“These are associations, which do not establish causation,” Yadav says, “but the results are consistent with the possibility that taurine deficiency contributes to human aging.” Overall, people with higher taurine levels were healthier, with fewer cases of type 2 diabetes, lower obesity levels, reduced hypertension, and lower levels of inflammation. In the first, Yadav and his team looked at the relationship between taurine levels and approximately 50 health parameters in 12,000 European adults aged 60 and over. The researchers do not know yet if taurine supplements will improve health or increase longevity in humans, but two experiments they conducted suggest taurine has potential. Taurine prevented weight gain, reduced fasting blood glucose and markers of liver damage, increased bone density in the spine and legs, and improved the health of their immune systems.
Similar health effects of taurine supplements were seen in middle-aged rhesus monkeys, which were given daily taurine supplements for six months.
“Not only did we find that the animals lived longer, we also found that they’re living healthier lives,” Yadav says.Īt a cellular level, taurine improved many functions that usually decline with age: The supplement decreased the number of “zombie cells” (old cells that should die but instead linger and release harmful substances), increased survival after telomerase deficiency, increased the number of stem cells present in some tissues (which can help tissues heal after injury), improved the performance of mitochondria, reduced DNA damage, and improved the cells‘ ability to sense nutrients. The researchers found that taurine suppressed age-associated weight gain in female mice (even in “menopausal” mice), increased energy expenditure, increased bone mass, improved muscle endurance and strength, reduced depression-like and anxious behaviors, reduced insulin resistance, and promoted a younger-looking immune system, among other benefits. These experts measured various health parameters in mice and found that at age 2 (60 in human years), animals supplemented with taurine for one year were healthier in almost every way than their untreated counterparts. To learn how taurine impacted health, Yadav brought in other aging researchers who investigated the effect of taurine supplementation on the health and lifespan in several species. Taurine supplements in middle age improve health in old age For the mice, that meant three to four extra months, equivalent to about seven or eight human years. At the end of the experiment, Yadav and his team found that taurine increased average lifespan by 12% in female mice and 10% in males. Every day, the researcher fed half of them a bolus of taurine or a control solution. The researchers started with close to 250 14-month-old female and male mice (about 45 years old in people terms).
#Too much taurine side effects driver#
“That’s when we started to ask if taurine deficiency is a driver of the aging process, and we set up a large experiment with mice,” Yadav says. In people, taurine levels in 60-year-old individuals were only about one-third of those found in 5-year-olds. Taurine declines with age, supplementation increases lifespan in miceįirst, Yadav’s team looked at levels of taurine in the bloodstream of mice, monkeys, and people and found that the taurine abundance decreases substantially with age. “We realized that if taurine is regulating all these processes that decline with age, maybe taurine levels in the bloodstream affect overall health and lifespan,” Yadav says. Around the same time, other researchers were finding that taurine levels correlated with immune function, obesity, and nervous system functions. Taurine first came into Yadav’s view during his previous research into osteoporosis that uncovered taurine’s role in building bone. If a molecule is a driver of aging, then restoring its youthful levels would delay aging and increase healthspan, the years we spend in good health. Less certain is whether these molecules actively direct the aging process or are just passengers going along for the ride.
Many studies have found that various molecules carried through the bloodstream are associated with aging. Over the past two decades, efforts to identify interventions that improve health in old age have intensified as people are living longer and scientists have learned that the aging process can be manipulated.
“This study suggests that taurine could be an elixir of life within us that helps us live longer and healthier lives.” Anti-aging molecules within us “For the last 25 years, scientists have been trying to find factors that not only let us live longer, but also increase healthspan, the time we remain healthy in our old age,” says the study’s leader, Vijay Yadav, PhD, assistant professor of genetics & development at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
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