What is Taurine?

Taurine is an amino acid that naturally exists in our bodies and in our diets. Unlike most amino acids, Taurine is not used to produce proteins so it’s classified as a ‘conditionally essential amino acid’. Taurine is found in most meats, such as fish, poultry, red meats, shellfish and even dairy products. That being said, we still recommend supplementing with Taurine in order to help promote the body’s stores of Taurine because it has some very interesting and beneficial effects when Taurine levels are increased above normal levels!*

Within the body, Taurine synthesis occurs in the pancreas through the ‘cysteine sulfinic acid pathway’. This pathway produces Taurine from Cysteine. Cysteine is another very important amino acid, and is actually one of the rate limiting steps in reduced Glutathione synthesis. More interestingly though, Cysteine is one of the few sulfur containing amino acids, and because Taurine is derived from Cysteine, Taurine itself is a sulfur containing amino acid. This is interesting because Taurine acts as a donor for highly beneficial sulfur compounds in the body, such as hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide is a very novel gaseous neurotransmitter which is also naturally present in our bodies. It is likely responsible for quite a few of Taurine's effects but we will talk more about this later!

Taurine Benefits & Uses
May help promote cognitive function*
May help promote cardiovascular function*
May help promote exercise performance*
May help support mood*
What Does Taurine Do?

Taurine acts as GABAA agonist, and this is what produces some of Taurine's calming effects. This effect is quite mild though, and due to this produces a very natural sense of relaxation! Furthermore, hydrogen sulfide, for which Taurine is a donor, also has GABAergic effects. In fact, hydrogen sulfide helps upregulate GABAB receptors! This likely also explains why Taurine’s effects on GABAB have been a topic of debate. This is because Taurine doesn’t seem to directly work on GABAB receptors, instead achieving this effect via its hydrogen sulfide elevating effect! Due to these unique GABAergic properties, it can be a very versatile supplement. It is then of course also no surprise that redbull and other energy drinks famously contain Taurine, because it helps smooth out the effects of caffeine in a similar fashion to L-theanine. In fact, we recently discovered that a combination of Taurine and L-theanine has a great synergistic effect with caffeine and you can find this combination of ingredients in our new DynaMAX plus stack!*

Taurine also helps to promote blood flow. It appears to achieve this via direct mechanisms, but hydrogen sulfide is likely also a player here since it is a major mediator of blood flow. Hydrogen sulfide directly promotes smooth muscle relaxation in blood vessels and via this mechanism can produce a significant uptick in blood flow. This is an amazing cardiovascular benefit that you don’t want to miss!

If we keep following the hydrogen sulfide thread, we quickly discover that a lot of Taurine’s “unexplained effects” may actually be mediated through hydrogen sulfide. Another interesting example of this is hydrogen sulfides' effects on our muscles. Hydrogen sulfide appears to promote anabolism, which in simpler terms is muscle building! This is an effect that has also long been ascribed to Taurine without a solid explanation as to how Taurine is producing these effects. Hydrogen sulfide may be what is causing these effects though, since it has been shown that hydrogen sulfide may promote anabolism in skeletal muscles. No wonder Taurine is popular with athletes and bodybuilders, it enhances blood flow AND muscle building! Keeping with the idea that Taurine produces the bulk of its effects via hydrogen sulfide, then a whole world of interesting effects opens up such as inducing long term potential (LTP) for memory enhancement, mood enhancement, general neuroprotective effects etc.* Basically, if you find an interesting effect that hydrogen sulfide produces, then you can access these effects via Taurine.* Happy researching, there is a lot to discover!