Humans have been using supplements to improve body functions for a long time. Traditional supplements were used to improve the strength of the muscles. Yet, there’s a new class of supplements that not only do good to the body but also strengthen the brain and maintain its health. One of these supplements is taurine. We’ll learn more about the benefits of taurine below.
The benefits of taurine encompass mood, memory, learning ability, and cognitive performance. Taurine is bioavailable in its purest and most potent form in Maximum Mind. Let’s take a look at these benefits even further.
What is taurine? What are the benefits of using taurine as a part of a daily supplementation regimen? What is the ideal daily dosage of taurine, and what are some use cases of taurine? Read on to discover the answers to these questions and more.
“The Essential Part of Creativity Is Not Being Afraid to Fail.”
— Edwin Land
What Is Taurine?
“Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune, but great minds rise above them.”
— Washington Irving
It is a chemical compound produced in the body in small amounts. Taurine, which has a similar chemistry to other amino acids, is required for various metabolic processes in the body. Taurine may possess antioxidant effects.
Taurine is a naturally occurring amino acid found in meat, fish, dairy products, and human milk. It is also available as a nutritional supplement. While the evidence is conflicting, several studies indicate that taurine supplementation may enhance athletic performance. Additionally, one study found that individuals with congestive heart failure who took taurine tablets three times daily for two weeks improved their exercise capacity.
Animal proteins such as meat, shellfish, and dairy products are the primary sources of taurine. Plants do not contain a significant amount of taurine [1, 2].
As a result, vegans and vegetarians absorb less taurine. They typically have lower taurine levels than those who regularly consume animal proteins, as research published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition showed[3].
Benefits of Taurine
“The formula of happiness and success is just being actually yourself, in the most vivid possible way you can.”
— Meryl Streep
When using a supplement, it is better to look for the benefit and side effect profile of the compound. In the case of taurine, there are several benefits and a very safe profile.
Supplementing with taurine is generally regarded as safe. Below, we have compiled a list of the most important benefits of taurine to help you understand how taking it will help you improve your body and mind.
Improves Brain Function
When you want to improve brain function, you need to focus on various neurotransmitters like acetylcholine or GABA.
Primarily, taurine is used for neuromotor development. The brain also uses it. Exactly how it functions in the brain is still being learned. We don’t know exactly all of its functions in the brain, but we do know it is needed for neurodevelopment, and it protects brain cells. As taurine protects the membrane of neurons, it improves the stability of the cells. When neurons are not disrupted due to stress, they have a higher capacity for memory retention. Hence, you will feel more active and present after taking this taurine.
Supplementing with taurine can improve short-term memory by improving neurotransmission efficiency. It will also improve long-term memory by helping in maintaining neural integrity [4] and is one of the main benefits of taurine.
Taurine will improve neurotransmission by increasing the production of neurotransmitters and decreasing enzymatic activity. As it protects brain cells, you can avoid memory loss and reduction of cognitive functions. In the case of neurodegenerative diseases, this supplement is an excellent choice [4].
Better Memory
One of the better-known benefits of taurine is its link to better short-term memory and memory overall.
Taurine plays a role in memory formation and learning ability as well. Several studies have found that taurine increased long-term potentiation, synaptic activity, and memory formation [5, 6]. Other studies showed that taurine could increase BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which acts as a fertilizer for the brain and new memories [7].
Fights Brain Aging
Taurine may act as a fountain of youth for your brain. According to several animal studies, taurine supplementation may aid learning and memory [8].
Additionally, one study discovered that taurine supplementation might improve cognitive function in dementia-stricken elderly persons.
Mood Elevation
Taurine has been shown to enhance the function of the neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of well-being. Taurine is the most effective supplement in this category since it directly affects GABA. Additionally, it will alleviate body stress by reducing the oxidative reaction.
Works as a Permeation Enhancer
Taurine’s primary effect in Maximum Mind formulation is to increase the penetration rate of other compounds, thus enabling Marco’s Grounds to use lesser, safer doses and yet still produce the desired effect.
While this is not a benefit of taurine per se, supplementing with taurine can, for example, reduce the amount of creatine needed to reach muscle saturation from 5g to 3g daily, thus potentially lowering the load of creatine on your kidneys.
There are a host of other taurine benefits, many of which stem from its antioxidant properties.
Improves Heart Function
When considering the benefits of taurine for the cardiovascular system, it may be necessary to consider the heart, blood vessels, and blood. Taurine can help protect heart cells by repairing muscle proteins. Additionally, its antioxidant properties will protect blood vessels [3].
Endothelial cells line up blood arteries. Taurine’s cell repair activity enables it to aid in the rapid healing of those blood vessels. Additionally, this supplement improves blood flow. It is one of taurine’s several benefits.
Acts as a Powerful Antioxidant
Another commonly accepted benefit of taurine is its activity in preventing the oxidative reaction in your body. Oxidative stress occurs out of breathing as oxygen reactions tend to lose an unstable electron that we call a free radical. Taurine helps absorb and neutralize free radicals and fights premature aging as such.
Taurine’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory characteristics may also help improve insulin sensitivity, perhaps lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes or improving blood sugar control in people who already have the disease [9]
Increases Sports Performance
One of the least known benefits of taurine is that it aids sports performance due to its ability to promote muscular contraction and delay muscle exhaustion, as published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition [10]. Additionally, taurine may enhance fat burning during exercise, allowing you to perform better).
