Taurine benefits and function

[Shared Joy]

Hi,
even if taurine had been mentioned quite a few time, I found this article to be worth sharing:

http://www.lef.org/magazine/2013/6/The-Forgotten-Longevity-Benefits-of-Taurine/Page-01

here are listed several benefits, and since there were some post with ocular health and tinnitus, where taurine might be of help, so, here you are a short summary:

- prevention of obesity
- glucose control in diabetes
-prevention and/or treatment of cardiovascular diseases-regulates heart rhythm, cardiac contraction, blood pressure, and platelet aggregation
- ameliorate diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration
- tinnitus-taurine helps restore and control normal calcium ion flow in auditory cells
- prevents seizures induced by a number of drugs and chemical toxins
- defends liver cells against free radicals and toxins, reduce the severity of oxidative stress-induced liver injury ( alcoholic and non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases)

Hope this will help somebody
Joy

 

[lilyalic]

Thank you Shared Joy!

I'm currently trying to detox my liver, and this seems as it will help a lot!

Taurine: Bountiful Benefits
Taurine is the most abundant amino acid you’ve never heard of; it is found throughout the body, but especially in tissues containing excitable cells, like nerves and heart muscle.
Strong epidemiological evidence suggests that certain groups with the longest life spans consume higher amounts of taurine than those of us in the rest of the world.
Taurine supplementation can prevent diabetes and obesity in animal models, and can mitigate the effects of both conditions in humans.
Taurine supplementation strengthens heart muscle cells, extends their life spans, and protects them from damage, while reducing many of the factors that produce atherosclerosis and its deadly consequences.
Taurine protects retinal and inner ear cells from damage, normalizing the flow of calcium ions they require for proper function.
Evidence is growing for taurine’s role in preventing epileptic seizures and liver disease, two conditions that can be attributed to toxic effects on delicate tissue.
If you are interested in a longer, healthier, and more active life, consider supplementing with taurine.

It increases the action of insulin, improving glucose tolerance, and acting as an antioxidant

It is vital for the proper function of the minerals potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sodium

Taurine regulates heart rhythm, cardiac contraction, blood pressure, and platelet aggregation,69,70 and regulates the excitability of neurons

It detoxifies liver cells of various toxins.

It helps form bile acids and maintains cell membrane stability

It reduces the synthesis of lipids and cholesterol that are associated with atherosclerosis

 

[lainey]

Not forgetting it's great for combatting stress and anxiety as mentioned in this article:
http://www.poliquingroup.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/782/Ten_Benefits_of_Taurine.aspx
Great share Shared Joy!

 

[SeekinTruth]

My mother's been taking taurine supplements for about 9 years now - after I had done research - for her atrial fibrillation. Works pretty well. She's also been on ketogenic diet for more than 4 years, but still takes the supplements. But she had been diagnosed around 1997 with meningioma (small, slow growing non-cancerous brain tumor) after an MRI, but had forgotten about it after a couple of years of rescanning to see if it's growing.

So I didn't even know about it. About 6 months ago she had an episode at night that had symptoms of a mild stroke. We called the ambulance and brought her to the hospital. It turned out, after a CT and then MRI, that it was the tumor, that occasionally accumulates fluid and puts pressure on the brain. Most of the years of her heart arrythmias / high heart rate (began around 1999/2000), high/fluctuating blood pressure, etc., turned out to be related to the meningioma. Now, she's been taking boswellia, acetyl-L-carnitine (for anti-oxidant effect to relieve from the tumor), both of which had clinical trials with good results published, and some other supplements (NAC, CoQ10 / ubiquinol, tumeric, selenium, hemp oil, coconut oil, etc.) that have many claims to help shrink the tumor, but I haven't found published, controlled studies on these. Anyway, although she had gotten better with taurine and some other supplements, it wasn't consistent in a long-term basis, occasionally having episodes if irregular heart beat and high blood pressure. So, it turned out that the part of the brain with the pressure from the tumor is mainly responsible for the problems that would improve only to reoccur every couple of months on average. But still taurine showed improvements before, and now she's continuing to take it with MUCH more steady results as far as normal heartbeat and blood pressure (for more than 4 months now).

 

[Uperios]

Higher Taurine Intake Correlates With Some Measures of Strength in Middle Age​

Story at a glance:

• Taurine is an amino acid found in animal foods such as seafood, grass fed red meat, dairy products and pastured eggs
• Taurine is considered a "conditionally essential," or semi-essential, amino acid because, while your body can naturally produce it, supplementation might be necessary under certain conditions
• Research involving Japanese adults suggests higher taurine intake may protect muscle strength in middle age and beyond
• Higher taurine intake was linked to a significant increase in knee extension muscle strength over eight years
• Taurine levels are thought to play a key role in aging and longevity, however levels typically decline with age

 

[Persej]

Some time ago, I stumbled upon a video where the guy claims that he cured his insomnia with energy drinks. His theory was that it was because of B vitamins. But there is not much B vitamins in energy drinks. My theory is that he possibly cured his insomnia because of taurine. Yesterday and the day before, I took a 250 ml of energy drink and I had a very deep dreams last two nights that I rarely have. I was wondering what I did differently and one of the things was drinking the energy drink. Today I found this study:

Taurine occurs in the pineal gland at concentrations of 20-60 mM, higher than in any other mammalian tissue except the neurohypophysis. In view of this it is surprising that nothing is known about the functional role of taurine in the pineal gland. Elsewhere in the brain there is evidence that taurine may act as a neurotransmitter. To investigate the role of taurine in the pineal gland we examined its effects on indoleamine metabolism in cultured pineal glands. High concentrations of taurine were found to stimulate melatonin production and cause an increase in the activity of N-acetyltransferase, probably by acting directly on beta-adrenergic receptors.

(...)

The low potency of taurine as an agonist would argue against a key regulatory role of this compound in the control of melatonin production. However, the unusually high concentration of pineal taurine forces one to consider the possibility that it could play a modulating role if it were released into pineal extracellular space.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0006899379906504

Taurine release from the pineal-gland is stimulated via a beta-adrenergic mechanism - PubMed

Pineal glands were prelabeled in organ culture with [14C]taurine, and then treated with biogenic amines. The rate of release of [14C]taurine was rapidly elevated by low concentrations of norepinephrine, apparently acting through a beta-adrenergic mechanism. The release was probably not due to a...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

I was not feeling sleepy at all after energy drink, but it is only in the morning that I had very nice, vivid and deep dreams. So it seems that taurine, or something else in the energy drink, doesn't force the production of melatonin, but it simply allows the more of it to be produced during the sleep.