Why wouldn’t you take taurine and beta alanine? Is there a scientific reason?
I am asking because my father takes both and we are unaware of any bad interactions. But if there are any, please let me know!
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Research Breakdown on Beta-Alanine - Examine
"9.2 Taurine Deficiency
Due to taurine and beta-alanine sharing the same transporter, a taurine deficiency can be experimentally induced by beta-alanine overfeeding. One study on rats showed that this deficiency may lead to a greater susceptibility to alcohol-induced liver fat buildup (something taurine normally protects against[133]) by coupling a large dose of alcohol (36% of caloric intake) with a fairly small dose of beta-alanine (3% of drinking water).[126] This dose of beta-alanine has also been noted to induce cardiac effects in mice, including remodelling[134] and lipid peroxidation.[129]
In animals, this 3% intake of beta-alanine in water may reduce circulating levels of taurine by 50%[127] to 77%[128] and cardiac levels of taurine by 16.6% to 22.7%.[129]
Prolonged cellular exposure to beta-alanine appears to reliably induce taurine deficiency. In animal studies, cellular taurine can be reduced by up to 77% with continual administration of beta-alanine via the drinking water."
Note: The above is from animal studies But I choose to be conservative in my approach and not take the risk that beta alanine would cancel out the effects from Taurine.
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So, in essence, don’t take beta-alanine and take taurine. Thanks for that!
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Which might argue the same case for Carnosine. I had stopped taking Carnosine because of the tingling, but it is interesting if there is a good reason to avoid too much beta alanine. However, reading further through Examine’s pages it appears that any taurine deficiency is likely to be transient. It is still, however, an interesting point.
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According to this, beta alanine does not appear to be a net benefit. Taurine on the other hand appears to be excellent.
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And also, “In fact, one study calculated the effects on the glycine receptor by finding that the strongest agonist was glycine, followed by Beta-Alanine and finally, Taurine. Based on these assumptions, there is also the potential that, with simultaneous intake of Taurine and Beta-Alanine, the second will block the Taurine.” According to the same reasoning, theoretically, glycine might potentially block Taurine.
If this is a fact, between Glycine and Taurine. there is a tough call to make. Both have good science behind their use for longevity. The goal for me is to avoid the decreased levels of glutathione and Taurine, that comes with age. one logic would be , not to ingest them at the same time. The level of Taurine in plasma goes back to normal 6-7 hours after ingestion. This brings me to take Collagen + NAC in the morning and Taurine in the evening.
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Taurine in your coffee works as long as the amount of taurine is lower than the caffeine.
A high taurine:caffeine ratio promotes sleep, while a low ratio of taurine:caffeine inhibits sleep to a greater extent than the equivalent amount of caffeine alone. This intriguing enhancement of caffeine action by low doses of taurine may account for the presence of both compounds in energy-promoting drinks such as Red Bull® and Monster®.
Based on what I have found this seems to be the best plan of action for supplementation:
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Have a bit of taurine in my morning coffee (1-2 g)
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Have a lot of taurine in my non-caffeinated tea at noon (1 tbsp - 5-6 g)
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Have my collagen and glycine at night before bed in my non-caffeinated tea (1 tbsp glycine + 11 g of collagen)
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I might try that strategy to.
I get enhanced performance, even with a minor amount of Taurine (0,4 gr or slightly more) and coffee even when it is taken rather close to my exercise. That fits into the observation that low amount of Taurine enhance the effects of caffeine. Taurine improves performance in more than one way. It is compatible with the fact that Taurine acts on several systems in the body, Heart, Type 1 muscle fibers, Mitochondria etc., and now a low amount of Taurine potentiate the performance-enhancing effect of caffeine.
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It’s an interesting plan. I take only 1g of Taurine per day, which seems not enough, but will increase now by 1g. I take collagen (12 g) in the morning with my kefir and other supplements including Taurine (will exclude carnosine now). Collagen at night could prevent overnight fasting - it’s my reason to take it in the morning.
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Collagen tends to have glycine in it so there is a question as to whether to take taurine separately. You could take Collagen in the morning and Taurine at lunch time. I have generally taken Collagen at 6am and Taurine at 8.30-9am, but I am changing my daily cycle to wake up later so I may move taurine to lunchtime.
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You are right, there’s 2,700 mg of Glycine in my collagen. So, Glycine and Taurine don’t work together well?
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Tim, At age 73 I notice nothing with 3 grams of taurine in the morning. I’ve tried it blended with coffee and coconut oil an hour before any food and I’ve tried it with breakfast. It doesn’t seem to improve my endurance with a non-stop mile swim nor my physical strength with sprints or pullups. The most effective supplement I use to improve my workout routine (and mood) continues to be caffeine in the form of coffee. I commonly find that supplements promoted as exercise enhancers such as beta alanine don’t work for me. So, maybe age does play a part.
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Forgive me, but I thought the case for beta-alanine was to produce serum/cellular carnosine, which helps remove advanced glycated compounds (such as cross linked collagen or proteins glued with glucose) (which should be a clear longevity benefit)?
If you are saying “I take beta-alanine/carnosine for performance enhancement” I’d respond “take creatine, or secondarily taurine”, but I’m not sure carnosine would be my first choice for performance enhancement So this would be a clear case for beta-alanine (longevity, rather than performance).
(I am being a touch defensive because I have a very limited stack currently — GlyNAC, vitamin D, and just added finasteride and collagen — and have a kg bag of creatine I’d like to start taking (as soon as I do blood tests with cystatin and creatinine eGFR measurements) and also beta-alanine (for carnosine, as described above). Did I make a wrong choice of carnosine (beta-alanine) instead of taurine for longevity?
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Everything, @Jay, gets hyped. When I first started taking beta-alanine, the literature said to expect a modest 5-7% improvement–modest to us amateurs, though not to Olympians and world record holders. What I noticed with b-a is that I could swim the length of the pool without taking a breath, whereas before I always needed at least one gulp of air. I was very happy with this slight improvement.
The science also said at the time that the enhancement doesn’t increase with larger doses. Now I look at sites such as body building forums where everyone is boasting about getting massive gains from taking mega-doses. Well, maybe. There are always those who insist that more is better.
Age is certainly a factor. You’ve probably noticed that recovery from an injury takes longer. And I wouldn’t be surprised if supplements such as taurine and b-a have an age-related decline in effectiveness. But you and I are lucky to be as active as we are. My goal now is just to keep going, not necessarily to keep getting stronger and faster.
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The ergogenic effect of beta alanine is not as well established as creatine but still much better than taurine
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AIUI it is a transporter conflict issue.
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It’s not that beta alanine is terrible per se. However it competes with glycine and taurine for absorption. I guess if you wanted to take all 3 supplements you could space them out evenly throughout the day in 7-8 hour intervals.
If you only want to have one or two periods where you dose supplements, you’ll have to make a choice between the amino acids. For me, I would rank them in this order of importance:
- Taurine
- Glycine
- Beta alanine
For me the choice is easy as I am allergic to beta alanine and can’t take it anyways. I can take taurine and glycine at different times.
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Why T > G? What’s the rationale?
The U of Columbia study is more convincing to me than the Baylor and ITP results on glycine. They’re both great, and I will continue taking both. Frankly it’s kind of a toss up and you could easily make the argument to switch the order.
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