Taurine

14 Health Benefits of Taurine (No.5 Like Holy)

Taurin is known as 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid. It is not essential amino acid that we get from our food intake. Taurine is usually called as conditional amino acid that is produced by our body and found mostly in our heart and brain. Taurin is not a toxic. The excessive taurine is usually discarded through urine. Consuming 1-4 gram taurine per day or weekly is beneficial for our health without dangerous side effect.

The Sources of Taurine: 

  • Taurine can be found in meat, fish, eggs, and milk product. Because adult people can produce taurine on their own, it is not considered important.
  • Non-meat food sources, such as peanuts and some vegetables contain taurine even though they only consist a small amount of 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid.
  • Taurine also produces synthetically for energy and supplement drink.

The Functions of Taurine:

  • Breaking Fat. In our body, taurine acts as a detergent that emulsify fat so that it can be broken and processed.
  • Helping Metabolism. Several important nutrition dissolve in the fat so that taurine can help the metabolism of those nutrients.
  • Important for the Development of the Nerve Center System and Retina. Because taurine is used for the development of the nerve center system and retina, it is given as a supplement for premature babies because they cannot produce taurine by themselves. Taurine also can acts as an antioxidant so that it can prevent cells from damage that is caused by oxidation. For example, the biochemical process in our body produces hypoclorite acid (HOCl) as an additional product. This chemical product is a strong oxidant that is potential to damage the cells. Taurine blends itself with biochemical process to produce non-reactive taurine chloramine substance.

14 Benefits of Taurine for Our Health:

1. Reducing Cholesterol.

Health Benefits of Taurine for reducing cholesterol level is super powerful. Increased cholesterol is the common symptom of cardiovascular disease.  Taurine is proven to work at its best to discard the substance from our bile.  It is also able to reduce the level of  Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL) or bad cholesterol. Taurine is considered can reduce adult blood pressure and it is being proven as a medication for bipolar depression.

2. Improving the Function of Our Liver. 

The study shows that taurine can improve the function of liver to hepatitis patients. As we know that our liver acts as the filter of every harmful chemical substance. The study shows that taurine protects our liver against oxidative damage. Moreover, it also ensures our liver performance to remove dangerous substances in our body.

3. Relieving the Symptoms of Congestive Heart Failure (CHF).

Taurine can relieve the symptoms of Congestive Heart Failure (CHF). It is a condition when our heart looses its ability to pump the blood to all parts of our body. In one of the researches shows that Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) patients who take taurine supplement three times a day for two weeks show the improvement in their physical activities.

The researches still have not found why taurine is beneficial for those patients. However, there are several proves that taurine can improve the function of our heart left ventricle. Moreover, taurin is also beneficial for helping the heart failure patients because it reduces the blood pressure and calm the sympathetic nerve systems for high blood pressure patients because the sympathetic nerve system is mostly too active. The sympathetic nerve system is a part of nerve system that responses to stress.

4. Managing the Nerve and Muscles System.

Taurine is one of the two amino acid that contains sulphur that can be synthesized by our body from another amino acid, such as metionin and sistein. Taurin plays an important role to manage the nerve and muscles system as well as keeping our brain and heart healthy. Taurine is amino acid that can move potassium, magnesium and natrium to our cells membrane. Those three minerals are important for keeping the function of our brain and heart. Moreover, taurine manages the level of salt level, water level and mineral level in our blood.

5. Protecting Brain.

Taurine is one of the most amino acid in our brain. It acts as a neurotransmitter in protecting our brain as well as facilitates the communication among cells. Moreover, the in vitro research shows that among the specific roles of our brain, taurine prevents our brain from oxidation that damages a neurotransmitter.

6. Maintaining the Strength of Our Muscles and Dissolving Vitamins.

Taurine is proven to maintain the strength of our heart muscles so that we are prevented from heart failure disease and aritmia. Taurine also plays its important role in maintaining  fat metabolism and absorb the vitamin that is dissolved in fat. It is also beneficial for managing the cholesterol level. 

