Taurine is an organic acid present in animal tissues that makes up 0.1% of human body weight. It is not technically an amino acid but is often referred to as one. Taurine levels decline with age, obesity, and diabetes, and diets lacking animal products are deficient in taurine. Taurine has a wide array of benefits including regulating heart function, improving blood sugar control, aiding weight loss, reducing cardiovascular disease risk, improving exercise performance, and supporting liver and brain health. The document recommends including taurine in paleo protein products due to its many health benefits.

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Taurine is an organic acid that is present and
widely distributed in animal tissues only,
making up approx. 0.1% of human body weight.
It is technically not an amino acid as it lacks a
carboxyl group, however, it is often referred to
as one even in the scientific literature.
Taurine

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High dietary intake of taurine is noted in all
long-living populations studied.
It has been dubbed, “The nutritional factor for
the longevity of the Japanese.”
Strong epidemiological evidence suggests that
certain groups with the longest life spans
consume higher amounts of taurine than others
so there appears to be a causation-related
mechanism rather than simply a correlation.
Taurine

3. Taurine levels decline with age, obesity, and
diabetes (obesity & diabetes: epidemic).
Although the body is able to produce taurine,
aging bodies are often not able to produce
sufficient amounts.
Vegan and vegetarian diets are lacking in taurine.
Deficiency is also a/w: liver, kidney &/or heart
failure, diabetes, and cancer, all are known to
cause taurine deficiency.
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Taurine

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It has a wide array of benefits, so many that it has been
Paleo Proteins Perfected
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described as “a wonder molecule.”
Taurine is found throughout the body, but esp. in tissues
containing excitable cells like nerves and heart muscle.
It’s vital for proper function of the minerals potassium,
calcium, magnesium, and sodium.
It regulates heart rhythm, cardiac contraction, blood
pressure, and platelet aggregation, and regulates the
excitability of neurons.
It detoxifies liver cells of various toxins, helps form bile
acids and maintains cell membrane stability. It reduces the
synthesis of lipids and cholesterol that are associated with
atherosclerosis.
Taurine

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Diabetes & blood sugar regulation:
1. Taurine helps improve or restore insulin sensitivity, improve
glucose tolerance, & mitigate diabetic complications.
2. It improves glucose transport into energy producing cells thereby
lowering Blood Sugar.
3. It supports nerve fiber integrity (potentially slowing or reversing
painful diabetic neuropathy).
4. Taurine also fights glucose-induced oxidant stress and preserves
the health of light-sensing cells in diabetic retinopathy.
5. Increases the action of insulin, improving glucose tolerance,
and acts as an antioxidant.
6. Supplemental taurine has been shown to aid in fat loss,
reduce obesity, restore healthy insulin sensitivity and enhance
blood sugar regulation while helping to prevent the onset of
type 2 Diabetes.
7. Taurine also helps prevent and reverse many of the negative
consequences of diabetes.
Taurine

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Obesity & weight loss:
Found useful in weight loss (3gms/d for 7
wks), most likely related to its many positive
roles relating to blood sugar regulation.
Additionally, obesity has been found to
reduce taurine levels creating a vicious cycle
that further promotes obesity.
Taurine

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Cardiovascular Disease: Taurine has been shown to reverse
cardiovascular disease factors,
It also reduces triglycerides and the “atherogenic index.”
Supplementation (1.5g / d) for just 14 days has shown to
reverse diabetes-induced abnormalities in arterial
stiffness and in the ability of the vasculature to respond
to changes in blood flow or pressure.
Taurine has also been shown to help protect heart
function and helps to prevent heart muscle damage.
Taurine

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Taurine & CVD con’t: Taurine supplementation strengthens
heart muscle cells, extends their life spans, and protects them
from damage, while reducing many of the factors that
produce atherosclerosis and its deadly consequences.
Taurine supplementation lowers blood pressure in animal
models by reducing the resistance to blood flow and
minimizing nerve impulses in the brain that drive blood
pressure up.
Supplementation has been found to reduce arterial
thickening and stiffness characteristic of atherosclerosis, to
restore arteries’ responses to beneficial endothelial NO, and
to reduce inflammation.
Taurine

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Taurine & CVD con’t:
Shown to lower oxidative stress and improve heart function in
iron-overloaded mice (the journal Circulation, April 20,2004).
Taurine accounts for 25% of the free amino acid pool in the
human heart and possesses potent antioxidant properties.
Deficiency has been correlated with dilated cardiomyopathy.
The authors conclude that in this mouse model of iron-overload,
“taurine supplementation has unequivocal
beneficial effects on survival and cardiac structure and
function, with marked reductions in iron-induced oxidative
stress.
Taurine

10. Exercise related:
Shown to improve exercise performance and duration with
less fatigue;
Helps muscles work harder, longer, and safer;
increases muscle contractility;
helps muscle rid itself of lactic acid;
Protects muscles from oxidative stress and damaged DNA…
Liver Health: taurine is an integral part of the liver’s self-protective
mechanisms. Shown to defend liver cells
against free radicals and toxins, helping to reduce
oxidative stress.
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Taurine

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Neurological:
Seizures: taurine plays a major role in the regulation of
excitable tissues. Taurine depletion is a/w > seizure activity
while supp T is capable of preventing them. Appears to work
via > levels of glutamic acid decarboxylase which > GABA
receptors in brain cells, calming them and < likelihood of
participating in the random, uncoordinated electrical firing
that produces seizures.
Taurine and hearing: plays a vital role, studies have shown it
can reverse the biochemical processes behind hearing loss in
some cases. Also shown to almost completely eliminate the
ringing in the ears a/w tinnitus. Taurine helps restore and
control normal Ca ion flow in auditory cells (a/w “hair cells”
which are the nerve cells that convert sound waves into
Taurine
electrical energy).

12. Taurine and the eyes: found in very high
concentrations in the retina, it declines with age.
Fights oxidative stress (esp in diabetes) and helps
restore deficient levels of nerve growth factor
(required for retinal health).
Deficiency a/w numerous vision problems: retinal
ganglion cell degeneration and retinal dysfunction in
kids, shown to ameliorate diabetic retinopathy, strong
evidence suggests it plays a vital role in maintaining
optimal retinal function.
T protects retinal and inner ear cells from damage,
normalizing the flow of calcium ions they need to
function properly.
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Taurine

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Finally, Evidence is growing for taurine’s role in:
Preventing epileptic seizures and liver disease,
two conditions that can be attributed to toxic
effects on delicate tissue.
Clearly we’d be fools not to include extra Taurine
in our Paleo Proteins Perfected Line.
Taurine

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GoTo: SuperfoodMix.com to locate stores that
carry them, or to order them directly
if there are no stores near you.
Taurine