There are over 41 vitamins and minerals, including magnesium and vitamin D, that help support healthy aging. A majority of these can be obtained through fruits, leafy green vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and other nutritious foods. Alternatively, your doctor may suggest taking supplements, some of which are coincidentally marked as longevity boosters—although that no longer seems to be the case for taurine, a popular longevity supplement that researchers now say isn’t correlated with anti-aging.
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Taurine probably doesn't work as an anti-aging supplement, per new research.
Taurine is an amino acid that exists naturally in the human body. "It helps support nerve growth, helps us maintain proper hydration, and produces bile salts, which help in digestion," registered dietitian Julia Zumpano, RD, LD, explained in an interview with Cleveland Clinic. "Taurine also regulates minerals and supports the general function of your nervous system, vision, and eyes."
Meat, seafood, and dairy contain taurine. In artificial form, taurine is found in certain energy drinks, including Celsius, Red Bull, and Monster. As with many vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients, taurine is also available as a supplement, which brings us to the issue at hand.
After initial studies in 2023 suggested that taurine could increase longevity, it became a favorite of biohackers and anti-aging influencers. However, researchers now claim that taurine isn’t all it’s hyped up to be. Their findings were recently published in the journal Science and examine how taurine affects muscle strength, body weight, and other biological aging markers.
"We used longitudinal, cross-species data across the lifespan under normal conditions aimed to clarify how taurine levels change with age as a biomarker for aging, a key advance for aging research" Maria Emilia Fernandez, PhD, study author and postdoctoral fellow of the Translational Gerontology Branch at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), said in a press release.
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Taurine blood levels are dependent on a variety of factors, not just age.
Researchers took two different approaches to the study. They analyzed data that was both cross-sectional (in which they observed data from a singular point in time) and longitudinal (repeated observations over a much longer period). Nearly 1,000 people were involved in the study, ranging from ages 20 to 100. Blood sample testing was also performed on rhesus monkeys (ages 3 to 32) and mice (ages 9 to 27 months).
While previous studies tout taurine for its longevity benefits, researchers discovered that "levels of taurine [in the blood] vary more by factors unique to each individual than based on aging," per the news release. In other words, a 60-year-old could have better taurine levels than a 40-year-old simply because of their genetics, sex, diet, lifestyle, and so on. These variables influenced taurine levels more than the natural aging process.
Results also showed "associations between taurine and functional indicators of health, such as muscle strength and body weight, varied depending on context and species." Among healthy subjects, circulating taurine remained stable or increased, regardless of age. In conclusion, the authors wrote that their findings "did not consistently support" a relation between aging and declining taurine levels.
"The efficacy of taurine supplementation to delay aging or broadly treat aging-related conditions may be context-dependent," said Fernandez. In essence, these findings disprove the original theory that taurine is the best anti-aging remedy.
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Another recent study suggests taurine could increase leukemia risk.
A separate study published in the journal Nature in May concluded that taurine could raise the risk of blood cancers.
As Best Lifereported at the time, the researchers observed in mice and human leukemia cells that taurine is produced in bone marrow, where such cancers start and grow. "Leukemia cells are unable to make taurine themselves, so they rely on a taurine transporter (encoded by the SLC6A6 gene) to grab taurine from the bone marrow environment and deliver it to the cancer cells," explained a press release.
Additionally, the study found that "as leukemia cells drink up taurine," they "feed cancer growth."
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The takeaway:
A new study suggests that taurine supplements, which have been widely marketed as longevity enhancers, are "not a reliable" anti-aging remedy at all. Although that isn’t to say that taurine isn’t beneficial for our overall health—it is. Simply put, the relationship between low taurine levels and aging isn’t a two-way street.
"Identifying reliable biomarkers to predict the onset and progression of aging and functional decline would be a major breakthrough, enabling more effective, personalized strategies to maintain health and independence into old age," Luigi Ferrucci, PhD, study co-author and NIA scientific director, said in the release.
