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Medscape
6 days ago
- Health
- Medscape
Taurine: From Energy Drink Darling to Cancer Suspect?
Taurine enjoys a strong reputation for boosting both physical and mental performance and has long been a staple ingredient in many energy drinks. A 2023 study in Science even suggested that supplementing this amino sulfonic acid — which the body can produce endogenously — could extend life span, at least in mice and monkeys. That research, led by Parminder Singh, PhD, of the Buck Institute in Novato, California, also observed that taurine levels in human blood appear to decline with age. These findings helped fuel a rise in over-the-counter taurine supplement sales. But new evidence suggests that the antiaging effects may be overstated — and that high intake of taurine could even pose risks, including a possible increase in blood cancer susceptibility for some individuals. Poor Fit as Aging Biomarker A more recent Science study casts further doubt on taurine's longevity promise. Maria Emilia Fernandez, PhD, and colleagues at the National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, found that taurine does not serve as a reliable biomarker of biological aging. Unlike the earlier cross-sectional study, their longitudinal research repeatedly measured taurine levels in participants over time. The results showed no consistent age-related decline. In many cases, taurine concentrations increased with age. The researchers concluded that individual variability far outweighed any patterns linked to aging. No Reliable Reference Ranges 'There are no reliable reference values for taurine that could be applied broadly to the general population,' Kristina Norman, MD, head of the Department of Nutrition and Gerontology at the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam-Rehbrücke, Nuthetal, Germany, told Medscape's German edition . Still, she noted that the study doesn't rule out the possibility that taurine may have beneficial effects in specific contexts — such as for cardiometabolic health. 'That was not the question Fernandez and her colleagues set out to explore,' said Norman, who is also the deputy director of the Research Group in Geriatrics at the Charite Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany. 'There are a number of interventional studies on taurine supplementation,' Norman added, 'but the results have been inconsistent, which makes interpretation difficult.' Currently, the effects of taurine appear highly dependent on individual factors, including a person's age and underlying health status. As such, Norman advised that taurine supplementation should neither be broadly recommended nor discouraged at this stage. Taurine in the Diet — and in the Data According to the European Food Safety Authority, the maximum safe daily intake of taurine is 100 mg/kg of body weight — about 7 g for a 70-kg adult. European regulations limit taurine in energy drinks to no more than 4 g/L. Taurine also occurs naturally as a breakdown product of the amino acids cysteine and methionine, particularly in meat, fish, seafood, and dairy products. Fernandez's study analyzed data from three human cohorts (973 participants in total) as well as blood samples from rhesus monkeys and mice. The researchers found no evidence of age-related declines in circulating taurine levels among healthy individuals — in fact, levels were often stable or increased with age. Diet, rather than age, showed a stronger correlation with taurine concentrations. Moreover, they found no association between taurine levels and physical parameters such as muscle strength or body weight. 'These findings challenge the prevailing hypothesis that taurine declines with age and contributes to aging,' Norman said. Linked With Leukemia Cell Growth A second study, recently published in Nature , has raised new concerns about potential risks associated with high taurine intake. Researchers led by Sonali Sharma, PhD, from the Department of Biomedical Genetics at the Wilmot Cancer Institute, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, found elevated taurine concentrations in the microenvironment of leukemia cells. They also identified taurine transporters on the cell membranes, which facilitated the uptake of taurine into the cells, where it appeared to support glycolysis. According to Sharma's team, taurine may play a role in both the development and progression of leukemia. 'It's still unclear whether this potential risk applies broadly or only to certain individuals — such as those with a personal or family history of blood cancer,' said Norman. She also noted that it remains uncertain whether orally supplemented taurine even reaches the tumor microenvironment. Nevertheless, she added, the findings open up new therapeutic possibilities — namely, targeting taurine transporters in malignant cells as a novel approach to leukemia treatment. Benefit for Longevity or Performance The Nature study also reinforces the need to re-evaluate taurine's use as a dietary supplement. 'Individuals at increased risk of leukemia should probably avoid taurine supplementation,' Norman advised. More broadly, she noted there is currently no strong evidence to support taurine's use for enhancing physical or cognitive performance or slowing the aging process. 'We simply don't have high-quality data confirming whether taurine works — or at what dose,' Norman said. She also cautioned that taurine's side-effect profile remains poorly understood. 'Taurine could potentially offer benefits in some clinical contexts,' she acknowledged. 'But right now, I would discourage people from taking it on their own 'just in case.''
