Taurine in energy drinks may be an ‘elixir of life’: Columbia University
The fountain of youth might be in your refrigerator right now.
A study from Columbia University has revealed that taurine — a nutrient found in meat, fish, dairy and some energy drinks like Celsius, Red Bull, Monster and Rockstar — seems to slow the aging process and extend healthy lifespans.
“This study suggests that taurine could be an elixir of life within us that helps us live longer and healthier lives,” Vijay Yadav, Ph.D., assistant professor of genetics and development at Columbia University, said in a news release.
Yadav and a team of researchers conducted experiments with animals and people to determine what role taurine — which is also produced in the body — plays in health and longevity.
The researchers found that taurine levels in 60-year-old people were about one-third of those found in 5-year-olds.
The study was published in the journal Science.
Studies of mice and monkeys confirmed that taurine levels dropped significantly over time in animals, too. “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 said.
They discovered that a diet with taurine supplements increased the average lifespan by 12% in female mice and 10% in males — roughly equal to about seven or eight human years.
Additional experiments revealed that taurine “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.”
“Not only did we find that the animals lived longer, we also found that they’re living healthier lives,” Yadav said.
And when middle-aged rhesus monkeys were given daily taurine supplements for six months, the monkeys avoided weight gain, reduced their fasting blood glucose, increased bone density and improved the health of their immune systems.
But Yadav and other experts caution that it’s too soon to load up on taurine supplements in the expectation that you’ll live to be 150.
“This doesn’t seem like a story ready for prime time, and it could be harmful if people started consuming more animal-sourced foods to increase taurine intake,” Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told CNN.
“Some additional studies in humans using taurine supplements would be interesting, but we are long way from suggesting their use,” Willett, who was not involved in the study, added.
Yadav agrees: “Only a randomized clinical trial in people will determine if taurine truly has health benefits.”
Nonetheless, taurine has some advantages over other compounds that are being studied for their potential longevity benefits.
“Taurine is naturally produced in our bodies, it can be obtained naturally in the diet, it has no known toxic effects (although it’s rarely used in concentrations used in this study), and it can be boosted by exercise,” Yadav noted.
“Taurine abundance goes down with age, so restoring taurine to a youthful level in old age may be a promising anti-aging strategy.”
