---
title: Does Taurine Slow Aging? The Trial That Would Settle It Already Finished
slug: does-taurine-slow-aging
category: Supplements
datePublished: 2026-08-11
dateModified: 2026-08-11
author: Roy Sañudo S.
reviewedBy: Roy Sañudo S.
lastReviewed: 2026-08-11
lang: en
url: https://animacosmi.com/articles/does-taurine-slow-aging
---

# Does Taurine Slow Aging? The Trial That Would Settle It Already Finished

A cheap amino acid made mice live longer, and the researchers themselves ended their paper by asking for human trials. Those trials have now been run. One finished in November 2025, at one of the labs that wrote the original paper, and its results have not been published.

There may be a jar of taurine in your kitchen from the summer of 2023, when the headlines said a cheap amino acid had made laboratory animals live longer. Here is the part nobody told you: the scientists who wrote that paper ended it by saying somebody should now test this in humans.

Somebody did. A trial that measured exactly this finished collecting its data in November 2025, at one of the labs behind the original paper. Nine months later its results have not been published. In the meantime, two separate teams knocked out the assumption the whole idea was built on.

## What did the 2023 study actually find?

It was not a small paper, and it was not one lab. It ran in worms, mice and monkeys, and its [author list](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37289866/) runs past thirty institutions, among them the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, the University of Washington and the Wellcome Sanger Institute.

The animal results were real. Mice given taurine lived longer and stayed healthier. Monkeys got healthier.

The human part was different. Nobody gave taurine to a person. Researchers compared different people at one moment in time and found that those with less taurine in their blood had more age-related disease. That is a correlation, and the authors said so. Their closing line asks for what did not exist yet: clinical trials "seem warranted to test whether taurine deficiency might drive aging in humans."

## What changed in 2025?

Somebody followed the same people over time, instead of comparing different people of different ages.

In June, a team led from the [US National Institute on Aging](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40472098/) measured taurine across three groups on two continents: the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, a cohort in Mallorca, and one in Atlanta run with Emory University. Taurine went up with age, or stayed flat. Not down. Same in monkeys and mice, the animals in the original paper.

Their sharper finding was not about the direction at all. One person’s taurine swung around so much over their own life, and differed so much between people of the same age, that it cannot really tell you anything about anybody.

Four months later an independent group at the Université du Québec à Montréal measured [137 men aged 20 to 93](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41061678/). No link between taurine and age, muscle mass, strength, physical performance, or how well the mitochondria in their muscle worked.

## So was the first study wrong?

Not exactly. Vijay Yadav, the senior author of the 2023 paper, has a specific answer rather than a brush-off. His study looked at people from birth to sixty. The 2025 one looked at thirty to ninety. And [roughly seventy per cent of the fall he found happens between birth and thirty](https://www.aaas.org/news/when-opposite-scientific-findings-collide), before the newer study starts counting. After thirty, he says, levels hold steady, then drift up slightly after sixty. Which is close to what the 2025 team measured. If he is right, both sides are describing the same curve from different ends.

A second limit sits in neither press release. All of these studies measured taurine in blood. Most of your taurine is inside cells, in muscle and brain, at far higher concentrations. Nobody has followed tissue taurine in people as they age. So "taurine does not fall with age" is a smaller claim than it sounds. It is about a blood test, in adults.

## Has anyone given taurine to people and measured what happened?

Three times. What each one measured matters more than that it happened.

The largest gave 6 grams a day to [236 people over 75 around hip surgery](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26035756/). What it set out to change was deaths and complications. It did not change them. A smaller one gave 1.5 grams a day to [24 women aged 55 to 70 for 16 weeks](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35700594/). It is titled as an anti-aging trial, and what went up was one antioxidant enzyme in the blood, which is not aging. A third gave taurine to [48 older women alongside exercise](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29474803/). Only the group doing both improved on the memory test. Taurine alone did move two inflammation markers, just not the one that measures thinking.

Three trials, none of them measuring whether anyone aged more slowly.

## The trial that would settle it has already finished

In 2024 the Technical University of Munich, one of the labs on the 2023 paper, started the trial it had called for. Ninety people aged 55 to 75, four grams a day or a placebo, six months. What it set out to measure was biological age: not how many birthdays you have had, but how worn the body looks from the inside. They measured it twice over, once from chemical tags on the DNA and once from proteins in the blood.

