Taurine may be a key to longer & healthier life? How about Taurine energy drinks?

If Taurine can make animals live longer and healthier, is it possible to help human beings live longer in the future? A new study led by Science shows that increasing the level of Taurine can prolong the life span of mice and worms, and make monkeys live healthier. The relevant paper was published on June 8th local time.

Taurine: an indispensable amino acid for humans and animals

Taurine is an indispensable physiological active substance in human and animal bodies, which has a variety of physiological functions, including: promoting brain tissue and intellectual development of infants, preventing cardiovascular disease, improving memory function, antioxidant, etc.

Generally, Taurine is widely distributed in human and animal brain, heart, liver, kidney, ovary, uterus, skeletal muscle, blood, saliva and milk in the form of free amino acids, with the highest concentration in Pineal gland, retina, pituitary, adrenal gland and other tissues. In mammalian hearts, free Taurine accounts for as much as 50% of total free amino acids.

Mice that consume taurine live longer and are healthier

In the study, scientists measured the concentration of Taurine in the blood of mice, monkeys and humans at different ages, and found that this concentration would decrease with age. Among them, the concentration of Taurine in the blood of 15 year old monkeys was 85% lower than that of 5 year old monkeys, and the concentration of Taurine in the serum of the elderly was more than 80% lower than that of young people.

In order to study whether the decrease of Taurine concentration really leads to aging, the research team conducted a large-scale experiment on mice. They conducted a Scientific control on 14 month old middle-aged mice. The results showed that the extra Taurine extended the life span of these mice by 3-4 months, equivalent to 7-8 years for humans. Specifically, Taurine extended the average life span of female and male mice by 12% and 10% respectively.

The research team believes that meaningful anti-aging therapy should not only extend lifespan, but also extend the duration of an individual's healthy life. So they also investigated the health of mice fed Taurine during aging, and then found that the functions or conditions of bones, muscles, pancreas, brain, fat and other functions of these mice were improved, such as their muscle endurance, coordination and strength were increased, while the weight gain for aging was reduced. In other words, the healthy life time of mice fed with Taurine has also been prolonged in general. 

Later, the test team conducted further research on these longer lived mice, and found that Taurine may play its role in delaying aging based on potential molecular mechanisms such as reducing Cellular senescence, preventing telomerase deficiency, inhibiting mitochondrial dysfunction, reducing DNA damage, and reducing inflammation, which are also closely related to human aging.

In addition, another research of the team shows that the concentration of Taurine metabolites in their blood will increase significantly after exercise, whether they are athletes such as sprinters, endurance runners and natural bodybuilders or sedentary people, which may be one of the reasons for the anti-aging effect of exercise.

Is the current common Energy drink containing Taurine beneficial to human body?

Sun Liang, a researcher from the School of Public Health of Fudan University of China said: Taurine is a semi Essential amino acid, which can be synthesized by healthy people themselves or taken from daily meals. Taurine Energy drink often contain a variety of ingredients, such as caffeine, Taurine, minerals and vitamins. Some Energy drink also contain a lot of added sugar. Previous studies have found that the lack of Taurine may be related to the decrease of myocardial sensitivity to calcium, and thus to the decrease of positive muscle strength of organs. Short term intake of Taurine contributes to caffeine induced intracellular calcium release, while in the long run, it can protect cells from caffeine induced calcium overload.

However, some studies have shown that a large amount of Energy drink taken in a short time may inhibit the proliferation of immature oligodendrocytes. A review pointed out that although drinking a medium dose of Energy drink can produce some beneficial effects, such as improving the performance of elite athletes in various sports, regular drinking of Energy drink may raise blood pressure, which may lead to hypertension, tachycardia, tension and other problems, and eventually lead to cardiovascular disease.

In Energy drink, the content of Taurine is usually between 3 and 4 g/L. The safety assessment of European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on the intake of Taurine through Energy drink showed that no adverse reactions were observed when the supplementary intake was 3 g/taurine. However, at present, there is no research that clearly indicates that long-term consumption of Energy drink containing Taurine is beneficial to human health, and there is no clear conclusion on the intake and concentration of Taurine to minimize health risks.