Thanks Curious and Desert shores. I am interested if the difference people experience with Taurine may be due to some action it has on unmasking repressed emotions. I am aware from my work that people often do not recognise physical symptoms of strong emotion especially when it is chronic.
For example, my father once misdiagnosed himself with Malaria after a visit to Vanuatu when he was in fact experiencing emotional distress from separating from my mother.
In my case, the effect of Taurine on my sleep has been the opposite of this research. But when I awake there generally is something that I must attend to of a deeply emotional nature before my day begins. On other nights where things are in good order it helps me sleep more deeply.
Workout days are easy for dosing - on the other days I will try 4gms at night before bed and see how I goes.
Learning how to go about my life no longer stuck in one track thinking is a much harder challenge. Kind of like starting all over in learning how to explore what is out there. It is kInd of like the difference between sitting in a theatre watching a movie where you have a single focus and get frustrated if the story does not stay on track and remain cohesive, as opposed to stepping outside the theatre where life is totally different, being much more immersive, random, chaotic and experiential.
Ordered Nutricost 1000mg taurine caps and some nacet. Both showed up last night, so took one of each.
Almost immediately, felt like I’d swallowed a balloon - very uncomfortable stomach bloat.
Significant jitteriness. Prominent tingling. (Took a shower, and that was a weird sensory experience.)
After a couple hours, these effects started to diminish. Was able to go to sleep with the usual 5mg melatonin.
Ok, so I took two things at once, which is the culprit?
Couple hours ago, I took another taurine cap. Same result as above - uncomfortable bloat, jitters, and tingling. It’s just now starting to diminish. No upside apparent.
Will take the nacet this afternoon, hopefully it’s not the same experience, that would be confusing.
.I found this, and I am curious if someone has experience with Taurine and light, medium, or heavy drinking. Any kind of effects on hangovers? Sleep? Drowsiness?
*“Microdialysis studies have revealed that ethanol elevates extracellular levels of taurine in numerous brain regions, although the functional consequences of this phenomenon are currently unknown. Finally, taurine and several related molecules including the homotaurine derivative acamprosate (calcium acetylhomotaurinate) can reduce ethanol self-administration and relapse to drinking in both animals and humans. Taken together, these data suggest that the endogenous taurine system may be an important modulator of effects of ethanol on the nervous system, and may represent a novel therapeutic avenue for the development of medications to treat alcohol abuse and alcoholism.”
I am an intermittent binge drinker and I also supplement with 1g of taurine a day. I did not notice any difference from supplementing with Taurine. When I drink I take 2-3g of Pantethine to accelerate the conversion of acetaldehyde to acetate I also take 1g of DHM (Raisin Tree). I am not sure how the DHM helps. It is an HDAC inhibitor, but I am not sure that is how it helps. It does, however. Also if I wake feeling a bit manky because of the alcohol I make sure I take a solid dose of melatonin which clears any residual hangover. Hence it may be I would not notice the effects of alcohol and taurine because I take a lot of things to minimise the harm from alcohol. I would argue there is still harm, however.
I am persisting with the Taurine experiment. First the upsides and later the downsides.
Taking 2gms just before bed and two grams when I wake through the night did help me get back to sleep much faster. My watch said good deep sleep but I still felt like I was drifting in and out of sleep many times. After a few nights of this I added a sleep supplement with Lactium and JuJube and wow that was full on. For the past three nights I have had over 4 hours deep sleep a night with excellent heart rate dip and also slept longer. The jitters I had when I first started the Taurine (and some bloating too len5742 ) have subsided. I woke this morning and my face looked noticeably younger and my skin plumper and thicker.
Taking Taurine before my workouts has gotten better and better. While feeling relaxed now (I didn’t at the start) I also feel motivated to workout longer and harder. My muscle recovery is better and the high I get after exercise lasts much longer. I am also taking life as it comes much better.
On the downside it kind of feels like I am becoming addicted to exercise in a not entirely good way. I usually work out every other day in order to still get my work done. The last few workout days have been amazing but the non workout days a real drag. I feel tired and lousey and wish I had gone to the gym. Exercise has always made me feel good but I have not ever been dependant on it to feel good before, and so this is of slight concern.
I am also very tired through the days I don’t exercise. I am hoping this is just a phase my body is going through from getting so much deep sleep. That things are healing inside of me and I should just run with it and once my body has been rejuvinated my daytime energy will come back. How long I give this will need to be a matter of instinct I guess.
I have run out of my other sleep supplement and so just went out and bought some dried jujube today and will grind some up in warm soy milk before bed. I figured I would try and break down each ingredient to see how each is affecting me. That said I started back on Berberine a few days ago and so perhaps that is making me tired through the day but I don’t think so.
Someone can correct me if I’m wrong but I believe Berberine acts like Metformin so if you have just started back on that then it could be the cause of tiredness as your blood glucose levels might be that much lower.
Thank you! Yes it could be the Berberine! I am pushing through with this trial and today after another amazing nights sleep I didn’t feel so tired this morning. I did do a short workout this morning and so am feeling really energised now.