It finished collecting data on 13 November 2025 ([NCT06613542](https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06613542)). The results are not published.

Rutgers, where Yadav works now, is listed as a collaborator on it, alongside Stanford. Yadav has said he helps oversee a trial of four grams a day for six months in older adults: this one's design.

A second trial is running in Hong Kong, giving 3 grams a day to healthcare workers for six months ([protocol published 2026](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42201902/)). It tracks biological age too, though what it is built to detect is blood sugar control.

So: not debunked. Answered soon, by the people who disagree about it.

## Where does the three-gram dose come from?

A mouse. The doses you see recommended are scaled from what mice drank, and no human trial has compared one anti-aging dose against another.

Food puts it in perspective. Seafood and dark meat carry the most, white meat and beef much less, plants essentially none. When researchers compared vegans with meat-eaters, the vegans ate [no taurine at all, and their blood levels were only slightly lower](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3676193/). Your body makes its own and holds the level fairly steady. That is a hard thing to top up by swallowing more, and it may be why a can of Red Bull, at 1,000 mg, has never made anyone younger.

## Why is it still sold for aging, then?

Because nothing about the business depended on the science being right. Taurine is a cheap bulk ingredient already made at industrial scale for energy drinks and animal feed. Selling it for aging never required a new factory or a clinical programme. A label changed, so when the science moved there was nothing to unwind.

The 2023 paper says plainly that Columbia University filed patent applications naming Yadav as an inventor. Universities do that with almost anything their researchers find, and he put it in the paper himself rather than leave someone else to dig it up. Whether it colours how you read him is your call. We would just rather you knew.

## Is it safe?

As far as anyone has measured, yes. European food-safety regulators [reviewed taurine in energy drinks in 2009](https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/j.efsa.2009.935) and found no safety concern at realistic intakes. France banned Red Bull for twelve years partly over taurine, then [lifted the ban](https://www.france24.com/en/20080715-twelve-year-ban-lifted-original-red-bull-beverages) without new evidence of harm.

The honest caution is not the taurine, it is what it usually arrives in. Energy drinks bring caffeine and sugar, and those are the ingredients with a track record. And nobody has tested 3 to 6 grams a day for years in healthy people, so a clean record at ordinary intakes is not a tested one at supplement doses.

## What should you do tomorrow?

If you already take taurine: nothing here says stop. It is cheap, it looks safe at these amounts, and the trial that could justify it reports soon. Finish the jar if you want to.

If you do not take it: there is no reason to start yet. Wait for Munich.

Either way, the thing worth doing tomorrow is not in a jar. Sleep, walking and lifting something heavy all have human trials behind them, which is more than taurine can say. We have been just as blunt about [the last supplement everyone was talking about](/articles/anti-aging-supplement-everyone-talking-about) and about [a drug people hope slows aging](/articles/does-ozempic-slow-aging).

We will update this page when Munich publishes. When we get something wrong, we say so in our [editorial standards](/editorial-standards).

## Where the science stands

- (strong) Two independent 2025 studies found circulating taurine increases or stays flat with age in adults, and varies too much to work as an aging biomarker: three cohorts in Baltimore, Mallorca and Atlanta (PMID 40472098), and 137 men aged 20 to 93 in Montreal (PMID 41061678).
- (moderate) The 2023 finding was real in animals. Taurine extended lifespan in mice and improved health markers in monkeys (PMID 37289866). Its human component was a single-timepoint correlation, and its authors called for human trials.
- (early) The trial built to answer the question has finished and not reported. The Technical University of Munich completed a 90-person randomised trial on 13 November 2025 with biological age as its primary outcome, measured two ways (NCT06613542).
- (moderate) The commonly recommended 3 gram dose is scaled from mouse studies (PMID 37289866). No trial has compared one anti-aging dose against another in people.

**Where the research agrees:** Independent teams at the US National Institute on Aging (PMID 40472098), the Université du Québec à Montréal (PMID 41061678) and Emory University agree that taurine measured in the blood does not fall as adults get older. The authors of the original 2023 paper agree that the human question was open when they published, and said so in the paper (PMID 37289866).

