The taurine is an amino acid found naturally in mammals – in fact, its name derives from the Latin tauruswhich means bull–, including humans, and which also contain some foods, such as shellfish and meat and is added to many energetic drinks. This compound performs various functions in the body. For example, it acts as a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system – where it can influence mood regulation and the stress response – and is involved in cardiovascular function and fat digestion.
New research has now found that a taurine deficiency promotes aging in animals, while taurine supplements can slow down the aging process in worms, mice, and monkeys, and can even prolong healthy lifespan of middle-aged mice by up to 12%.
The study was led by researchers from the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (USA) and has had the collaboration of dozens of scientific experts in aging from around the world. His findings have been published in Science. “This study suggests that the taurine could be an elixir of life within us to help us live longer, healthier lives,” he says. Vijay Yadavassistant professor of genetics and development at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and leader of the paper.
Taurine supplements in middle age improve health in old age
In earlier research on osteoporosis, Yadav found that taurine played a role in bone formation, while other researchers found, around the same time, that levels of this nutrient correlated with bone formation. immune function, obesity and nervous system functions. “We realized that if taurine regulates all these processes that decline with age, perhaps taurine levels in the bloodstream affect overall health and lifespan,” says Yadav.
“Taurine abundance declines with age, so restoring taurine to a youthful level in old age may be a promising antiaging strategy.”
The researchers analyzed taurine levels in the bloodstreams of mice, monkeys and people and found that taurine amount of taurine is significantly reduced with age. Specifically, taurine levels at the age of 60 were only about a third of those found in five-year-olds.
They then began an experiment with about 250 14-month-old mice of both sexes (which is equivalent to about 45 years in humans). Each day they fed half of them either a taurine supplement or a control solution, and at the end of the experiment they found that taurine increased average lifespan by 12% in female mice and 10% in males. For the mice, that meant an extra three to four months, equivalent to about seven to eight human years.
To find out how taurine affected health, Yadav asked other scientists to look at the effect of taurine supplementation on health and life expectancy in various species, and they evaluated various health parameters in mice and found that at the age of 2 years (60 in human years), animals supplemented with taurine for one year were healthier in almost every way than their untreated conspecifics. .
Among the main benefits they found that taurine prevented weight gain associated with age in female mice (even in mice menopausal), increased energy expenditure and bone mass, improved endurance and muscle strength, reduced anxious and depression-like behaviors, decreased insulin resistance, and contributed to a younger-looking immune system. “Not only did we find that the animals lived longer, we also found that they live healthier lives,” says Yadav.
In middle-aged rhesus monkeyswho received daily taurine supplements for six months, had similar effects on their health: taurine prevented weight gain, reduced fasting blood glucose levels and markers of liver damage, increased bone density in the spine spine and legs and improved the health of their immune systems.
Taurine Anti-Aging Effects
Whether taurine supplements will increase longevity or improve health in humans is not yet known, but Yadav and his team conducted two experiments that suggest taurine has the potential to do just that. In the first, they observed the relationship between taurine levels and approximately 50 health parameters in 12,000 Europeans over 60 years of age.
In general, people with higher taurine levels were healthier, with fewer cases of type 2 diabetes, lower levels of obesity, hypertension and inflammation. “These are associations that do not establish causality,” Yadav notes, “but the results are consistent with the possibility that taurine deficiency contributes to human aging.”
The aim of the second study was to see if taurine levels would respond to an intervention known to improve health: exercise. The researchers measured taurine levels before and after a group of male athletes and sedentary individuals engaged in strenuous cycling and found a significant increase in taurine among all groups of athletes (sprinters, endurance runners, and natural bodybuilders) and in sedentary individuals. “No matter the individual, all had increased taurine levels after exercise, suggesting that some of the health benefits of exercise may come from increased taurine,” says Yadav.
Other potential anti-aging drugs including metformin, rapamycin and NAD analogues are being considered for clinical trial testing and Yadav is of the opinion that taurine should be included as its advantages include that it occurs naturally in our body and can be obtained through diet, “has no toxic effects and can be enhanced with exercise.” “Taurine abundance declines with age, so restoring taurine to a youthful level in old age may be a promising antiaging strategy,” she concludes.
Nabil Djouder, Head of the Growth Factors, Nutrients and Cancer Group at the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), considers this study very interesting because “it associates a component of the diet with a healthy life span. It is important to note that taurine is an amino acid found naturally in the human body, but its decline during aging could be offset by eating a diet rich in taurine-containing foods. Taurine is found in high concentrations in some foods, such as meat and shellfish, but it is very low or almost non-existent in a completely vegan diet, ”as he explained in statements to SMC Spain.
He adds that research has found that “taurine supplementation increased healthy life expectancy and lifespan in mice, as well as healthy life expectancy in monkeys.” In addition, he continues, “it appears that fasting and physical exercise increase the concentration of taurine in the blood, as has been shown in this study. It is important to highlight that fasting and physical exercise are also related to an increase in healthy living.
And he concludes that “taurine deficiency may be a driver of aging, since its reversal increases healthy life expectancy in worms, rodents and primates, as well as life expectancy in worms and rodents”, although he indicates that “for to test whether taurine deficiency is also a driver of aging in humans, are required Long-term, well-controlled trials of taurine supplementation that measure healthy life expectancy and life expectancy as outcomes.”
Source: www.webconsultas.com
