Taurine: Effect and Application

Taurine is part of the formula of many energy drinks, but is also taken to improve athletic performance. Since taurine also strengthens the heart, it is considered a natural remedy for heart failure. We present the properties and effects of taurine and how the amino acid is best dosed and taken. It will also be about whether vegans are threatened by a taurine deficiency.

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Taurine: This is how the amino acid works

Taurine is a non-essential amino acid, which means that it does not necessarily have to be taken with food, but can be produced by the human organism itself in the liver, pancreas and brain (under certain conditions – see below under “So Taurine is made in the body”).

The human body is made up of about 0.1 percent taurine, which means that a 60-kilogram person contains 60 g of taurine — specifically in the brain, heart, muscles, liver, and retina of the eye .

Taurine is used for very different purposes: Taurine is mixed with caffeine and a lot of sugar, flavorings and colorings in expensive energy drinks. But it is also used therapeutically for heart failure and to protect the eyes – and many athletes swear by taurine to increase their energy levels.

Note: This article is not an advertisement for energy drinks! On the contrary! We generally advise against energy drinks! However, taurine can have beneficial effects. Therefore, if you think you need taurine in addition to the body’s own taurine production, we recommend taking taurine in supplement form.

Strong as a bull with taurine?

The term taurine comes from the Latin “taurus” for bull. You could quickly think that you would become as strong as a bull if you only consumed enough taurine. Some even believe that taurine is extracted from bull testicles. Neither the one nor the other is the case. Taurine is only called taurine because it was first isolated from the bile of an ox (castrated bull) in 1827.

But don’t worry: If you buy a dietary supplement or an energy drink with taurine today, the taurine in it no longer comes from ox bile, but is completely synthetically obtained in the laboratory. The process is complicated (so we won’t go into detail) and is commonly referred to as the “addition of sodium sulfite to aziridine”.

Why taurine is not a “normal” amino acid

If you read up on taurine on the web, you’ll notice that it’s sometimes said that taurine isn’t actually an amino acid at all.

Taurine is actually not one of the classic amino acids. The latter are also called aminocarboxylic acids. They are characterized by an amino group (NH ₂ group) and a carboxy group (COOH group). Although taurine has an amino group, it has a sulfonic acid group (SO ₂ OH) instead of the carboxy group. Taurine is therefore not an amino carboxylic acid, but an amino sulfonic acid. (Taurine is also called 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid).

“Normal” amino acids (i.e. amino carboxylic acids) can link together via so-called peptide bonds and in this way form long chains of amino acids, which are referred to as peptides (less than 100 amino acids) or as proteins (more than 100 amino acids).

A peptide bond is formed when the amino group of one amino acid joins the carboxy group of the other amino acid. However, since taurine does not have a carboxy group (but a sulfonic acid group), it is not able to form proteins. However, taurine has many other tasks in the organism.

Taurine: Tasks in the body

In the body, taurine has the following tasks in particular:

Taurine strengthens the heart, reduces the risk of arteriosclerosis and can be included in the therapy of heart failure.
Taurine is responsible for a smooth energy metabolism.
Taurine therefore increases endurance in sport, protects the muscles, shortens recovery time and improves sport-related inflammation values.
Taurine protects the brain by strengthening the blood-brain barrier, among other things. Cognitive complaints improve when taking taurine.
Taurine can protect the retina in the eye and can be taken to prevent some degenerative retinal diseases.
Taurine has antioxidant properties and is therefore also active in cell protection.
Taurine is a component of bile acids and is said to be able to protect against gallstones.
Taurine can be used to repair damaged tissues. Because if damaged tissue is well supplied with taurine, the metabolism is boosted there, which accelerates healing processes.

The need for taurine

Since taurine is normally produced by the body itself as needed, it is difficult to give a specific value here. In a 2008 article published in the journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology , the authors put the taurine requirement at 3000 mg per day.

Dosage and overdose of taurine

Now, if you want to take a taurine supplement, the usual dosage is between 500 and 2000 mg per day. Daily doses of up to 3000 mg, which you can take for a lifetime without having to worry about side effects, are considered completely safe.

However, you should still be able to take much higher amounts (up to 1 g per kg body weight per day), which makes no sense, just shows that it is difficult to overdose on taurine (20).

Also note that taurine in such high doses can also have a calming effect!

Taurine works that fast

In one study, when 1.66 g of taurine was taken orally, the taurine level in the blood increased 15-fold within 2 hours. Even 4 hours later, the concentration in the blood is still 7 times higher than before ingestion.

So if you take taurine, you can expect an effect after 2 hours at most, which is particularly interesting to know if you want to take taurine to improve athletic performance.

