Topline
Taurine—a naturally occurring nutrient found in many foods and key ingredient in top-selling energy drinks like Red Bull and Monster—could be the key to living a longer, healthier life, according to research published Thursday in Science, hinting at a potential “elixir of life” as scientists push to understand and manipulate the aging process.
Researcher Vijay Yadav holding a taurine molecule model.
Key Facts
Taurine, which is produced in the body and obtained from food, appears to be a driving force behind aging in animals, researchers said.
Blood tests on mice, monkeys and people revealed levels of taurine, which have been linked to a number of important bodily processes that tend to decline with age like immune and nervous system functions, building bone and obesity, plummet with age, with the average 60-year-old having roughly a third of the levels of a five-year-old.
To test whether aging is really driven by a deficiency in taurine, the researchers took around 250 14-month-old mice—roughly equivalent to 45 years old in humans—and fed half of them taurine supplements.
Mice who received taurine supplements lived around three to four months longer than those who did not, the scientists found, an increased lifespan of around 12% for females and 10% for men and the equivalent to roughly seven or eight extra years in humans.
In addition to living longer lives, study leader Vijay Yadav, a professor of genetics and development at Columbia University said the supplemented mice were also “living healthier lives,” scoring better on almost every parameter measured including improved muscle endurance and strength, increased bone mass, increased energy expenditure, reduced insulin resistance and fewer signs of depression-like or anxious behaviors.
Similar health effects of taurine supplementation were also seen in middle-aged rhesus monkeys, the researchers said, where six months of daily supplements prevented weight gain, increased bone density in the spine and legs and improved immune system health.
What We Don’t Know
While important strides have been made in recent years, there is still a great deal scientists do not know about aging, its drivers or how to slow, stall or reverse it. The role taurine may play in human aging is not yet clear and understanding it fully will still leave many questions unresolved. To test the connection, the researchers evaluated 12,000 European adults ages 60 and over on around 50 health metrics, finding those with higher taurine levels to be healthier, with fewer cases of type 2 diabetes, reduced high blood pressure and lower levels of obesity and inflammation. As the study was observational, Yadav said it can’t prove taurine was responsible for the findings or whether supplements would help improve lifespan and health. Rigorous and randomized clinical trials will be needed to prove the link for sure, Yadav said.
Tangent
The researchers also conducted a study linking taurine levels with exercise, another intervention well-known to improve health. The researchers tested taurine levels in men—a mix of athletes and less-active individuals—after a strenuous workout, finding a significant increase for all. Yadav said the finding “suggests that some of the health benefits of exercise may come from an increase in taurine.”
Surprising Fact
Taurine is a naturally occurring amino acid. Its name is derived from the Latin word for bull or ox, “taurus,” as the chemical was first isolated from ox bile in the early 1800s. Taurine is a common ingredient in many energy drinks—including best-selling brands like Red Bull, Monster and Rockstar—though experts warn these may pose a danger to public health for their large caffeine and sugar content. The nutrient’s bullish history also occasionally spark spurious claims that the drinks contain bull sperm or are made from bull’s testicles. Such claims are not true and the chemical is produced synthetically. The claims are frequent enough that Red Bull, which independently has a bovine name, addresses it on its list of frequently asked questions on its website.
Crucial Quote
“For the last 25 years, scientists have been trying to find factors that not only let us live longer, but also increase healthspan, the time we remain healthy in our old age,” Yadav said. “This study suggests that taurine could be an elixir of life within us that helps us live longer and healthier lives.”