

The purpose of this review is to investigate the literature to date surrounding the effectiveness of taurine supplementation on exercise outcomes: aerobic adaptations and performance, anaerobic (strength and power) performance, muscle soreness, and recovery.

However, taurine doses have ranged from 500 mg/d to 10 g/d in published human trials.

Following this absorption phase, taurine levels return to baseline within 6.5 h (hrs). Importantly, several factors such as taurine ingestion timing, delivery format, and exercise protocol contribute to taurine’s impact on performance. Notably, plasma concentrations of taurine increase ~ 10 min after ingestion and generally peak (0.03 to 0.06 mmoL) ~ 1 h following ingestion. Taurine supplementation often occurs through oral ingestion of capsules or taurine-rich beverages. Accordingly, taurine has been used as a potential ergogenic aid to improve athletic performance. Taurine plays a beneficial role in diverse metabolic and physiological processes, such as glucose and lipid regulation, energy metabolism, anti-inflammatory modulation, and antioxidant actions. Rich sources of dietary taurine come from the consumption of animal proteins. Taurine is especially abundant in skeletal muscle.
Taurine supplement side effects free#
Taurine is a sulfur-containing amino acid that can be derived from cysteine metabolism and accounts for 50–60% of the free amino acid pool. More investigations are needed to better understand the potential effects of taurine supplementation on aerobic and anaerobic performance, muscle damage, metabolic stress, and recovery. The timing of taurine ingestion as well as the type of exercise protocol performed may contribute to the effectiveness of taurine as an ergogenic aid. There are mixed findings for the effect of taurine consumption on improving recovery from training bouts and/or mitigating muscle damage. Limited and varied findings prohibit definitive conclusions regarding the efficacy of taurine on aerobic and anaerobic performance and metabolic outcomes. Taurine dosing appears to be effective at ~ 1–3 g/day acutely across a span of 6–15 days (1–3 h before an activity) which may improve aerobic performance (TTE), anaerobic performance (strength, power), recovery (DOMS), and a decrease in metabolic markers (creatine kinase, lactate, inorganic phosphate). Taurine also caused a change in metabolites: decrease in lactate, creatine kinase, phosphorus, inflammatory markers, and improved glycolytic/fat oxidation markers ( n = 5 articles). Key results include improvements in the following: VO 2max, time to exhaustion (TTE n = 5 articles), 3 or 4 km time-trial ( n = 2 articles), anaerobic performance ( n = 7 articles), muscle damage ( n = 3 articles), peak power ( n = 2 articles), recovery ( n = 1 article). A total of 19 studies met the inclusion criteria for the review. Articles were excluded if taurine was not the primary or only ingredient in a supplement or food source, not published in peer-reviewed journals, if participants were older than 50 years, articles published before 1999, animal studies, or included participants with health issues. Peer-reviewed studies that investigated taurine as a single ingredient at dosages of < 1 g - 6 g, ranging from 10 to 15 min-to-2 h prior to exercise bout or chronic dose (7 days- 8 weeks) of consumption were included. Google Scholar, Web of Science, and MedLine (PubMed) searches were conducted through September 2020. While the effectiveness of taurine as an ergogenic aid remains controversial, this paper summarizes the current evidence regarding the efficacy of taurine in aerobic and anaerobic performance, metabolic stress, muscle soreness, and recovery. Taurine has become a popular supplement among athletes attempting to improve performance.