Time of India
07-06-2025
- Health
- Time of India
What is taurine, the anti-aging supplement going viral — and is it worth the hype?
In the ever-growing hunt for the fountain of youth, taurine has suddenly taken center stage. From biohacking forums to longevity labs, this naturally occurring amino acid is being hailed as a potential game-changer in the science of aging. Found in the human body and in certain foods, taurine supplements have shown promising effects in lab animals, slowing signs of aging and even extending lifespan. But does this mean popping taurine pills will keep humans younger for longer? A major new study just published in Science is complicating the picture. Taurine and aging: Hope vs. Hype Taurine levels decline with age—or at least, that's what some earlier studies suggested. These studies sparked excitement about taurine supplements as a possible anti-aging therapy. However, most of this research was cross-sectional, meaning it looked at different age groups at a single point in time. This method often yields conflicting results, with some papers suggesting taurine levels drop with age, while others show stability or even increases. To dig deeper, researchers from the U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA) and other institutions published a new study on June 5, 2025, in Science that combines both cross-sectional and longitudinal data—where the same individuals are followed over time. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Your Finger Shape Says a Lot About Your Personality, Read Now Tips and Tricks Undo The results challenge the foundational assumption: taurine levels don't seem to drop as we age. The big reveal: Taurine doesn't always decline "The main takeaway is that a decline in taurine is not a universal feature of aging," said Dr. Joseph Baur, a professor of physiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study, in a statement to Live Science . The study tracked over 740 participants from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, ranging from 26 to 100 years old. It also included people aged 20 to 85 from the Balearic Islands Study in Spain, 160 people aged 20 to 68 in the Predictive Medicine Research cohort in Atlanta, and even rhesus macaques and lab mice at varying life stages. In most cases, taurine levels either increased or remained steady over time. Maria Emilia Fernandez, a postdoctoral fellow at the NIA and co-author of the study, explained during a June 3 news conference, 'The differences in taurine levels seen between individuals generally is far greater than the degree of change seen across adulthood.' Low taurine, she concluded, is 'unlikely to serve as a good biomarker of aging. ' Only two subgroups in the study showed no increase in taurine levels: male mice in one part of the experiment, and men from the Predictive Medicine Research cohort. Scientists aren't sure why. Researchers also looked for correlations between taurine levels and health markers like muscle strength—commonly associated with aging. But the findings were 'inconsistent within and across cohorts,' said Fernandez, casting doubt on taurine's role in driving age-related decline. What past studies showed In 2023, a study co-authored by Vijay Yadav of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School found that middle-aged mice given taurine showed better sugar metabolism and less DNA damage. The new study didn't replicate or examine those effects, leaving parts of the aging puzzle unresolved. Adding to the complexity, taurine levels vary wildly based on health status. In obese individuals, taurine drops—until it surges again in cases of severe obesity. In cancer patients, taurine increases in leukemia but drops in breast cancer, according to Fernandez. As for what taurine does in a healthy body: it's critical for forming bile salts, aids in fat digestion, supports mitochondrial protein production, and boosts antioxidant supply. No, taurine isn't a miracle biomarker Rafael de Cabo, chief of the NIA's Translational Gerontology Branch and co-author of the study, was clear during the news conference: 'The short answer is no — it's not a reliable biomarker of anything yet. I think that we need to be digging into the basic mechanisms … before it can be used reliably as a marker.' Dr. Luigi Ferrucci, a co-author of the new study and scientific director at the NIA, summed it up best: 'There is a discrepancy between different studies, and this discrepancy needs to be analyzed more in depth. They may reveal some important mechanisms with aging that could be … a target for intervention.' So while taurine remains an intriguing lead in the quest to slow aging, science still has a long road ahead before it becomes a reliable treatment—or a staple in your supplement stack. One step to a healthier you—join Times Health+ Yoga and feel the change
Gizmodo
05-06-2025
- Health
- Gizmodo
Taurine Might Not Be the Anti-Aging Miracle We Hoped For