**Where it is still debated:** When taurine falls, if it falls. Vijay Yadav, senior author of the 2023 paper, says his study covered birth to 60 while the 2025 study covered 30 to 90, and that roughly 70% of the decline happens between birth and 30 ,  before the newer study starts counting ,  with levels then steady to 60 and drifting up after that. If so, both sets of results are compatible (AAAS, June 2025 press briefing). Separately, every study on both sides measured taurine in blood rather than in muscle or brain tissue, where most of the body's taurine sits, so no one has yet tracked tissue taurine across a human lifespan.

## FAQ

### Does taurine slow aging in humans?

Nobody has published evidence that it does. The 2023 Science paper that started this (Singh et al., PMID 37289866) extended life in mice and improved health in monkeys, and its human data was a correlation measured at one moment in time, not a trial; the authors' own conclusion asked for human trials. Two 2025 studies then measured taurine in people's blood over time and found circulating levels do not decline with age in adults, and vary too much to serve as a marker of anything: a National Institute on Aging-led study across cohorts in Baltimore, Mallorca and Atlanta (PMID 40472098), and an independent study of 137 men aged 20 to 93 in Montreal (PMID 41061678). That is a claim about blood, in adults. Most of the body's taurine sits inside cells, and no one has tracked tissue taurine across a human lifespan.

### Has taurine been tested in a human trial?

Yes, and the trial designed to answer the aging question has already finished. The Technical University of Munich gave 4 grams a day or a placebo to 90 people aged 55 to 75 for six months, measuring biological age by DNA methylation and by protein analysis; it completed on 13 November 2025 (NCT06613542) and its results are not yet published. A second trial in Hong Kong is giving 3 grams a day to healthcare workers, with biological age among its secondary measures (protocol, PMID 42201902). The three earlier human trials measured other things: surgical deaths and complications in 236 people over 75, which did not change (PMID 26035756); one antioxidant enzyme in 24 women, which rose (PMID 35700594); and taurine with exercise in 48 older women, where only the combined group improved on the memory test (PMID 29474803).

### How much taurine should I take?

There is no human-tested answer for aging. The 3 gram figure circulating online is scaled from the amount mice drank in the 2023 study (PMID 37289866), and no trial has compared one anti-aging dose against another. The Munich trial chose 4 grams a day and the Hong Kong trial 3 grams, so an answer may exist soon. For scale, a standard 250 ml can of Red Bull contains about 1,000 mg. Seafood and dark meat are the richest food sources and plants contain essentially none, though vegans' blood taurine is only slightly lower than meat-eaters' because the body makes its own (PMID 3676193).

### Is taurine safe?

There is no established harm at the amounts people normally consume. The European Food Safety Authority reviewed taurine in energy drinks in 2009 and found no safety concern at realistic intakes (EFSA Journal 2009;7(2):935), and France's ban on Red Bull, in place from 1996 to 2008, was lifted without new evidence of taurine-specific harm. What has not been studied is 3 to 6 grams a day taken for years by healthy people. The largest trial to date gave 6 grams a day to 236 people over 75 for about a week around surgery without a safety signal (PMID 26035756), which is reassuring about short-term use and silent about long-term use.

## Key Takeaways

- A randomised trial with biological age as its primary outcome finished in November 2025 at the Technical University of Munich and has not published its results (NCT06613542, 90 people aged 55 to 75)
- Two independent 2025 studies found blood taurine goes up or stays flat with age in adults, not down (PMIDs 40472098, 41061678)
- The 2023 result was in worms, mice and monkeys; its human part was a correlation, and the authors asked for human trials (PMID 37289866)
- The 2023 paper's senior author says roughly 70% of the fall happens between birth and age 30, and the 2025 study started counting at 30
- Vegans eat no taurine and their blood levels are only slightly lower than meat-eaters', because the body makes its own (PMID 3676193)

