From energy drinks to life extension? Supplement slows aging in mice and monkeys

A dietary supplement taken by fitness enthusiasts could hold the key to a longer, healthier life, a new study of mice, monkeys and worms suggests. Researchers found that a high daily dose of taurine, an amino acid often added to energy drinks and found naturally in several foods, helped delay death and reduce the biological ravages of aging.

Strength, memory and metabolism improved in the lab animals, according to the new study, published on Thursday in Science. Inflammation and DNA damage were kept at bay. And middle-aged mice that regularly took taurine supplements lived significantly longer than mice that didn’t.

“There’s something here, and if it works in humans, it’s going to be great,” said Dr. Nir Barzilai, the director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.

But dr. Barzilai and other longevity researchers cautioned against viewing taurine as a magic elixir for life extension. They said people should consume the supplement with caution, especially when considering high doses similar to those taken in mice and monkeys.

Taurine — a nutrient produced by the body obtained from animal foods such as shellfish and turkey — has a long track record of safety, they said. But when taken in large amounts, it can cause digestive problems, kidney strain, and potentially harmful drug interactions.

Its effectiveness in promoting healthy aging in humans has yet to be determined — and other once-hyped anti-aging drugs that initially showed promise in mice and monkeys haven’t always succeeded in human testing.

A small clinical trial in Brazil found four months of low-dose taurine supplementation positive antioxidant effects in older women, without worrying about toxicity. But larger and longer studies are needed to measure the effectiveness of other doses of taurine, researchers said.

Human studies on taurine supplementation have generally tested low doses, usually around 1.5 grams per day. The mice and monkeys in the new study were given a dose equivalent to about three to six grams per day for humans — a level considered safe by European regulators, but still at the top end of the spectrum.

“The bottom line is that clinical trials need to be done,” said Vijay Yadav, a longevity researcher at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center who led the study.

Taurine got its name in the 1820s from the Latin word “bull”, meaning bull, after German scientists first isolated the amino acid from the gall of an ox.

Dr. However, Yadav knew nothing about taurine until about a decade ago when he discovered that the supplement helped promote bone development in young mice born of vitamin-deficient mothers.

Human studies had already linked low taurine levels to poor heart health, cognitive performance and muscle function. Some research also points out that taurine underlies the extraordinary longevity of people living on the Japanese island of Okinawa.

But whether taurine deficiency was a driver of aging, or simply a by-product of the aging process, remained unclear.

Dr. Yadav, along with colleagues at the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi, first measured taurine levels in people’s blood and found a steady decline with age. In 60-year-olds, taurine levels were about a third of those in small children.

His team then gave high-dose taurine supplements to middle-aged mice and rhesus monkeys and compared their health outcomes to animals that didn’t get the amino acid boost. Six months of treatment were enough to see improvements in bone density, sugar metabolism and immune function in the monkeys, while the mice showed these benefits and more.

The mice gained less weight, had stronger muscles, were less anxious and showed multiple improvements at the cellular level, including a reduction in the number of so-called zombie cells, old cells that stop dividing but continue to wreak havoc on neighboring tissues‌. Taurine also increased the mice’s average lifespan by 12 percent for females and 10 percent for males. The supplement had a similar effect on worm lifespan.

The researchers also found supporting evidence for taurine’s anti-aging potential in humans by analyzing two data sets. One, involving nearly 12,000 middle-aged individuals in eastern England, showed a link between low taurine levels and diseases such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. The other, involving athletes from Germany, found that intense exercise could naturally increase taurine levels – which could explain some of the anti-aging benefits of physical activity.

What taurine does in the body is not yet clear. Experiments on mice and worms point to a role for taurine in keeping mitochondria, energy-producing factories in every cell, healthy. But more work is needed, noted Christy Carter, an administrator of health scientists at the National Institute on Aging. “We’re not sure how it works,” she said.

Biohackers and longevity seekers probably won’t wait for those scientific insights before adding taurine to their supplement stacks.

“This document is very thorough and compelling,” said Nick Engerer, the founder of the Long life blog, based in Byron Bay, Australia. “This makes taurine a major contender for something you could try at home for your own longevity.”

But most clinicians and longevity scientists urged not to slurp energy drinks or add taurine powder to protein shakes until more well-controlled human data is available. “I’m constantly telling people, hold the fire until we get the clinical trials done,” said Dr. James Kirkland, a geriatrician at the Mayo Clinic who leads anti-aging studies with other compounds.

David Sinclair, a longevity researcher at Harvard Medical School, is more open to self-experimentation outside of a trial protocol. Up podcast and in his 2019 book, he regularly discusses his own cocktail of anti-aging supplements.

Dr. Sinclair said he had worked with taurine in the past. But based on the new paper, he said he would likely add high doses of taurine to his regimen — with regular blood tests for potential side effects. “My warning and genuine concern is really that people will just take it and not watch their bodies,” he said.

Dr. Yadav, for his part, declined to say whether he takes taurine supplements. “I don’t want to be an influencer,” he said.