Supplements manufacturers sometimes promote taurine as a substance that helps strength athletes to train more intensively. According to an ex-vivo study that sports scientists at Victoria University in Australia published in the Journal of Applied Physiology the supplements manufacturers are not just making this up. Taurine supplementation does indeed strengthen muscles.
Supplements manufacturers sometimes promote taurine as a substance that helps strength athletes to train more intensively. According to an ex-vivo study that sports scientists at Victoria University in Australia published in the Journal of Applied Physiology the supplements manufacturers are not just making this up. Taurine supplementation does indeed strengthen muscles.
Muscle cells, heart cells and the testes contain large amounts of taurine, and it seems that taurine has important functions in these cells. Experiments have shown that taurine supplementation boosts endurance capacity, the functioning of the heart muscle [Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2008 Dec;18(10):691-9.] and testosterone production. An overview of our postings on taurine can be found here.
The researchers gave male rats taurine for two consecutive weeks. They added the substance to the animals’ drinking water and as a result the amount of taurine in their muscles increased by 40 percent.
Athletes who use taurine will not experience such a big increase in such a short time; they would need to take taurine for longer. The dose that the Australians gave their animals was in human terms on the high side. The human equivalent of this dose would be in the region of several tens of grams per day.
At the end of the two weeks, the researchers subjected muscles in the rats’ paws to electrical stimuli and measured how strongly the muscles were able to contract. Compared with the muscles in a control group, which had not been given taurine, supplementation with taurine boosted the isometric twitch force by 19 percent, they discovered.
When the researchers got the muscles to contract for long periods of time, they observed that taurine delayed the decrease in strength. The figure above shows this.
Supplements manufacturers sometimes promote taurine as a substance that helps strength athletes to train more intensively. According to an ex-vivo study that sports scientists at Victoria University in Australia published in the Journal of Applied Physiology the supplements manufacturers are not just making this up. Taurine supplementation does indeed strengthen muscles.
The figure below probably reveals how taurine supplementation helps muscles to contract more intensively. It boosts the amount of the protein calsequestrin [structure shown here] in the muscle cells.
Calsequestrin is involved in calcium transport in cells. As muscle cells contract they need to pump calcium ions in and out of the parts that contract. Because taurine boosts the calsequestrin concentration, pumping the calcium ions is apparently easier.
“Our results point to a potential ergogenic effect of raising muscle taurine content with oral supplementation”, the researchers write. “Further work is required to investigate the mechanism of taurine’s action and whether similar results can be obtained in healthy and diseased human populations.”
Taurine supplementation increases skeletal muscle force production and protects muscle function during and after high-frequency in vitro stimulation.
Goodman CA, Horvath D, Stathis C, Mori T, Croft K, Murphy RM, Hayes A.
Source
School of Human Movement, Recreation and Performance, Victoria University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
goodmanc@unimelb.edu.au
Abstract
Recent studies report that depletion and repletion of muscle taurine (Tau) to endogenous levels affects skeletal muscle contractility in vitro. In this study, muscle Tau content was raised above endogenous levels by supplementing male Sprague-Dawley rats with 2.5% (wt/vol) Tau in drinking water for 2 wk, after which extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles were examined for in vitro contractile properties, fatigue resistance, and recovery from fatigue after two different high-frequency stimulation bouts. Tau supplementation increased muscle Tau content by approximately 40% and isometric twitch force by 19%, shifted the force-frequency relationship upward and to the left, increased specific force by 4.2%, and increased muscle calsequestrin protein content by 49%. Force at the end of a 10-s (100 Hz) continuous tetanic stimulation was 6% greater than controls, while force at the end of the 3-min intermittent high-frequency stimulation bout was significantly higher than controls, with a 12% greater area under the force curve. For 1 h after the 10-s continuous stimulation, tetanic force in Tau-supplemented muscles remained relatively stable while control muscle force gradually deteriorated. After the 3-min intermittent bout, tetanic force continued to slowly recover over the next 1 h, while control muscle force again began to decline. Tau supplementation attenuated F(2)-isoprostane production (a sensitive indicator of reactive oxygen species-induced lipid peroxidation) during the 3-min intermittent stimulation bout. Finally, Tau transporter protein expression was not altered by the Tau supplementation. Our results demonstrate that raising Tau content above endogenous levels increases twitch and subtetanic and specific force in rat fast-twitch skeletal muscle. Also, we demonstrate that raising Tau protects muscle function during high-frequency in vitro stimulation and the ensuing recovery period and helps reduce oxidative stress during prolonged stimulation.
PMID: 19423840 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE] PMCID: PMC2711783