New research hasn't found any connection between taurine levels in the blood and our age. You might want to hold off on stockpiling taurine supplements as part of your anti-aging cocktail. Research published today failed to find evidence that our levels of taurine shrink as we get older, contrary to some earlier studies. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health led the research, published Thursday in Science. They analyzed long-running data from past human, mice, and monkey studies, finding that taurine levels didn't change much over time and widely varied between individual animals. The results suggest that taurine isn't a good marker for age and throw into doubt the idea that it can prolong healthy aging. 'Circulating taurine doesn't decline with age in healthy individuals of these three mammalian species across the adult lifespan,' said lead study researcher Maria Emilia Fernandez, a postdoctoral fellow in the Translational Gerontology Branch of the NIH's National Institute on Aging, in a press conference Tuesday announcing the findings. Taurine is a semi-essential and important micronutrient. Our bodies naturally produce taurine, though it can also easily be found in animal products, supplements, and energy drinks (people once collected taurine from bulls, but it's now produced synthetically). Taurine plays many roles in the body, such as helping us make bile acid and keeping our blood pressure stable. In recent years, some studies have indicated that taurine—or rather, the loss of taurine—might also be a key driver of our worsening health as we get older. A 2023 study that looked at several different animal models, for instance, found that taurine levels circulating in the blood appeared to decline as the animals aged. When the researchers added taurine supplements to the animals' diets, it appeared to slightly extend the lifespan of mice and worms in addition to improving the health of older monkeys. The study also found an association between lower taurine levels in humans and an increased risk of age-related diseases. Though this wasn't the first research to suggest taurine's anti-aging potential, it certainly sparked people's attention, including the authors behind this latest research. Not every bit of research on the topic has supported this link, however, and many studies have only analyzed taurine in people and animals at a single point in time or for a relatively brief period. The researchers behind the new study wanted to take a closer look at how these levels fluctuated over time across different species and in both males and females. They turned to other existing studies or projects involving people, mice, and rhesus monkeys that had longitudinal data on taurine levels in the blood—meaning they could track these levels across the lifespan. Overall, they found that taurine levels didn't decline in any of the animals or humans they studied; if anything, taurine levels usually increased over time in different groups (the sole exception being male mice). They also found that differences in taurine levels between individuals could sometimes vary significantly, and that these differences were usually larger than the changes seen over an animal's lifetime. In other words, there doesn't appear to be much of a connection at all between taurine and aging, at least in this research. 'On the basis of these findings, we conclude that low circulating taurine concentrations are unlikely to serve as a good biomarker of aging,' the researchers wrote. These are still findings from a single study, so more research will be needed to settle the question. The results also don't mean that taurine isn't important to our health. And it is still possible that low taurine levels can contribute to chronic health problems, including conditions that become more common as we age. Likewise, there may be some older people with low taurine who would benefit from increasing their intake. Vijay Yadav, one of the authors behind the 2023 study, and his colleagues are currently running a randomized clinical trial testing whether taurine supplements can improve the health and fitness of middle-aged adults. He expects the trial to conclude by the end of 2025, with analysis coming soon after. For now, though, Yadav isn't saying that people should be downing taurine like it's candy. 'We cannot really recommend any supplementation. We need to have a better understanding if it does or it does not [improve health]; that can only be addressed by a placebo controlled trial,' said Yadav in the same press conference Tuesday. 'And of course there are a lot more questions that need to be addressed before you can really understand the biology to more depth of a particular molecule.' While there are certainly things people can already do to stay healthier into their golden years, such as exercising regularly, the track record for anti-aging drugs or supplements overall remains spotty for the time being. And it seems that a universal fountain of youth—if we can ever truly find it—probably won't contain any taurine.
