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ANTIAGING BENEFITS OF TAURINE, INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 655

Hosted by Amanda Williams, MD, MPH.

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InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro: [00:00:04] Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed health care professionals are excited to offer you the most important health and wellness information you need to make informed choices about your health. You can learn more about the products discussed in each of these episodes and all that Invite Health has to offer at www.invitehealth.com/podcast. First time customers can use promo code podcast at checkout for an additional 15% off your first purchase. Let’s get started. †  [00:00:34]

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Amanda Williams MD, MPH: [00:00:40] It seems that every day we are learning more about the fountain of youth. Does it exist? Can we actually live longer, healthier lives? And if so, how do we achieve this? Well, if you listen to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, you know that we are definitely into talking about anti-aging and all of the different ways to which you can achieve this through lifestyle modifications, of course, through practicing mindfulness and taking the right dietary supplements to cover those gaps that perhaps your diet isn’t giving you. And of course, to make up for lost time, and what does that mean? Well, perhaps maybe you haven’t always made the right choices or maybe just because of aging itself. We know that certain nutrients have a tendency to decline as we grow older, so, we oftentimes like to zero in on nutrients that we know are definitely linked to an anti-aging effect. And that’s what I’m going to zero in on today, because there’s one amino acid out there that’s been making a lot of news lately. And I want to talk about what we know about taurine. So, I am Dr. Amanda Williams, scientific director at Invite Health and just recently, Columbia University in conjunction with anti-aging researchers around the globe, published their findings on Taurine, and they published this in the Science Journal. It has gained a lot of attention, and rightfully so, but it’s not like its necessarily new news to learn that taurine is an anti-aging amino acid. Why do we know this? Well, because we can look at decades worth of research now and understand how this little, tiny amino acid is packing such a punch in the human body. So, what exactly is Taurine? Taurine is one of the most abundant amino acids found in the body, and it’s required for pretty much every single function and system in the human body. Now, we know that it makes up about 0.1% of our actual body weight. And we know that in terms of its overall benefits, it is definitely wide reaching. And for some folks, maybe they look at taurine as being beneficial for cardiovascular health. For others maybe they look at it for nervous system health, and these all make sense because we know that taurine is key for those excitable tissues, areas such as your heart as well as your central nervous system. But there are remarkable amounts of research out there that impress upon how taurine is really working to protect our body from the aging effects. And we know that low levels of Taurine and our system are directly linked to an accelerated aging process. And that’s what this study that was just published in the Science Journal is zeroing in on, looking at deficiencies in Taurine and how when we don’t have adequate taurine levels, that this definitely leads to an acceleration of the aging process. † [00:03:40]

[00:03:41] Now, what is it that Taurine’s doing to actually protect us? This is where the science gets really incredibly complex. But also very, very interesting to see how Taurine’s working to support our immune system, to support our cardiovascular and our circulatory system as well as our brain, as we grow older, and so if we don’t have adequate amounts of Taurine to turn to. This can definitely lead to major problems for us. We know that it helps to support our endogenous antioxidant levels to help fight off free radicals, and certainly it can help to support healthy cholesterol transport. As well as looking at healthy blood glucose response. So yes, I would say that Taurine is pretty darn important and an area that we shouldn’t overlook. We want to encourage a healthy nervous system. We want to have healthy muscle function, we want to have good energy, we want to have great brain health. And of course, we want to support the health of our heart. And we know that through Taurine supplementation, this can really allow the body to be much more responsive to any declines in taurine status in the body. When you start to look at the multiple clinical research trials out there on published reports on Taurine, we can see where it’s beneficial when it comes to electrolyte balance, when it comes to eye health, of course when it comes to healthy liver and gallbladder function. Encouraging the health of our heart and regulation of blood pressure. So, to dive into the deep end on Taurine and its anti-aging effects is where the research world is really looking at this. How it has this finite ability to protect the end caps of our chromosomes, known as the telomeres. And you look at all of the multiple benefits of taurine. They’ve even studied taurine in the setting of helping to optimize the human microbiome and the stronger than our microbiome is, the better our immune system response is. In the advancements in experimental medicine and biology, they talk about this, they talk about how taurine has this very powerful and impactful effect on the intestinal microbiome, as well as really helping to enhance the reaction rate within our immune cells. And so, we look, and we say, well, this is supposed to be this amino acid that’s great for our brain, great for our heart. But look at how impressive it is in terms of creating this wonderful balance within our gut microbiome and even making that much stronger, and that’s what the trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism Journal zeroed in on, looking at how that microbiome, this very efficient barrier to help fight off infections is really heavily reliant on so many things, including amino acids and in particular the amino acid taurine. † [00:06:47]

