Taurine Offsets Multiple Stressors of High Blood Sugar

When your fasting blood sugar rises above 90 your body enters into a state of stress trying to deal with extra sugar. This is true long before blood sugar rises to the level of type 2 diabetes. The extra sugar in your circulation is a challenge for the health of your arteries, heart, liver, pancreas, kidneys, and eyes. A number of new studies show that supplemental taurine can help combat the stress of high blood sugar and act as a tool to assist in normalizing your blood sugar regulating systems.

A new Irish study shows that taurine supplementation in young type 1 diabetic patients can prevent changes in the circulatory system that otherwise reduce circulation. Advanced diagnostic tools showed significantly less arterial stiffness and better blood flow as a result of taurine supplementation — thereby preventing some of the first adverse changes that send a person with higher blood sugar in the direction of cardiovascular disease. Earlier these researchers had proven how taurine helps produce friendly nitric oxide (eNOS), which is known to relax the circulatory system and promote healthier blood pressure. The implication of these findings to a large population of Americans with progressively elevating blood sugar levels is significant. The researchers concluded that “[taurine supplementation] may have important implications in the long-term treatment of diabetic patients and their subsequent progression towards atherosclerotic disease.”

The Western diet is inundated with high fructose corn syrup — a substance that I repeatedly state should be banned from all foods. A new animal study shows that taurine supplementation can offset the negative health consequences of this excess dietary sugar. The researchers found that taurine lowered insulin resistance by 56%, triglycerides by 22%, and LDL cholesterol by 21%. Furthermore, taurine reduced the excess production of cardiovascular-damaging free radicals and unfriendly nitric oxide (iNOS) to those of control animals. The researchers stated, “Our results indicate that high fructose diet could induce insulin resistance which could further result in metabolic syndrome, and that taurine has a protective role against the metabolic abnormalities induced by this diet.”

Other researchers have recently shown that taurine can protect against high blood sugar induced damage to the retina of the eye — a major health complication of high blood sugar over time.

It is well known that high blood sugar alters liver and kidney health in conjunction with a dramatic increase in free radical damage to these vital metabolic organs. Chinese researchers have shown that taurine supplementation to diabetic animals can improve the enzyme function in liver and kidneys while boosting the core antioxidant system (glutathione) and reducing free radical damage.

Collectively these studies show an important role for supplemental taurine in any person who is overweight and headed in the direction of the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.