Numerous benefits were observed in a study of 19 studies examining the impact of taurine on athletic performance, including the following [10].
- increased oxygen intake by the body lengthened the time until tiredness occurred,
- decreased muscle damage, accelerated recovery times,
- enhanced strength and capability.
The authors of the review recommend that a dose of 1–3 grams given 1–3 hours before your workout for at least 6–21 days is an effective way to obtain these advantages.
Ideal Dosage of Taurine
“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”
— Bill Gates
There are many different ways to make taurine. It comes as a supplement in capsule form. In raw powder form to be used in teas or energy drinks. Yet, you might want to avoid the latter as they tend to come with artificial sweeteners or just too many sugars.
In most cases, you may need only 200-400 mg of taurine per day to experience the full benefits. If you have a sedentary lifestyle without any other diseases, you can get the benefits of taurine from even lower doses.
Further, when taking taurine, one needs to be aware of the concentration of the supplement taken. The concentration refers to the relative amount of total taurine within the taurine extraction.
For example, Marco’s Grounds taurine comes at 98-99% of active taurine in its free form, which is currently the highest extraction available and the most bioavailable form there is.
When starting a new supplement, it is always best to start with a lower dosage to help prevent any side effects such as nausea or diarrhea. Taurine is quite safe and generally regarded as so, yet some people may experience discomfort when starting a new supplement.
Health authorities consider 6000 mg of taurine safe for daily use. It does not mean that you should take this amount every day.
Who Benefits From Taurine
“A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.”
―Billie Jean King
Taurine’s main benefits are memory and learning and its powerful antioxidant effect. Taurine is also very strong when it comes to sports performance.
Some of the best use cases to make the most out of the benefits of taurine are, for example, athletes who need to focus and concentrate like Formula 1 drivers or ice skaters who want the calm composure to be performing under stress and be able to ingest and reform high amounts of information.
Taurine might also be extremely beneficial for entrepreneurs and finance professionals looking to perform and limit the effects stress has on their bodies and mind.
All in all, taurine is beneficial for people who have information to learn and retain, fast. At the same time, even if the stakes are not necessarily high you can still benefit from the antiaging effects provided by its significant antioxidative effect. Taurine is even more interesting when it’s coupled with other compounds like in Maximum Mind, as it increases rates of absorption and thus acts as a supporting compound.
The best use would be for those people to start taking taurine 8 to 10 weeks before the event for which performance needs to be delivered. If this is not possible, any time before the event will help, just not as much.
Conclusion
“Every great cause is born from repeated failures and from imperfect achievements.”
―Maria Montessori
Taurine is an important amino acid that plays an important role in the body. It’s one of the key components of Maximum Mind. It’s most notably known for its memory-enhancing properties as well as its ability to act as a powerful antioxidant. A lesser-known yet tremendously important benefit of taurine is that it acts as a permeation enhancer which increases the rate of absorption of other compounds into cells. This is one of the key formulation designs of Maximum Mind to maximize effect at minimum effective doses.
Further benefits of taurine include support for heart health, better brain function, and sports performance. All of these properties together make taurine a great supplement to incorporate into anyone’s regimen for good health and performance.
Why not experience the benefits of taurine in its purest form along with other clinically studied compounds for increasing brain performance and health with Maximum Mind?
Read more about taurine on Marco’s Grounds Deep Dive.
Literature
- Kurtz, J. A., VanDusseldorp, T. A., Doyle, J. A., & Otis, J. S. (2021). Taurine in sports and exercise. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 18(1), 39.
- Schaffer, S. W., Ju Jong, C., KC, R., & Azuma, J. (2010). Physiological roles of taurine in heart and muscle. Journal of biomedical science, 17(1), 1-8.
- Rogerson D. (2017). Vegan diets: practical advice for athletes and exercisers. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 14, 36.
- Idrissi, A. E. (2019). Taurine regulation of neuroendocrine function. Taurine 11, 977-985.
- Bureau, M. H., & Olsen, R. W. (1991). Taurine acts on a subclass of GABAA receptors in the mammalian brain in vitro. European Journal of Pharmacology: Molecular Pharmacology, 207(1), 9-16.
- Kontro, P., & Oja, S. S. (1990). Interactions of taurine with GABAB binding sites. Neuropharmacology, 29(3), 243-247.
- Caletti, G., Almeida, F. B., Agnes, G., Nin, M. S., Barros, H. M. T., & Gomez, R. (2015). Antidepressant dose of taurine increases mRNA expression of GABAA receptor α2 subunit and BDNF in the hippocampus. Behavioral Brain Research, 283, 11-15.
- Curran, C. P., & Marczinski, C. A. (2017). Taurine, caffeine, and energy drinks: Reviewing the risks to the adolescent brain. Birth Defects Research, 109(20), 1640-1648.
- Inam-U-Llah, Piao, F., Aadil, R. M., Suleman, R., Li, K., Zhang, M., Wu, P., Shahbaz, M., & Ahmed, Z. (2018). Ameliorative effects of taurine against diabetes: a review. Amino acids, 50(5), 487–502.
- Kurtz, J. A., VanDusseldorp, T. A., Doyle, J. A., & Otis, J. S. (2021). Taurine in sports and exercise. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 18(1), 39.