7. Antioxidant and Medicine.

Taurin acts as an antioxidant that protects our eyes by reducing the risk of oxidative damage that is caused by sun rays. Moreover, taurine is also helpful for increasing our immune systemTaurine is also useful for medication for epilepsy, heart disease, diabetes, alcohol addiction, cystic fibrosis, and Alzheimer.

8. Preventing Fat Accumulation in Our Liver.

The researches in England show that taurine can counter the negative effect of alcohol for our liver and prevents the plaque accumulation in this organ.

9. Protecting Our Eyes.

Taurine benefits is very important for our eyes. Sufficient intake of taurine can prevent our aging eyes from loosing their vision. High concentration of taurine is found in our retina. Lack of taurine intake makes us suffer from various eyes problems, such as retina ganglion cells degeneration. There are several medicines that minimize the performance of taurine for our eyes:

  • Cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan)
  • Busultan (Bulsufex)
  • Vigabatrin (Sabril)

10. Strengthening Our Heart:

Our heart beats more than 2 billion times for the whole of your life. It brings the oxygen to every part of our body. The failure of heart to perform its best to bring the oxygen will be fatal for us. Taurine increases the contractile of our heart muscles which is surely believed can reduce the risk of heart failure. The benefits of taurine for our heart:

  • Gives a meaningful contribution for our healthy heart.
  • Prevents our heart from inflammation that is related to coronary artery disease.
  • Prevents aterosclerosis (plaque accumulation in our artery).
  • Reduces the risk of hypertension or high blood pressure.
  • Increases the exercise capacity for congestive heart failure patients.

11. Increasing the Performance of Athletes.

Based on the research of Austrian researchers, taurine can increase athletes body capacity during their exercise so that oxygen can function well at its best. As a result, those athletes can perform well at their exercise and do not feel easily fatigue.

12. Controlling Calcium for Our Ears.

The hearing problems often happen when our nerve cells convert sound waves becomes electrical energy. The hair cells in our ears rely on the flow of calcium intake.  Taurine acts to manage and control the flow of calcium into and out of the hearing cells. Our hearing cells are beneficial to prevent our ear from hearing loss problems.

13. Reducing the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease.

Obesity is caused by the fat accumulation in several areas of our body. It usually will lead to cardiovascular disease because the blood cannot flow perfectly. Taurine is able to level down the lipid in the bloodstream significantly.The low level of lipid in our bloodstream prevents us from cardiovascular disease.

14. Strengthening Our Muscles.

Taurine is beneficial for our muscles to perform  harder, longer and safer. It increases the contractility of our muscles both in the heart and joints. As a result, our exercise performance is more powerful. Taurine also helps to remove the lactic acid. Therefore,we can do the exercise longer than usual.

The Side Effect of Taurine:

  • Dehydration
  • Digestive problems
  • Nerve and brain damage
  • Hypoglycaemia
  • Abnormal heart beat

The Dosage of Taurine:

  • The dosage for consuming taurine supplement is between 500mg-2,000mg.
  • The consumption of taurine supplement until  3.000 miligram per day is till considered safe. Every taurine excess will be discarded by our liver in the form of urine.
  • The dosage until  0.1oz (3g) per day is still considered safe for healthy adult.

Warning: 

  • The dosage for children and expectant mothers or for people who suffer from certain illnesses is not yet determined.
  • Many of supplement energy drinks contains taurine. Based on the advertisement, they are said can boost our energy, pyhsical performance and our short memory performance. However, we should be aware of its side effect, especially if it is combined with alcohol because supplement energy drink usually contains caffeine. It is hard to define whether the positive side effect or negative side effect to our body is because of the taurine, caffeine, or both.
  • Consuming taurine supplement should be wise since there has not been a research to make sure the safety of consuming taurine supplement for a long term. Moreover, if we like to consume taurine from energy drink, we should put in our mind that there are others substances in that enery drink, such as caffeine or sugar. Those two are dangerous for excessive consumption.  Too much caffeine can increase our heart rate and blood pressure as well as disturb our sleeping pattern.  It works the same with sugar, that can increase the risk of diabetes and other health problem. Even though taurine seems save for most people, consuming energy drink should be limited.

Because taurine can be produced naturally by our body, having good eating habit can fulfill your taurine necessity.