Live data from Hacker News

Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging

science.org

181–190 of 301 posts

Re: Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alcohol is a carcinogen, so if you’re optimizing for “living longer” you should take exactly 0 mL a day. If you’re optimizing for living happier, on the other hand…

Now do weed.

Genome-wide DNA methylation association study of recent and cumulative marijuana use in middle aged adults https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-023-02106-y

Re: Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging

#182

Taurine? I've been jacking myself full of that since Middle School! Thanks RedBull! Jokes aside, This feels like one of "Wine is Good for you " In moderation and other fine point details. Not buying it.

Do they actually have mice drink wine?

Re: Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging

#183

I order stuff off the Internet from time to time including taurine, is there an easy/cheap way to test things that come through the post from Amazon or another company are Taurine and don’t contain things they shouldn’t? The supplement industry strikes me as dubious! Is there a better way to think about this?

Look for supplements with the NSF Certified for Sport mark. Order direct from the manufacturer instead of Amazon which is full of counterfeit products.

https://www.nsfsport.com/

Re: Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging

#184

I'm confused. Taurine is found in meat, fish, and apparently, RedBull. But I thought there was a negative correlation between health/aging and eating lots of meat and RedBull. Is there a secret source of taurine that I'm missing? If I double up on fish, can I expect to live longer, assuming I don't accidentally increase my mercury levels?

No one has ever proven a direct causal relationship between (unprocessed) red meat consumption and poor health. The studies which purport to show a link are all low quality observational studies that suffer from the healthy subject effect and failed to control for some confounders. If there is a real effect it is very small, much less significant than total calorie intake.

Re: Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging

#185

I'd be curious to know why taurine in blood declines with age? Though supplementation is fine, if the diet stays the same, what is happening in the body that makes it unable use the taurine which is naturally in food. Also, apparently only animal products contain taurine, and vegans have lower levels of taurine. https://veganhealth.org/protein/taurine-and-carnitine/

In general the digestive system becomes less effective at extracting all amino acids as we age. This is why elderly people need to increase their protein intake in order to avoid sarcopenia.

Re: Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging

#186

Solid study, but the core results are based on a single genotype of mouse — C57BL/6J. Imagine a clinical study of longevity using 120 clones of you or me. Taurine may be effective at extending lifespan and healthspan of C57BL/6J mice but will it work as well using genetically diverse mice such as the UM-HET3 mice? Like humans, the UM-HET3 mice are genetically diverse (they segregate for about 11.5 million sequence va…

Whats your thoughts on the dosage? They use 1g per kg of body weight! If I drank Monster to get the equivalent dosage I think I'd probably die... How did they arrive on that dosage?

Trials like these usually use herculean doses like this. If you remember, the "aspartame can kill you" trials also used an incredible amount of aspartame to kill the mice.

Re: Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've developed sleep problems as I've gotten older, but I've never touched Red Bull. We can't draw any generalizable conclusions from isolated anecdotes like this.

Sleep naturally degrades as we age. So potentially the "development" is less a result of doing or not doing something versus just the degradation of sleep as a natural part of the aging process.

Sleep degradation is really not a natural consequence of aging. Rather it tends to be caused by negative lifestyle factors typically correlated with age, in particular obesity. Let's be clear about the causality here.

Re: Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging

#188
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdata: a heavy (2 x 8oz cans/day) consumer of Red Bull I got sleep problems starting around 34. Can't be sure they are related, but Red Bull is definitely the main suspect.

I've developed sleep problems as I've gotten older, but I've never touched Red Bull. We can't draw any generalizable conclusions from isolated anecdotes like this.

Because unfortunately, your problem as you get older is baggage - the worst thief of sleep of all time. Sorry, no cure unless you're a zen stoic psychopath. Would love to achieve that designation myself.

Re: Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging

#189

Solid study, but the core results are based on a single genotype of mouse — C57BL/6J. Imagine a clinical study of longevity using 120 clones of you or me. Taurine may be effective at extending lifespan and healthspan of C57BL/6J mice but will it work as well using genetically diverse mice such as the UM-HET3 mice? Like humans, the UM-HET3 mice are genetically diverse (they segregate for about 11.5 million sequence va…

Didn't read the study, but would it be good if they had 120 clones of you and gave 60 taurine and 60 a placebo, and the taurine ones showed better longevity?

Re: Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging

#190
If you're old, Eat more protein.

Anyone doing any degree of attempt to recover (lost) muscle tone as an older person is told 'eat more protein' to help "feed" muscle mass rebuilding after the exercise induced stresses which are heading to "bigger muscles"

So if you eat more protein, you're going to get Taurine.

Drinking a can of "monster" is not the answer.

Does this mean "exercise extends life" is actually .. the protein you eat building muscle is supplying the taurine you need to extend life?

(no: more muscle is a net good all of its own. it helps with diabetes/insulin issues, it helps with core stability == less accidents. it helps with preventing bone loss. it helps with cardio. but ... )

Post reply on HN