Anti-cancer, anti-aging and anti-obesity? Is taurine a "magic drug" or a "tax on IQ"?

Tuchong Creative

Taurine, a substance that is more often heard in advertisements, is actually related to anti-aging, anti-cancer, and anti-obesity. Is this another wave of IQ tax?

What exactly is taurine? Is it an amino acid, a fatty acid, or an organic acid like acetic acid? I believe that many people are confused. It is necessary to take everyone to briefly review its origin.

The Chinese name of taurine contains the word "cow", which may have something to do with its discovery. In 1827, German anatomist Tiedemann and chemist Gmelin discovered a new substance when analyzing cow bile and named it taurine, also known as ox bile and ox choline. However, it did not attract everyone's attention at first. It was not until more than a hundred years later in 1957 that someone discovered that adding taurine to kitten food could prevent vision loss. From then on, taurine began its glorious history. Today, taurine has been widely used in various fields such as medicine, food additives, fluorescent brighteners, organic synthesis, etc. More importantly, the scientific community is still constantly refreshing its understanding of its health functions.

So what exactly is taurine and what magical effects does it have?

From the perspective of chemical composition, taurine is actually 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid, which is an amino acid. Yes, you heard it right, an amino acid. Of course, unlike threonine, lysine and other essential amino acids, it is not an essential amino acid for the human body, so it is also called a non-essential amino acid. Although it does not participate in the biosynthesis of proteins in the body, it exists in a free state in all tissues and organs of the human body, especially in the nervous system, heart, brain, liver, muscle, and retina.

Moreover, scientists are not exaggerating, taurine is really a health star that is ignored by everyone. Now there are no less than 10 health effects of taurine that have been clearly identified. For example, it can relieve fatigue and improve athletic performance; regulate heart rate and blood pressure, reduce the risk of heart disease, and promote cardiovascular health; anti-aging; and promote the repair and regeneration of liver cells.

In addition, scientists have found that taurine has even more "superior" effects: it can resist aging, cancer, and obesity. In 2006, a survey of a certain place in Japan found that the life expectancy of people in areas with less taurine-rich seafood was 17 years shorter than that of people in areas with more taurine. In 2009, a global epidemiological survey showed that taurine is a nutritional factor for the longevity of Japanese people. Scientists found that residents in Okinawa, Japan, had the highest taurine intake, the lowest incidence of heart disease, and the longest average life expectancy. Is it a coincidence, or is it true?

In this regard, scientists conducted research and investigation. In June 2023, scientists from Columbia University and other institutions jointly published an article in the journal Science. The research team fed mice, monkeys and other animals feeds containing different concentrations of taurine, observed their various health indicators and lifespans, and found that taurine can extend the healthy lifespan of middle-aged mice by 10%-12%, which is equivalent to 7-8 years of human lifespan.

Scientists have also observed people of different ages and found that the taurine content in the human body decreases significantly with age. The taurine content in a 60-year-old is only about one-third of that in a 5-year-old child.

So how does taurine fight aging?

Aging is a natural phenomenon, but the speed of aging does vary among individuals. Human aging actually begins with cellular aging, and this process is a complex biological process caused by multiple factors, such as genes, environment, and oxidative stress factors. Among these factors, genes cannot be changed, while environmental and oxidative stress factors can be changed. Oxidative stress factors refer to the damage to cell structure and function caused by reactive oxygen species produced by intracellular oxidation reactions, which is mainly manifested in its ability to reduce the activity of telomerase and destroy the reverse transcription process of telomerase, thereby losing the effect of offsetting the shortening of telomere length. Telomeres are complexes of DNA and proteins located at the ends of chromosomes, and their shortening is an important sign of cell aging.

Taurine plays a role in combating oxidative stress.

Research suggests that taurine can enhance the function of mitochondria, which are important tissues responsible for energy production in cells. When the function of mitochondria declines, the energy production of cells will be affected, leading to accelerated aging. At the same time, taurine can also inhibit the production and release of inflammatory mediators and eliminate the damage of free radicals to substances such as cell DNA and cell membranes, thereby playing an anti-aging role.

In addition to aging, cancer also has a very important impact on health and life span. Cancer is also called a tumor. In fact, epithelial cells are affected by internal and external factors and proliferate infinitely, invading surrounding tissues and metastasizing to distant places, resulting in physical consumption and decreased tissue and organ function. Studies have found that taurine also plays a certain role in fighting cancer. In April 2024, researchers from the Xijing Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University published a study in the journal Cell, showing that taurine supplementation has the effect of inhibiting gastric cancer. What is going on? It turns out that tumor cells compete for taurine by overexpressing taurine transporters, thereby inducing T cell death and dysfunction and promoting tumor progression. At the same time, the survival of immune cells CD8+T cells in the human body and the production of cytokines are also highly dependent on taurine. If taurine in the body is exhausted, the body's immunity against tumors will also be significantly weakened, making tumor immune escape and recurrence more likely to occur. Studies have shown that if there is enough taurine, exhausted CD8+T cells can be revitalized, thereby inhibiting cancers including gastric cancer.

In addition to fighting aging and cancer, taurine may also play a role in inhibiting obesity.

As we all know, the root cause of obesity is excess energy, and the root cause of this excess is eating too much and consuming too little. If the problem of eating too much can be solved, the problem of excess energy will naturally be solved. In August 2024, researchers at Stanford University in the United States published a study in the journal Nature, believing that taurine may have a certain weight loss effect. The study found that although a substance called N-acetyltaurine did not directly affect lipid metabolism in fat cells, it could reduce the food intake of mice by regulating appetite signals in the brain. And this N-acetyltaurine is the secondary metabolite of taurine in the human body, which means that supplementing taurine and increasing the level of N-acetyltaurine can help achieve the effect of suppressing obesity. In fact, the study on the possibility of non-essential amino acids suppressing appetite was proposed by researchers at ETH Zurich as early as 2022. They found through mouse experiments that feeding a mixed solution of various non-essential amino acids would suppress the appetite of mice. They believe that the orexin neurons in the hypothalamus have receptors that specifically recognize non-essential amino acids, and when the body consumes a large amount of food rich in non-essential amino acids, a phenomenon similar to decreased appetite will occur.

Although the role of taurine in anti-aging, anti-cancer and obesity prevention has been initially revealed, it is still in the primary stage. The detailed mechanism and clear effect still need a lot of research to prove. In fact, taurine has many roles in life. In addition to the health field, it is also widely used in fluorescent brighteners, organic synthesis, chemical reagents, wetting agents, pH buffers and other fields.

The pace of taurine research will not stop, and more and more results will be reported. It is recommended that everyone should look at it rationally. The most important thing is to implement it in a reasonable diet. Only when this is done well, health will always belong to you.

This article is a work supported by the Science Popularization China Creation Cultivation Program

Author: Zhang Yu

Reviewer: Zhang Na, Associate Researcher, Doctoral Supervisor, Peking University School of Public Health

Produced by: China Association for Science and Technology Department of Science Popularization

Producer: China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., Beijing Zhongke Xinghe Culture Media Co., Ltd.