The jujube fruit is interesting. I put about three (six halves) dried ones in a seed grinder and powdered it and added it to some warm Bonsoy with a bit of vanilla last night before I went to bed. Nice flavour and a better nights sleep than I generally get with the Taurine without it. Not quite as good as the sleep supplement I was taking with jujube and Lactium, I might leave half the cup of jujube milk to swallow my Taurine with when I wake in the middle of the night and see how that goes.
I did some research on Jujube fruit that was exciting. Many people (especially the jews) think it was the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. The tree that gave longevity, which jujube is known for in the East. It has a lot of interesting positives including tons of vitamin C, bioflaveniods and amino acids.
The dried fruit is pretty cheap and easy to come by in Asian grocers. It is traditionally taken at night to improve sleep. It also controls cholesterol which is one of the downsides of Taurine. Blood sugar disregulation can apparently also be an issue with Taurine. That is why I am back on the Berberine.
All in all, the results with the Taurine are looking a lot more positive than when I first started. It has been a bumpy road but if I look back I am making solid progress in my fitness. sleep and emotional regulation. Even if the journey hasn’t always been comfortable I am starting to get excited about where this one might take me.
I usually take 3-4 gr of glycine + magnesium threonate + apigenin before I go to bed. It gives me a much improved sleep. If I should wake up in the night, then I take 1 - 3 gr Taurine. (3 gr might not be better than 1-1,5 gr). Sometimes I only take 2-3 gr Taurine before I go to bed. Both strategies work well for me. Lately I have preferred the first one. .
But last night, before I went to bed, I added Taurine, and changed to magnesiumglycinate. (4 gr glycine and 1.5 gr Taurine). My sleep was terrible. In my case, if the goal is to improve sleep, the combination of glycine and Taurine, should not be taken together.
I have tried combining glycine and taurine before, and the outcome has been the same.
Glycine blocks the absorption of taurine so both amino acids should not be used at the same time. You should wait 2-4 hours for the glycine to clear. Beta alanine also blocks taurine absorption and glycine blocks beta alanine. They all use the same receptor for uptake and glycine has preference.
oh, I am aware that taurine and glycine compete for the same Gabaergic receptors in the brain. But have not been aware that they also compete when it comes to absorption.
Apologies, I take Glycine and Taurine together in my protein shakes. I’ve Google searched and all sources are saying they can be taken together and in fact are synergistic. Please would you provide your source so that I can see if I need to change the timing of my Taurine and Glycine. Many thanks, Walt
In our family Kool-Aid I mix in Taurine, magnesium, vitamin c and niacinamide. We all drink from it. So I can be sure that everyone is getting at least a little bit of supplementation. Especially considering hubby has rather high BP and we’ve been TTCing.
I have to find a balance between the amount of supplements and the taste. The vitamin c, magnesium and niacinamide can be a bit bitter. So I have to work out how to supplement without altering the taste.
FWIW: I have been taking 4 grams of taurine daily for years. But, now I am concerned that this may not be enough to produce any significant results. Based on the mouse study in the video they were giving the mice a 1 gram dose. This would be an equivalent dose of 20 to 30 grams for an adult human.
Dose equivalency is an area that is quite confusing to me.
I asked ChatGBT this question, and of course, since it is ChatGPT it may be a total lie:
"If a lab experiment was giving a mouse one gram of a supplement, what would that equate to in an adult human?
ChatGPT:
"Converting dosages from animals to humans is a complex process that involves factors like body weight, metabolism, and the specific supplement being used. Generally, dosage conversion from animal studies to human studies is not a straightforward linear process, and it requires careful consideration of several variables.
Body surface area (BSA) scaling is one method used to estimate equivalent dosages between species. The concept of BSA scaling accounts for the differences in metabolic rate and body size between animals and humans. However, even BSA scaling has limitations and is not always accurate for all substances.
A commonly used formula for BSA scaling is the Gehan and George equation:
BSA (human) = k * (weight^0.6667)
where weight is in grams and k is a constant that depends on the species. For mice, the value of k is around 10. For humans, it’s typically around 37.
Assuming the weight of the mouse is around 20-30 grams, let’s use an average weight of 25 grams for calculations:
BSA (mouse) = 10 * (25^0.6667) ≈ 76.35
Now, for an adult human, let’s assume an average weight of 70 kilograms:
BSA (human) = 37 * (70000^0.6667) ≈ 1861.71
Now, to find the equivalent dosage for a 1-gram supplement given to a mouse:
Equivalent human dosage = (BSA human / BSA mouse) * Mouse dosage
Equivalent human dosage = (1861.71 / 76.35) * 1 gram ≈ 24.4 grams"
A study using 5 grams of taurine produced no results.
A statement from another study about supplementation says:
"However, this approach does not work in human skeletal muscle as the processes involved in the transport of taurine into the muscle are resistant to large and prolonged increases in plasma taurine following oral taurine supplementation. At present, attempts to influence muscle function with taurine supplementation can only occur through interactions outside the muscle cell in humans.
