Health Benefits of Taurine
Taurine is a type of amino acid found in the body. It is mostly concentrated in the brain, eyes, heart and muscles. Compared to other amino acids, it is not used to build proteins in the body. It is known as a "conditionally essential" amino acid. Your body can produce some amount of taurine, and it can be found in some foods. However, many people may benefit from taking this supplement. Those with specific illnesses or diseases, such as heart issues or diabetes, may also benefit from additional taurine doses. This amino acid is not extracted from bull urine or bull semen as many wrongly believe. The name is derived from the Latin word taurus, which means bull, so that may be the source of the confusion. It has many benefits and here are some of them.
1. Weight loss and obesity
Obesity impacts almost every area of our bodies. Our abdominal fat stores are known to cause inflammation, which can lead to cardiovascular concerns. Taurine has the ability to help lower lipid levels within the bloodstream and improves the body’s ability to deal with excess glucose in the bloodstream. Lipid lowering may help to protect against cardiovascular concerns whilst glucose tolerance is significant because many obese people go on to develop diabetes.
2. Taurine May Improve Heart Health
Taurine may help reduce the risk of heart disease. There is a link between higher taurine levels and significantly lower rates of death from heart disease, as well as reduced cholesterol and blood pressure. Taurine may help reduce high blood pressure by decreasing the resistance to blood flow in the blood vessel walls. Also, it may minimize nerve impulses in the brain that cause blood pressure to increase.
3. Taurine May Reduce Inflammation
The antioxidant action of taurine produces taurine chloramine (TauCl) and bromamine (TauBr), which have anti-inflammatory properties, too. Taurine intake enhances the formation of TauCl and TauBr in the body and may be effective in treating inflammatory conditions. Taurine is very effective at treating acute inflammation. However, its role in the progression of inflammatory diseases is not clear.
4. Eye Protection
Taurine is the most abundant amino acid in the retina and protects the eye from various toxins. Naturally, its levels decline with age. Age-related vision loss has many different causes, but high on the list of causal factors is oxidative stress on the light sensory cells in the retina. Taurine’s ability to remove damaging molecules in the eye may implicate its ability to protect the retina.
5. Taurine Helps Protect the Liver
Dietary taurine supplementation with doses greater than 500 mg daily for 3 months reduced liver injury in 24 patients. In rats, dietary taurine protected their livers from heavy metal and oxidized fat related damage. The availability of taurine in the body is low in various forms of liver cirrhosis. In 35 liver cirrhosis patients, daily taurine supplementation increased taurine levels and also reduced painful muscle cramps that are associated with cirrhosis.
6. Cholesterol reduction
Elevated cholesterol is a common feature of cardiovascular disease. Taurine is required for the production of a compound that causes more cholesterol to be excreted in bile. Taurine has also been shown to improve the ability to reduce low density lipoproteins which are often referred to as ‘bad cholesterol’. This way, taurine may protect the body against the hardening of the arteries and cardiovascular disease.
Taurine is the most abundant amino acid you’ve probably never heard of. Strong evidence suggests that people with the longest life spans consume higher amounts of taurine than those in the rest of the world. High intakes of taurine could be the underlying factor in the world’s longest-living populations—and for a great reason.