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[00:06:48] A lot of times we look at glutamine, for example, but we now recognize that taurine is also key to supporting the gut microbiome. There are many research trials out there showing how taurine itself has these very powerful anti-inflammatory effects. In the Journal of Nutrients in 2020, they talked about this. They talk about how the taurine itself is working to regulate the way that the body’s inflammatory system is working and if we have a heightened inflammatory response that can lead to significant issues with neuroinflammation, as well as inflammation throughout the cardiovascular system. So, we know that it’s more than just working for that excitable tissue in the body. It’s more than just powering up our mitochondria, which we know that’s one of its mechanisms of action. It works for the facilitation of energy production, but it also possesses its own antioxidant properties, which is why through all of this research, it’s now been populated over the course of many decades. We can really categorize taurine as being this powerful anti-aging nutrient because it’s targeting all of the things that we know accelerate aging, chronic inflammation, high levels of oxidative stress and free radicals all of these things that we know are detrimental to the longevity of our cells, and yet by taking this amino acid, we can help to offset or to negate that. And that in and of itself is incredibly powerful. So, there are many different therapeutic applications of using Taurine from blood pressure regulation to support of healthy brain function and for focus attention for memory. We can see how it helps to stabilize the cellular membranes, how it is helping the body when it comes to detoxification, which is why it’s been studied in the setting of different hepatic disorders, budding cirrhosis. We can see how it is improved cardiometabolic markers, improving outcomes when it comes to healthier cholesterol transport, helping to support folks who have conditions such as metabolic syndrome, to improve upon not only their lipid profile, but to also support and enhance insulin sensitivity so they have a better blood sugar response. So, we look at Taurine and we say, is this really the fountain of youth amino acid? And indeed, we know that taurine and all of its multiple mechanisms of action leads us down this path to allow for better mitochondrial function, for better energy production in turn for a better inflammatory response to bolster up our immune defenses, to help us fight off not only intrinsically born free radicals, but also extrinsically exposed free radicals that we come in contact with on a regular basis. † [00:09:54]

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[00:09:55] And this is why when researchers start to look at all of the ways that this little amino acid is packing such a punch. We definitely can now categorize it as being an anti-aging molecule, and it’s found in nearly all tissues, which is what makes it so unique to be able to see its benefit for cardiovascular health, for liver health, for brain health and in turn for extending lifespan. We know that the average American oftentimes once again is deficient in adequate taurine exposure just due to poor lifestyle choices as well as the food intake. So, if we’re looking at taurine deficiencies, we can say, well, how do we fix this if we have an inadequate exposure to something, what is the solution? Well, the solution is via supplementation. We look at products like Cardio Hx, which is going to give you a wonderful amount of taurine, along with magnesium, and a very powerful antioxidant known as Hawthorn extract. So, we’re helping to support not just cardiac function but also thinking of all of those other ways that Taurine is working to support our overall health. And so higher intake of taurine has been shown to be correlated with longer life and if we can extend our life span, this is always a wonderful thing. So, I thought I would just talk a little bit today about why it is that Taurine is in the news, why it should be in the news, and why it will remain in the news, because we can see how taurine and its action of neurogenesis being able to create new brain cells. So, if you have dinged up or dented brain cells, we want to be able to fix that and we can see how taurine is working to do that. It has this really wonderful neuroprotective property to it and helps the brain create and regenerate new healthy brain cells. Which leads to better cognitive function, and at the same time, we’re yielding those benefits throughout the entire body for all of the ways to which taurine is packing its multiple punches. So, whether you’re thinking about just kind of tuning up your brain or tuning up your heart, at the end of the day, we know that taurine is going to help us make our way to the fountain of youth, which is a wonderful, wonderful thing. So, I want to thank you so much for tuning in to the Invite Health podcast. Remember, you can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting, invitehealth.com/podcast. Do make sure that you subscribe, and you leave us a review. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Invite Health, and we will see you next time for another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. † [00:09:55]

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