Taurine is a vitamin produced by the body and found in many foods. According to a new study led by Columbia academics and including hundreds of ageing specialists from across the world, taurine insufficiency is a factor in animal ageing.
The same research revealed that taurine supplementation can delay the onset of ageing in worms, mice, and monkeys and can even boost the healthy lifespans of middle-aged mice by up to 12 per cent.
The findings of the study were published June 8 in Science.
“For the last 25 years, scientists have been trying to find factors that not only let us live longer, but also increase healthspan, the time we remain healthy in our old age,” says the study’s leader, Vijay Yadav, PhD, assistant professor of genetics & development at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
“This study suggests that taurine could be an elixir of life within us that helps us live longer and healthier lives.” Over the past two decades, efforts to identify interventions that improve health in old age have intensified as people are living longer and scientists have learned that the aging process can be manipulated.
Many studies have found that various molecules carried through the bloodstream are associated with aging. Less certain is whether these molecules actively direct the aging process or are just passengers going along for the ride. If a molecule is a driver of aging, then restoring its youthful levels would delay aging and increase healthspan, the years we spend in good health.
Taurine first came into Yadav’s view during his previous research into osteoporosis that uncovered taurine’s role in building bone. Around the same time, other researchers were finding that taurine levels correlated with immune function, obesity, and nervous system functions.
“We realised that if taurine is regulating all these processes that decline with age, maybe taurine levels in the bloodstream affect overall health and lifespan,” Yadav said.