Taurine: the Mystery Nonessential Amino Acid

Nonessential Amino Acid Tuarine
Probably few bodybuilders have ever heard of the so-called nonessential amino acid taurine, but it just may become as much a part of your vocabulary as protein and Vitamin C. Taurine appears in free form only in animal protein, never in the vegetable kingdom. Therefore a vegetarian is more likely to show a deficiency symptom than one who eats animal protein.

Taurine can be biosynthesized in the liver if enough methionine (an essential amino acid) is consumed in the diet. Like methionine, taurine is one of our few sources of sulphur. Taurine and methionine are key links in the biochemical process known as methylation. Methylation is a process that affects the prostaglandins, the group of powerful hormones or hormonelike substances that regulate blood pressure and are involved in other important body functions.

Taurine was first discovered as a complex of nitrogen in ox bile and later found in high concentrations in the liver, heart and brain. It wasn’t long before researchers discovered that taurine played a major role as a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system of animals, including humans. An interesting discovery that came out of this research is the fact that growth hormone produced in the pituitary gland cannot biosynthesize the hormone when there is insufficient amounts of taurine. When children displaying growth hormone insufficiency were given oral doses of both free amino acid taurine and methionine, a marked increase in growth hormone was observed.

Bodybuilder Supplements

Study shows that almost every neurological malfunction is due, at least in part, to insufficient taurine. What does this mean to you as a bodybuilder? Simply that even a slight deficiency may be responsible for the muscles’ inability to reach a pump because of poor electrochemical responses in the muscle fibers. What you can do is take a good supplement source of taurine, such as Universal Animal Pump or Gaspari SuperPump 250. It has been estimated that there may be as many as 30 million people in the United States who are deficient in taurine. One study indicated that a deficiency of taurine in vegetarians also showed a correspondingly lower than normal level of Vitamin E in the body. It was found that when there wasn’t sufficient taurine in the diet, Vitamin E could not link up with lipoproteins, which may account for the fact that victims of muscular dystrophy have very low levels of both taurine and Vitamin E.

Methionine and Taurine Deficiencies
Interestingly, research shows that women may have a higher requirement for taurine than men. A few years ago when the “liquid diet” was in vogue, several deaths from users (mostly women) were reported. Now evidence seems to indicate that this diet was deficient in methionine and taurine.

In almost every case, these people died of heart failure. Taurine is a key factor in the regulation of many minerals, especially, the electrolytes, through osmosis. When taurine or methionine levels are too low, the first signs are usually irregularities in fluid balance in the body, which ultimately results in severe losses of minerals from the cells and potassium from the heart. Lastly, taurine has been found to resemble insulin in its effects on blood metabolism. In fact, some evidence suggests that many diabetics otherwise dependent on insulin found they could either reduce the amount of insulin they were taking or in some cases cut it out entirely when they took taurine. It appears that taurine then can pinch-hit for insulin and act as a blood sugar regulator.

Once considered only an accessory in the machinery of metabolism, taurine has opened up a new field among researchers. Make sure your diet is high in animal protein, especially organ meats, eggs, and milk.

Author: Rex Grogan
No part of the article Taurine: the Mystery Nonessential Amino Acid may be duplicated or reproduced without written permission from WheyProteinBenefits.com.