated the impacts of taurine on various species: yeast, worms, mice and monkeys.
Worms fed taurine lived longer and looked healthier, but taurine “had no effect on yeast,” Yadav said.
Taurine-supplemented mice, however, “were leaner, had increased energy expenditure, increased bone density, improved muscle strength, reduced depressive and anxious behaviors, improved memory, reduced insulin resistance, and a stronger immune system. younger”.
How does taurine do this? The answer is still unclear, according to German researcher Wackerhage, “but it is my subjective opinion that taurine somehow seems to hit the engine room of aging.”
For Yadav, on a metabolic level, taurine appears to improve the health of mitochondria, the cellular powerhouse in the body that creates “90% of the energy needed to sustain life and support organ function,” according to the United Mitocondrial Disease Foundation.
Tissue analysis in mice supplemented with taurine also showed that the amino acid suppresses so-called “zombie” or senescent cells – older, damaged cells that refuse to die and begin to excrete inflammatory factors that trigger diseases like Alzheimer’s and hasten aging.
Taurine also increased stem cells present in some tissues, reduced DNA damage and improved a cell’s ability to detect nutrients, the study found.
“Taurus steps on the aging brake. It doesn’t put the vehicle in reverse”, compared Yadav. “It slows down the aging process [desses animais]which is why they are living longer and healthier lives’.
wait for the evidence
Early results on other potential anti-aging compounds – such as the diabetes drug metformin; the antifungal antibiotic rapamycin; resveratrol, an antioxidant found in grapes; and NAD precursors, which help with healthy aging – have been sold in large numbers to a young audience despite a lack of scientific evidence.
“We don’t recommend buying without medical advice,” advised Yadav. “Our view is that people need to wait for human clinical trials to be completed. Benefits as opposed to risk factors will depend on the age of the study population.”
Additionally, Yadav added, users need to be sure that any taurine supplement purchased over the counter is “non-adulterated.”
This is an important issue because supplements are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said Dr. Pieter Cohen, an associate professor of medicine who administers the Supplementary Research Center da Cambridge Health Alliance em Somerville, Massachusetts.
Many supplements contain less or more than is listed on the label, while some may have unknown additives. A recent study from Doctor Cohen on melatonin gummies, for example, found that one brand contained 347% of the amount of melatonin listed on the label, while another contained only cannabidiol, or CBD, which is not mentioned on the label.
“Getting excited about a drug is good because it must go through a rigorous FDA approval process before you can access it,” Cohen said. “But supplements are not regulated, which ends up misleading consumers. They read about the study and can go online and buy taurine and be taking it in a few days.”
Then there is the danger that people, including teenagers, will use energy and sports drinks full of unhealthy sugars and caffeine, along with taurine. The researchers found between 750 and 1,000 milligrams per serving of taurine in energy and sports drinks – the regular diet it usually contains 40 to 400 milligrams a day.
High levels of taurine, especially in combination with caffeine in energy and sports drinks, can be toxic to the developing adolescent brain and body, according to a 2017 review.
“Cardiac effects are exacerbated when taurine and caffeine are taken together, which may be a concern since caffeine alone can increase blood pressure and heart rate,” the review noted.
“While the aging or diseased brain may benefit from taurine or caffeine supplementation, it appears that adolescents are unlikely to benefit from supplementation and may, in fact, suffer ill effects from chronic high-dose ingestion.”
multiple solution
The anti-aging field is full of new things, and taurine is just one of many potential pathways to the holy grail of longer life. Clinical trials are underway to see whether the diabetes drug metformin can reverse aging “because people who use metformin appear to have a lower risk of other diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative diseases,” Lithgow said.
In the end, science will need “a hundred different types of taurine”. “Aging is highly complex, with many biochemical processes and tissues interacting with each other. There won’t be a one-size-fits-all solution to slow aging,” continued Lithgow.
“It’s likely that we’ll need a combination of things we already have in our bodies, along with some drug development and well-known solutions like exercise and nutrition.”
CNN