Taurine may be helpful in heart failure

A 2017 placebo-controlled clinical study (published in the journal Therapeutic Advances in Cardiovascular Disease ) showed that taurine supplementation may be helpful in heart failure. Taurine had an anti-inflammatory effect and even counteracted arteriosclerosis (anti-atherogenic).

Heart failure patients were divided into two groups. One group received taurine (500 mg three times a day for two weeks), the other group received a placebo. Before and after the two-week intake, the subjects completed training on the treadmill with increasing difficulty.

In the taurine group, the inflammation values decreased (CRP value), in the placebo group these values increased. Values that indicated the development of arteriosclerosis also decreased in the taurine group. Nothing changed in the placebo group. The risk of arteriosclerosis remained unchanged here.

In other places, too, one reads that taurine could be used to protect against cardiovascular diseases (combined of course with other vital substances, e.g. vitamin C, vitamin D, etc.) – in doses of 1.5 to 6g daily.

As early as 2004, the journal Medical Hypotheses reported that taurine could protect against acute cardiac events by preventing blood clots and lowering high blood pressure. The ideal combination for this purpose is a low-fat vegan diet with taurine supplementation. Taurine is also said to be inexpensive, low-risk, highly soluble, and tasteless, making it easy to take.

Taurine improves cognitive functions

Taurine also plays an important role in the nervous system and fulfills numerous tasks there. If there are bottlenecks in the supply of taurine, this could also lead to cognitive disorders, especially since it is known that the taurine content in the brain decreases with age.

In one study, it was discovered that the saliva of older people who were beginning to have cognitive problems contained less taurine than the saliva of their healthy peers. Another study with 40 older people showed that taking taurine had a positive effect on some cognitive functions, such as abstract thinking or the ability to judge things or situations.

A clinical study of 48 elderly women found that taking 1.5g of taurine – once a day for 14 days – led to a marked reduction in inflammation levels and also strengthened the blood-brain barrier.

It is important that sport in old age (as much as possible) increases the effect of taurine, so that with this combination there is a more significant improvement in mental status. In any case, the important thing is that you should take taurine long-term in order to achieve an effect.

Taurine for the eyes

Since a taurine deficiency can lead to retinal degeneration, which in turn can lead to dangerous retinal detachment, it makes sense to take taurine preventively, i.e. to protect the eyes. A first study on this topic (2018) focused on retinitis pigmentosa. A mostly hereditary retinal degeneration for which there is no therapy.

With the help of mice, they now wanted to see whether taurine could protect the eyes accordingly. The diseased eyes showed a clear lack of taurine. If taurine was administered intravenously, the visual problems improved, while a clear protective effect could be seen in relation to the affected cells of the retina, so that the researchers advise considering taurine as a possible therapy for retinal diseases.

Taurine in sport: improving endurance

Taurine is a popular nutritional supplement for athletes who want to use it to improve their performance, but also reduce the time it takes them to recover and also reduce muscle soreness.

A review on this topic from 2017 showed that taking 1 to 6 g of taurine per day

improves endurance
reduced markers of inflammation,
shortened recovery time
decreases creatine kinase (increases with overtraining or injury) and
reduces the lactate value (lactate leads to muscle fatigue).

These positive results were already evident after a single intake, e.g. 2 hours before physical activity, but also with long-term use over several weeks. Whether it was taken at 1 or 6 g per day made less of a difference. Taking 1 to 3 g of taurine 1 to 3 hours before training was ideal.

Taurine deficiency: symptoms

Taurine is involved in numerous metabolic processes, so a taurine deficiency can have adverse effects and lead to the following symptoms:

Retinal degeneration (the retina lines the inside of the eyeball; its cells absorb the light and transmit it to the brain via the optic nerve. If the retina becomes thinner in certain areas, this is called retinal degeneration. Symptoms are black dots that suddenly appear sees or flashes.)
cardiovascular disorders
heart failure
liver dysfunction
immunodeficiency
Alzheimer
cancer
growth and developmental delays in children.

However, with a good protein supply, there is no taurine deficiency, since the body’s own production usually provides sufficient taurine.

List: taurine in food

Taurine is found almost exclusively in animal foods. Plant-based foods almost never contain taurine. Seaweed seems to be an exception – see below for details. Below you will find the taurine content of a selection of foods in mg/100 g for guidance.

Scallop raw 827 mg
Mussel raw 655 mg, canned 161 mg
Turkey, dark meat raw 306 mg, roasted 299 mg
Lamb raw 310 mg, cooked 171 mg
Chicken, dark meat raw 169 mg, grilled 199 mg (chickens with more movement have darker meat, so mostly organic chickens. There are also such serious differences between light and dark meat in turkey)
Chicken, white meat raw 18 mg, grilled 15 mg
Salmon fillet raw 130 mg
Raw beef 43 mg, grilled 38 mg
Shrimp raw 39 mg, cooked 11 mg
Turkey, white meat raw 30 mg, roasted 11 mg
Turkey, dark meat raw and roasted 300 mg
Cow’s milk (3.5% fat) 2.4 mg
Nori seaweed up to 500 or 1200 mg – depending on source
Eggs 0 mg
Vegetables 0 mg
fruit 0 mg
Energy Drinks max. 400 mg/100 ml.

