What is Taurine
Taurine is one of the few amino acids not used as a building block for proteins, instead it is provides a substrate for the formation of bile salts in our intestines [1]. Playing a role in the modulation of intracellular free calcium[2], development of cytoprotection as well as playing a role in regulating normal functions in your kidneys[3], brain [4] and cardiovascular system [5].
It is not surprising then that Taurine is found abundantly within our brain, organs and muscular tissues. [6]
Normally amino acids that aren't used int he formation pf portions are considered non essential amino acids, but because of taurine is found in nearly every tissue int he body performing numerous roles, it has been assigned by some, a conditionally essential amino acid.
What does it do
Since Taurine has very wide spread effects across the body, I want to narrow the focus of this analysis to just body building and fitness in general. So this will not be a completely comprehensive deep dive into all its mechanisms as I don't think I could do it justice.
That being said, it is still unclear on what the exact mechanisms for Taurine's effects on skeletal muscles are. There are various hypothesis floating around that seek explain the effects, but I don't think going into them is worthwhile in this analysis of effectiveness!
So, moving on.
Strength
Decreased Taurine concentrations in muscles can lead to decreased strength output [7,8,9,10], so it only makes sense then that by elevating muscle concentrations will lead to maintaining optimal strength output for longer. In the research it shows this quite clearly to be effective... in mice[11,12,13], not in humans[14,15]. So unfortunately, supplementing with Taurine does not seem to increase muscular endurance during exhaustive exercise as it does in mince. I think Taurine is an excellent role model of why rodent models can't be scaled 1-1 to humans without proper research.
Recovery
Despite Taurine being disappointing in a strength aspect, it does seem to have some merit when it comes to recovery. By supplementing Taurine in a post workout manner, researchers have been able to show how it can reduce post exercise oxidative stress [16,17,18] which are all done on humans. It is important to note that it does not reduce post exercise inflammation, just the oxidative stress. This, should in theory, though not proven, decrease the recovery time needed after intensive exercise.
Fat loss
There is a pretty big debate online when it comes to fasted cardio, does it make a difference or not. In general I am on the side that says, no it makes no difference... UNLESS, you are leveraging correct supplementation. This, is where Taurine can come in handy.
Fasted moderate cardio done for 90 mins showed an increase of up to 38% in lipid oxidisation against placebo and control groups [19]. Another study on swimmers performing maximum effort also showed an increase in lipolysis [20,21].
Don't expect that by slamming a few grams of Taurine that you will shred fat in a few weeks, but if deployed correctly, it can be useful as an aid during fasted cardio as shown above.
Dosing
From the fat loss studies they all generally agree that it is dose dependant up to 3g, anything above that has no additional effect. [19,20]
Side Effects
Taurine is likely safe at the stated dose with very low toxicity [22].
"taurine administration in regular doses is reported by different articles and institutions to be safe.[A31406]" [23]
Bottom line
In my eyes it does not seem to live up to some of the hype I have read around this supplement, especially in relation to pre workouts and gym performance.
It does however seem fairly promising from a fatness perspective, perhaps when stacked with L-carnitine and alpha yohimbine this may have an additive effect for maximising this vector? Perhaps for another article.
Taurine also has merit in recovery, if that is something you struggle with, it may be worth exploring as it is a fairly cheap supplement to buy.
parting words
I'm experimenting with more condensed articles at the moment, let me know if you prefer the more long winded approach or these more concise run throughs.
Either way, I hope you enjoyed this latest instalment. If you have a supplement you're wanting to know more about comment below and I'll add it to my list. Thats it from me, catch you all later.