Life Extension Magazine®

Man holding glowing brain and another concentrating after taking taurine

Taurine: Powerful Brain Protection

Taurine is a low-cost amino acid whose concentrations in the brain decline with age. Taurine protects against environmental toxins, reduces brain inflammation, and stimulates neuron formation.

Scientifically reviewed by: Dr. Shanti Albani, ND, Physician, in August 2023. Written by: Maureen Fiona.

New discoveries are highlighting the roles that taurine plays in preserving the human mind. The importance of supporting brain taurine concentrations, which decline with aging, is rising to the forefront of cognitive science.1,2 Taurine supplementation can help to mitigate age-related losses of memory and learning functions.2

taurine  

In addition, recent studies show that this low-cost amino acid has brain-protective effects capable of preventing at least some of the cognitive changes associated with environmental toxins.

Taurine is one of the most abundant amino acids in our bodies. It plays special roles in the brain, where it meets many of the criteria for being a neurotransmitter (a molecule that transmits signals between brain cells).3,4

Scientists have recognized for a decade or more that taurine is critical for normal brain development.5-7

The basic science of taurine in the brain is rapidly emerging, demonstrating that it may prevent brain aging via the following mechanisms:

  • Protects brain cells against environmental toxins including lead and organic pesticides8
  • Prevents dysfunction of mitochondria within brain cells, thereby sustaining energy levels9,10
  • Protects brain cells against excitotoxicity, the chemically stressful effects of overstimulated brain cells9
  • Enhances the inhibitory systems driven by the “relaxing” neurotransmitter GABA, which directly opposes excitotoxic effects11
  • Cooperates with other neurotransmitters to promote induction of long-term potentiation, which is the neurological process by which memories are formed and retained during learning2,12
  • Reduces brain inflammatory processes that are active in production of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases13
  • Stimulates proliferation and new neuron formation to sustain learning and memory14-16
  • Protects brain cells against destruction following a stroke17,18
  • Attenuates damage caused by beta amyloid protein, a major contributing factor in Alzheimer’s disease10,19

Studies Reveal Taurine’s Neuroprotective Effects

Taurine’s Neuroprotective Effects  

Supplemental taurine has a major impact on the adult brain as well as the developing brain, with the ultimate result that the taurine-supplemented brain appears to age more slowly than it might otherwise.

Environmental toxins, long known to contribute to congenital brain defects seen in newborns, are now increasingly recognized as factors in causation of adult neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.20-23

Taurine appears to play a role in protecting brain cells against a variety of environmental toxins.

A recent study showed that rats exposed to either a dangerous pesticide called CPF, lead acetate, or both toxins, showed biochemical damage leading to visible degeneration of brain tissue. When the animals were cotreated with taurine, those changes were prevented.8

These findings may have increased urgency as Americans discover just how our public infrastructure has failed to protect us against lead and other toxins in our water supplies.24

Taurine’s multiple mechanisms of action fight brain aging in other important ways, particularly by protecting the brain against internal age-accelerating forces.

For decades, scientists believed that adult brain cells could not reproduce, nor could new brain cells be generated afresh. Studies with taurine are turning that dogma on its head.

New brain cell growth was demonstrated in an exciting study released in 2015. Swiss scientists discovered that feeding middle-aged mice taurine could trigger rapid growth in populations of stem cells in the brain and greatly promote their subsequent differentiation into functioning adult brain cells.25 This effect had previously been shown in studies of cultured adult-mouse brain stem cells.14 And another 2015 study demonstrated that human-brain stem cells in culture underwent the same type of proliferation and specialization demonstrated in the animal studies.16

Together, these studies mean that humans are likely to be able to stimulate new brain cell development, and foster rapid synaptic connections between them with taurine.

Neurodegenerative diseases rob aging adults of memory, function, and dignity. Taurine has significant favorable impact on the malformed and toxic proteins that accumulate in the aging brain, leading to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

Taurine can prevent damage wrought on brain cells by the malformed Alzheimer’s-related protein called beta amyloid.10 That mechanism may have been at work in a recent mouse model study of Alzheimer’s, in which six weeks of taurine added to drinking water rescued mice from developing cognitive deficits. In this study taurine supplementation restored cognitive function to that of age-matched normal mice.19

Elevated blood glucose and insulin resistance severely damage the brain. Some researchers now refer to Alzheimer’s as “type III diabetes.”26 In 2015, a study showed that taurine supplementation in mice could increase brain insulin receptors, an effect that might prove to be protective against the disease.27

Ischemic strokes are the result of an abrupt reduction in blood flow to specific brain regions. Strokes not only cause immediate symptoms, but also contribute to accelerated brain aging over the longer term.28,29 Once again, a role for taurine supplementation is evident.

Taurine appears to protect brain cells from the oxidative stress induced during a stroke, and to slow subsequent brain cell death.9,18 Chronic cellular destruction contributes to neurological problems in stroke survivors, so preventing it is an important approach to mitigating stroke damage. A mouse study has shown that adding taurine to another emerging stroke drug improved performance on neurological tests, while the drug alone was ineffective.18

What You Need to Know
Protect Aging Brains with Taurine

Protect Aging Brains with Taurine

  • Brain aging is not inevitable as new studies reveal that certain nutrients may have an age-decelerating effect.
  • Taurine, an abundant amino acid in the human body, has many brain-protective properties, but taurine levels fall with advancing age.
  • New studies show that taurine may play a major role in protecting the brain from exposure to toxic chemicals from water supplies and other environmental sources.
  • Taurine stimulates new brain cell formation, providing a potential source for replacement of aging, damaged brain cells.
  • Taurine supplementation may slow or prevent Alzheimer’s disease by effects on toxic beta amyloid proteins, and also by improving blood sugar control.
  • Taurine prevents brain cell death following a stroke, helping to preserve neurological function.
  • Taurine is likely to emerge as a major component of modern regimens aimed at slowing brain aging.

Summary

Summary  

Brains age for many reasons. Chronic toxin exposures, elevated blood sugar, accumulations of abnormal proteins and circulatory disruptions are known to accelerate brain aging.

Taurine is proving to have significant brain age-decelerating effects. Most recently, it has been shown to be protective against toxic exposures including lead and pesticides. It also inhibits beta amyloid formation associated with Alzheimer’s and helps regulate the brain’s control of glucose. Taurine also shows evidence of protection against the cognitive deficits induced by stroke.

And, in exciting news, taurine treatment enhanced formation of new brain cells.

Taurine is an ultra-low cost dietary supplement.

If you have any questions on the scientific content of this article, please call a Life Extension® Wellness Specialist at 1-866-864-3027.

Editor's Note

Science continues to evolve, and new research is published daily. As such, we have a more recent article on this topic: Taurine Protects Aging Brains

References

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