Taurine

What Is Taurine?

Taurine is often called an amino acid, and it nearly is. It carries an amino group but ends in a sulfonic acid rather than a carboxylic one, so the body never builds it into protein. It stays free inside cells instead. Meat, shellfish and dairy carry it; plants essentially do not.

How It Works in the Body

The body makes taurine from cysteine and puts it to three main uses. In the liver it is hooked onto bile acids to form taurocholic acid, which keeps bile water-soluble enough to emulsify fat. Inside cells it works as an osmolyte: cells move taurine in and out to hold their volume steady as salt concentrations shift. And in excitable tissue it sits among membrane phospholipids, where it steadies the handling of calcium.

What It Supports

• Fat digestion: Taurine is conjugated onto bile acids in the liver, so it plays a role in normal bile formation.
• Cell volume: Cells use taurine as an osmolyte to hold their water balance steady.
• Heart and muscle: Cardiac and skeletal muscle hold the body's largest taurine pools, where it is involved in calcium handling.
• Eyes: The retina is among the most taurine-rich tissues in the body, and taurine is required for its normal structure.

Who It May Suit

Taurine comes almost entirely from animal foods, so vegans and vegetarians take in very little of it. This suits them, and anyone who wants the compound itself rather than the energy drinks it is known from. The capsule is cellulose with rice flour.

Good To Know

This is free-form taurine, meaning it is already the finished molecule and dissolves readily in water. Talk with your healthcare provider before use if you have reduced kidney function, since the kidneys clear taurine, or if you take heart or blood pressure medication.