Interest in taurine primarily stems from its potential beneficial effects on athletic performance and potential mitigation of cardiovascular risk factors.
Taurine was first used to treat heart failure patients and demonstrated the ability to improve symptoms — as evidenced by improved cardiac output and stroke volume — which spurred research to determine whether it elicited other cardioprotective effects.[1] While some evidence supports the use of taurine in the treatment of heart failure,[2] there are few studies on the topic[3] and further high-quality randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm potential benefits.
More recent evidence demonstrates that taurine modestly reduces blood pressure, and it seems to be more effective in people with prehypertension or hypertension.[4][5][6] Taurine may also reduce total cholesterol and triglyceride levels.[5]
Taurine is a common component of energy drinks, which have been shown to enhance various aspects of physical performance (e.g., endurance exercise performance, vertical jump height).[7] However, energy drinks also contain caffeine, among other ingredients, so it is unclear how much of their benefit can be attributed to taurine.
Because taurine levels are much higher in type I (“slow twitch”) than type II (“fast twitch”) muscle fibers, most studies have investigated whether taurine supplementation improves endurance exercise performance.[8] Taurine appears to have a small positive effect on time to exhaustion in both untrained healthy people and older adults with heart failure.[9] In contrast, taurine does not seem to benefit time trial performance.
Research on whether taurine improves muscle strength and power is limited and inconclusive,[10] and the effect of taurine on reducing symptoms of delayed onset muscle soreness and accelerating recovery following exercise is equivocal and requires further research.[11][12][13][14]