L-Taurine

Taurine is well tolerated in trials, and most of the questions we get are about what it's really for. These are the questions our naturopaths ask in store.

A good fit if

• You're an adult looking to support your heart health and you want the form the trials used
• You'd like taurine without the caffeine and sugar in an energy drink
• You're happy with a daily supplement and a steady, modest effect rather than something you feel straight away

Check with us first if

• You take blood pressure medicine. Taurine affects the same measure, and the combination hasn't been studied.
• You take insulin or other diabetes medicine. Taurine changed glucose measures in trials, so the effects could add up.
• You're using a high-dose pre-workout with lots of ingredients alongside very hard training.

• Taurine capsule or powder. Best known for: The form used in nearly every clinical trial, usually at 1.5 to 3 g a day. Absorption: We found no study comparing forms. Blood taurine rose on 1.6 g a day in a 12-week trial. Typical use: Taken daily on its own, without caffeine.
• Energy drink. Best known for: Regulated as a food, not a medicine, with a legal limit of 2,000 mg in a one-day quantity. Absorption: Not measured separately. Typical use: A quick lift, but reviews put that down to the caffeine and sugar rather than the taurine.
• Taurine with caffeine (pre-workout). Best known for: In a network meta-analysis, the pairing improved anaerobic capacity and reaction time more than either on its own. Absorption: Not measured separately. Typical use: Before training. The evidence is mixed, and another review calls any extra benefit from the pairing implausible.
• Magnesium taurate. Best known for: Sold as a calming or heart-friendly magnesium. Absorption: We found no human study. Typical use: Not a listed ingredient in its own right in Australia, and it won't give you the 1.6 to 3 g of taurine the trials used.

Reference values. There's no recommended intake for taurine. Your body makes its own from cysteine, so it's classed as conditionally essential rather than essential.

Typical supplemental range. Trials mostly used 1.5 to 3 g a day, which a large pooled analysis found was the most effective range. The best-known heart trial used 1.6 g a day for 12 weeks. Capsules in Australia are usually 500 to 1,000 mg, so two or three a day gets you to a trial dose.

Upper level. The TGA sets no daily cap on taurine in listed medicines. A formal risk assessment found strong evidence of no side effects at up to 3 g a day in healthy adults. Trials have used more, but the data above 3 g wasn't strong enough for a confident long-term conclusion.

Worth knowing. What you need depends on your age, diet and health, so talk to one of our naturopaths.

Food first, where the diet allows it.

• Meat, fish and shellfish: the main dietary sources. Reliable amounts per serve weren't available in our sources
• Energy drinks: about 342 mg per 100 mL on average
• Energy drink, legal maximum: 2,000 mg of taurine per one-day quantity

If any of these sound like you, talk to one of our naturopaths or your doctor before you start.

• Blood pressure medicines. Pooled trials show taurine lowers blood pressure, so an added effect is foreseeable. There's no interaction study, so talk to your prescriber.
• Glucose-lowering medicines, including insulin. Taurine lowered fasting glucose and HbA1c in trials, including in people on medicine for type 2 diabetes. There's no interaction study, so talk to your prescriber.
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding. There's no trial evidence, as these groups were excluded from trials. We don't recommend it.
• Children and teenagers. We don't recommend taurine supplements outside clinical care.
• A known sensitivity to taurine. Trials excluded people with it. Don't take it.
• High-dose multi-ingredient pre-workouts with extreme training. There's one case of severe muscle breakdown (rhabdomyolysis) with kidney and liver injury, though it wasn't attributed to taurine.
• Dose. The safety ceiling with strong evidence is 3 g a day in healthy adults.