Taurine in seaweed

Some seaweed contains taurine, but only the red algae, while brown and green algae cannot produce taurine. The dried red alga nori, for example (which is often used in the form of nori leaves for sushi) is said to contain up to 1.2 percent taurine, which sounds little, but would still make up noticeable amounts of taurine even with the normally small portion sizes of the alga at e.g. 5 g of nori would still contain 60 mg of taurine.

However, there are many different nori algae, so that some types can also contain significantly less taurine – between not worth mentioning up to 500 mg per 100 g of dried algae or more. Fukurofunori, Mafunori, Kabanori, and Ogonori contained the most taurine in a 2017 analysis.

Unfortunately, precisely these algae are not used for nori sheets, but for the production of agar agar, among other things, since they gel strongly. In Japan they are also – as the algae shop (manufacturer of high-quality algae products) explained to us – added to salads in the form of crunchy pieces.

That’s how much taurine is lost during cooking and processing

As you can see in the food list above, in some cases taurine losses must be assumed when cooking or heating. In some other cases there is hardly any loss – which depends very much on the type of meat and the heating method in question.

In a study from 2009, there is talk of taurine losses in processed products (especially seafood) of up to 100 percent, for example in the production of pollock fillet for surimi (crab meat imitation).

Shrimp in brine (packaged in plastic buckets) also lost about 90 percent of their taurine during processing, but that doesn’t matter much because they don’t have that much taurine in their fresh form either.

Likewise, when smoked salmon is made, up to 60 percent of the taurine can be lost, leaving only around 50 mg of taurine per 100 g.

Do vegetarians/vegans suffer from taurine deficiency?

Since taurine is only found in animal foods, especially meat and fish, but hardly any in dairy products and not at all in chicken eggs, one might think that vegetarians and vegans often suffer from a taurine deficiency.

But that is not the case. Even if it is said again and again that the self-production of taurine could be borderline and an additional intake through food is important, the fact that vegan or vegetarian people do not have any symptoms of taurine deficiency indicates that the organism obviously has enough taurine itself can form.

Those who do not trust in their own production can eat nori regularly (see above) and/or take taurine as a dietary supplement. Side effects are not to be feared in the usual doses (500 mg per day).

Most normal-eaters also only get around 200 mg of taurine in their diet, on average. In the specialist literature you can even read that the plant-based diet has so many advantages (compared to the omnivorous diet) that you should simply supplement with some taurine, which then gives you both: the advantages of the vegan diet and those of taurine without them having to risk the disadvantages of animal-based foods.

This is how taurine is made in the body

As explained above, taurine can be formed by the human organism itself – provided, of course, it has enough building material and correspondingly active enzymes. The building material includes the amino acids cysteine and methionine (whereby cysteine can be produced from methionine). Certain vital substances are also required for the production of taurine, such as vitamins B6 and B12.

So make sure you have a good supply of cysteine (a table of foods containing cysteine can be found below) and a good supply of the vitamin B complex. You don’t have to worry about a possible taurine deficiency.

The process of taurine formation in the body looks like this:

Methionine can be converted to cysteine (although there is usually enough cysteine available, so it does not have to be made from methionine first).
Cysteine is converted to hypotaurine with the help of the enzyme cysteine sulfinate decarboxylase CSAD.
Hypotaurine is converted to taurine with the help of the enzyme hypotaurine dehydrogenase.

Plant foods with cysteine and methionine

Like most amino acids, cysteine is particularly found in protein-rich foods. Below is a selection of plant-based foods and their cysteine and methionine content. The first value stands for cysteine, the second for methionine:

Oatmeal: 390 mg 240 mg
Lentils dry raw: 250 mg 220 mg
Cooked lentils: 79 mg 70 mg (significantly less than in raw lentils, because lentils absorb a lot of water during cooking and swell)
Germinated lentils: 333 mg 99 mg (the nutrient composition of a seed changes during the germination process, since the new plant is slow to emerge)
Almonds: 380 mg 270 mg
Almond flour: 407 mg 290 mg
Flaxseed: 464 mg 488 mg
Flax flour: 633 mg 665 mg
Sunflower seeds: 427 mg 404 mg
Tofu natural: 126 mg 205 mg
Wholemeal spelled bread: 231 mg 180 mg
Wholemeal rye bread: 114 mg 91 mg

