Naturally present in your body, the taurine involved in cardiac and muscular functions. Previous studies have already proven that it plays a role in bone building and immunity.
A new search published on June 8, 2023 in Science proved that taurine could exert an influence on your life expectancy. It could slow the aging process in worms, mice and monkeys, even extending healthy lifespan up to 12%.
Taurine deficiency could indeed accelerate the aging according to researchers based in Columbia (USA). The good news is that you can also find it in certain foods.
Taurine can save 7 or 8 years of life expectancy
” Over the past 25 years, scientists have tried to identify factors that allow us to live longer in good health.says study leader Vijay Yadav, Ph.D, assistant professor of genetics and development at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (USA). This study suggests that taurine could be a elixir of life that helps us to live longer and healthier “.
Researchers realized that taurine levels in the body decrease with age in the blood. ” What affects overall health and lifespan », comments Vijay Yadav.
As a rough guide, in a 60-year-old human, taurine levels reach only a third of those found in a 5-year-old. ” That’s when we started to wonder if taurine deficiency was a driver of the aging process, and we set up a big experiment with mice “, explains the scientist.
The researchers conducted their study on nearly 250 female and male mice 14 months old (about 45 years old in human terms). Every day, half of them were fed a bolus of taurine or a control solution. At the end of the experiment, the scientists discovered that taurine increased the average lifespan 12% in female mice and 10% in males. For the mice, this meant an additional three to four months, or approximately seven or eight human years.
Taurine would prevent weight gain and depression
The researchers went even further and found that taurine supplementation from the age of 2 years in mice (60 years in humans) guaranteed better health in general. Indeed, taurine would prevent, even suppress the age-related weight gain (which, as we know, is conducive to diseases), would increase the Energetic cost, bone mass and muscle strength. Taurine supplementation would also reduce behaviors depressive and to make an immune system more young.
Taurine: in which foods can you find it?
Taurine is found in interesting quantities in meats (turkey meat and chicken), the milk and the dairy productsas well as in the algae and the Oysters. It is also found in the oily fish (mackerel, tuna…).
This amino acid is also part of the range of active compounds generally found in energy drinks. Be careful, becoming a fan of this kind of drink would become counterproductive.
“ The joint consumption of energy drinks and alcohol promotes risky situations due to the person’s overestimation of their abilities, which can lead them to continue their alcohol consumption and increase risk-takingsupports thehandles. In addition, they have no nutritional value in a situation of exercise (unlike sports drinks also called energy drinks). They increase the loss of water and mineral salts and increase the risk of heat accidents. “.