Taurine: A Common Ingredient In Energy Drinks Makes Animals Live Longer

Key Points:

• The blood concentration of taurine declines with age in mice, monkeys, and humans.
• The median life span of taurine-treated mice increased by 10 to 12%, and life expectancy at 28 months increased by about 18 to 25%.
• Taurine-fed middle-aged mice and monkeys had improved bone, muscle, pancreas, brain, fat, gut, and immune system health.

A new study that was recently published in the journal Science reveals that taurine, a semi-essential micronutrient that can frequently be discovered in energy drinks, may be an interesting target for healthy aging and the promotion of longevity. Taurine levels tend to drop with age in mice, monkeys, and people, according to the findings of researchers from the National Institute of Immunology in India and several other institutions. This decline could be halted by providing taurine to the mice and monkeys, which increased their healthspan, or the amount of time they lived during which they were in good health. Also, mice, worms, and yeast fed taurine lived longer lives. According to these findings, taurine supplements may have significant effects on aging and may also help people live longer.

Taurine Deficiency As A Cause Of Aging

Previous research has demonstrated that the level of taurine in the blood has a correlation with a person’s state of health; however, it is not known whether or not blood taurine concentrations affect the aging process. To fill in this knowledge gap, co-lead authors Parminder Singh and Kishore Gollapalli led a team of researchers in an investigation into the connection between measuring the blood concentration of taurine during aging and investigating the effect of taurine supplementation on health and lifespan in several different species.

According to the findings of this study, the amount of taurine found in the blood of older mice, monkeys, and people decreases. In monkeys that were 15 years old, the concentrations of taurine in their serum were 85% lower than in monkeys that were only 5 years old. Similarly, the amount of taurine that was found in the serum of older people was approximately 20% lower than what it was found in the serum of younger people.

In light of the correlation between taurine and aging, the research team decided to investigate the effects of taurine supplementation on a number of different animals. In one experiment, they gave middle-aged male and female mice either taurine or a saline solution by mouth once a day until they died. Taurine supplementation extended the lifespan of both male and female mice in comparison to mice that did not receive taurine supplementation. The administration of taurine increased the average life span of mice by 10–12%, and it increased their life expectancy at 28 months by 18–25%.  

In order to determine whether the effects of taurine supplementation on lifespan seen in mice were unique to that species, Singh and colleagues investigated whether or not taurine supplementation increased lifespan in worms and yeast. Taurine was found to increase the lifespan of multicellular worms but had no effect on the replicative lifespan of unicellular yeast.

Because a significant anti-aging treatment should not only increase life span but also health span, the researchers reasoned that they also needed to investigate the health of taurine-fed mice that were in the middle of their lifespans. They discovered that supplementation with taurine improved the functioning of the bone, muscle, pancreas, brain, fat, and gut systems, which indicated an overall increase in health span. In terms of brain aging, the increased levels of taurine were linked to reduced anxiety and improved memory in mice.

The researchers did not conduct an experiment in which the effects of taurine supplementation were tested in human subjects, but they did investigate the relationship between taurine levels and markers of healthy aging and age-related diseases. In humans, decreased taurine levels during the aging process were linked to multiple indicators of poor health, including obesity, liver disease, and hypertension. They also found that taurine levels went up after intense endurance exercise.

Although these findings are encouraging, in order to determine whether or not taurine deficiency is also a driver of aging in humans, long-term, well-controlled taurine supplementation trials with health span and life span as outcomes are required.

How Might Taurine Increase Health and Longevity?

Any intervention that has the goal of increasing people’s lifespan must first answer the question of how the intervention actually accomplishes this goal. In many cases, it has been demonstrated that interventions of this kind are responsible for causing calorie restriction as well as other metabolic changes.

Along these same lines, Singh and Gollapalli discovered that providing mice with additional taurine did not affect the total amount of food that the mice consumed; however, it did result in a slight decrease in body weight, which indicates that the mice consumed fewer calories. When taurine was administered to mice, they expended more energy and digested their food more quickly; however, it is not known whether or not this had an effect on how well they absorbed nutrients. The change in how the intestines work is interesting because taurine binds to bile acids to make bile salts, which help the body absorb fats from food. It will be essential for future research to investigate the ways in which taurine alters the structure of the body as well as the manner in which it absorbs nutrients.

Taurine also may have a relationship to antioxidants, which have also been shown to have some anti-aging potential. Even though there is not a clear link between antioxidants and the length of a mammal’s life, these compounds do play a role in a lot of diseases that come with getting older. Singh and Gollapalli found that mice given taurine had less oxidative damage to their DNA and were more resistant to oxidative stress. This shows that taurine has a net antioxidant effect, which is consistent with what has been shown about taurine supplementation in other studies.

Is There Any Danger to Taking Taurine Supplements?

Even though taurine is added to a lot of baby formula and energy drinks, the effect of this semi-essential amino acid on human health has not garnered a lot of attention in biomedical research.

Taurine is already present in the human body, so it is highly likely that taking a taurine supplement will not pose a significant health risk. There have not been any large-scale, long-term safety tests on humans, and the equivalent doses that were used in the Singh and Gollapalli study would be very high in humans. Despite this, it is important to consider the possibility of risks because there have not been any such tests.

There’s some indication that not everything may be positive about taurine supplementation. Singh and Gollapalli were able to demonstrate that taurine improves bone health; however, when mice were given taurine supplements, the bone microstructure of those mice was altered in an unfavorable way. Taurine is a good source of energy for the microbes that live in the gut, and it has the potential to alter or change the microbiota’s composition. However, you should not solely concentrate on increasing the amount of taurine in your diet because doing so might cause you to make unhealthier decisions regarding the foods you eat.

Therefore, taking taurine supplements to make people healthier and make them live longer should be done with caution, just like any other intervention would be. To determine whether or not a taurine deficiency is also a cause of aging in humans, it will be necessary to conduct taurine supplementation studies that are long-term, well-controlled, and measure healthspan and lifespan as outcomes.