Animal foods with cysteine

For comparison: The cysteine values do not look higher in animal foods. Although meat and fish contain taurine directly, so that conversion from cysteine is not necessary, it has always been believed that animal foods contain much more protein and therefore much more amino acids. Our examples show that this is not necessarily the case:

Ground beef raw: 216 mg 491 mg
Cooked ground beef: 303 mg 690 mg
Canned Tuna Drained in Oil: 266 mg 554 mg
Scrambled eggs: 235 mg 328 mg
Fish fingers: 160 mg 332 mg
Emmental full fat: 144 mg 660 mg
Full fat yogurt: 30 mg 79 mg

Vitamin B12 deficiency inhibits taurine formation

Studies indicate that vitamin B12 deficiency in the liver could inhibit taurine production (at least in mice). So, if some people are deficient in taurine, the cause could be a vitamin B12 deficiency.

It is therefore important to ensure a good supply of vitamin B12. Since vitamin B12 is almost exclusively found in animal foods, we recommend vegan people to always take vitamin B12 in the form of a dietary supplement. Ideally with a supplement containing all B12 forms, e.g. with the vitamin B12 complex from effective nature .

However, many other people are also affected by a vitamin B12 deficiency, for example:

People with stomach problems (vitamin B12 is dependent on a healthy stomach lining),
People who take acid blockers (e.g. omeprazole) or also
People who take metformin (diabetes drug), but also in general
elderly people.

Vitamin B6 promotes taurine formation

Vitamin B6 also seems to be important for taurine formation. When rats received vitamin B6 along with cysteine, urinary taurine excretion (a measure of taurine formation) increased two-fold compared to the combined administration of vitamin B6 and methionine. In the absence of vitamin B6, taurine excretion decreased. Of course, you should always be well supplied with all vital substances (vitamins and minerals), not just vitamins B12 and B6.

Taurine in Energy Drinks

Taurine, along with caffeine, is a key ingredient in many energy drinks for the following reason: Caffeine is known to have a stimulating effect. However, energy drinks may contain a maximum of 320 mg caffeine per liter (0.03%), which the manufacturers also fully exploit. Red Bull® e.g. contains 80 mg of caffeine per 250 ml can, which is as much as a normal cup of coffee.

Taurine increases stimulant effect of caffeine

In order to increase the stimulating effect, taurine is simply added in a very specific ratio. If only taurine were contained, this would have no stimulating effect. On the contrary, depending on the dose, taurine can be calming.

Energy drinks must not contain more than 400 mg taurine per 100 ml (0.4%). This maximum is also reached with 1000 mg of taurine per 250 ml can. The ratio of taurine to caffeine in energy drinks is 13.3:1.

Tests with fruit flies had shown that a taurine:caffeine ratio of 12.5:1 was able to shorten bedtime more than caffeine alone. When the taurine dose was increased and the ratio increased to 50:1, bedtime increased again.

Although taurine may increase the stimulating effects of caffeine, it still appears to be able to mitigate caffeine’s negative effects on the heart, according to a 2014 study.

Taurine-caffeine combination unfavorable for young people’s brains

The often colorful presentation and the sweet taste of energy drinks appeal to children and young people in particular. In this target group in particular, however, there is a risk that too much caffeine can have a toxic effect. It is particularly problematic when energy drinks are drunk together with alcohol.

Because the simultaneous intake of alcohol and energy drinks leads to more alcohol being consumed than would have been the case without energy drinks.

Overall, it appears that the combination of taurine and caffeine can have a positive effect on older or diseased (demented) brains, but rather negatively on a brain that is still developing . Children and young people should therefore not consume energy drinks.

Taurine for dogs and cats

Dogs and cats also need taurine. While cats always have to take in taurine with their food, dogs – like humans – can produce taurine themselves. But there are also situations in dogs in which a dietary supplement with taurine is required.

If you have a dog and a cat, it is sufficient if you have one or the other product in the house. The manufacturer assured us that it is one and the same product (100% taurine).

Conclusion: Taurine as a dietary supplement

Taurine is an important amino acid for the human organism. In order for your body to be able to produce enough taurine, consume enough cysteine-containing proteins and ensure a good supply of vitamin B.

You can also take taurine as a dietary supplement, especially if you have relevant symptoms or are already chronically ill.

Since taurine is difficult to overdose on, you wouldn’t be taking any risks even if you were taking the amino acid, even though you’re well supplied with it. So there would be no side effects if you were to take an additional 500 to 1500 mg of taurine as a dietary supplement to be on the safe side.

However, it is better not to take taurine with energy drinks. Because in addition to taurine, the drinks usually contain a lot of sugar or sweeteners, flavors and colorings.