## Citations

- Harvard Medical School, Department of Genetics (Dr. David Sinclair)
- Yi et al., GeroScience: "The efficacy and safety of beta-nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) supplementation in healthy middle-aged adults: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-dependent clinical trial" (2023). PMID 36482258. Note: the paper states it was fully funded by Aba Chemicals and Abinopharm, the manufacturers of the NMN tested; 3 of 10 authors are their employees. "Biological age" was estimated with the Aging.Ai 3.0 blood-biomarker calculator, not an epigenetic clock.
- Chen et al., Current Diabetes Reports: "Effects of Nicotinamide Mononucleotide on Glucose and Lipid Metabolism in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials" (2024; 8 RCTs, n=342; no significant effect). PMID 39531138
- Prokopidis et al., Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle: "The Effect of Nicotinamide Mononucleotide and Riboside on Skeletal Muscle Mass and Function: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis" (2025; 10 trials; no significant pooled effect). PMID 40275690. DOI 10.1002/jcsm.13799
- Zhang et al., Nutrients: "Effects of Nicotinamide Mononucleotide Supplementation on Blood Pressure: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials" (2026; 10 RCTs, n=349; diastolic BP -2.15 mmHg). DOI 10.3390/nu18060890
- Trętowicz et al., Nature Metabolism: "Human whole-blood NAD+ levels do not vary with age or lifestyle interventions" (Amsterdam UMC, 2026). DOI 10.1038/s42255-026-01537-5
- Nature Metabolism: "Whole-blood NAD+ levels do not reflect healthy ageing" (2026). DOI 10.1038/s42255-026-01540-w
- Sandalova, Lim et al., GeroScience: "Testing the amount of nicotinamide mononucleotide and urolithin A as compared to the label claim" (National University of Singapore and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 2024; 15 products, 0-104.5% of label, 3 with no detectable NMN). PMID 38935229. DOI 10.1007/s11357-024-01257-2
- Wakabayashi et al., Scientific Reports: "Sublingual NMN administration increases early circulating terminal catabolites 2PY and 4PY compared with oral administration in healthy adult men" (2026; n=14 crossover; no difference in blood NMN or NAD+ between routes). DOI 10.1038/s41598-026-57552-9
- Bieganowski & Brenner, Cell: "Discoveries of nicotinamide riboside as a nutrient and conserved NRK genes establish a Preiss-Handler independent route to NAD+ in fungi and humans" (Dartmouth Medical School, 2004). PMID 15137942
- Trammell et al., Nature Communications: "Nicotinamide riboside is uniquely and orally bioavailable in mice and humans" (University of Iowa, 2016; n=12 single-dose pharmacokinetic study). PMID 27721479. DOI 10.1038/ncomms12948
- Martens et al., Nature Communications: "Chronic nicotinamide riboside supplementation is well-tolerated and elevates NAD+ in healthy middle-aged and older adults" (University of Colorado Boulder, 2018; n=24 crossover). PMID 29599478. DOI 10.1038/s41467-018-03421-7
- Grozio et al., Nature Metabolism: "Slc12a8 is a nicotinamide mononucleotide transporter" (2019; rebutted by Schmidt & Brenner, "Absence of evidence that Slc12a8 encodes a nicotinamide mononucleotide transporter", Nature Metabolism 2019, DOI 10.1038/s42255-019-0085-0). PMID 31131364. DOI 10.1038/s42255-018-0009-4
- Massudi et al., PLOS ONE: "Age-associated changes in oxidative stress and NAD+ metabolism in human tissue" (2012; n=49 skin samples; the origin of the widely repeated "NAD+ halves by 60" claim, which the study did not measure). DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0042357
- US FDA: NMN dietary-supplement exclusion (2022), reversed by agency letters dated 29 September 2025 and confirmed December 2025
- Singh P., Gollapalli K., ... Yadav V.K., Science: "Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging" (2023). PMID 37289866. DOI 10.1126/science.abn9257. Lifespan extension in mice and worms, health-span improvement in monkeys; the HUMAN data is cross-sectional correlation only. The authors conclude clinical trials "seem warranted." Columbia University filed provisional patent applications naming the senior author as an inventor, disclosed in the paper.
- Fernandez M.E. et al., Science: "Is taurine an aging biomarker?" (2025). PMID 40472098. DOI 10.1126/science.adl2116. Three human cohorts measured LONGITUDINALLY ,  the NIA Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, a Balearic Islands cohort (IdISBa, Mallorca) and the Atlanta PREMED cohort (Emory) ,  plus monkeys and mice. Circulating taurine increased or stayed unchanged with age, with high within- and between-person variability.
- Marcangeli V. et al., Aging Cell: "Experimental Evidence Against Taurine Deficiency as a Driver of Aging in Humans" (2025). PMID 41061678. n=137 men aged 20-93, Université du Québec à Montréal. No association between circulating taurine and age, muscle mass, strength, physical performance or mitochondrial function. Male-only sample.
- van Stijn M.F. et al., Int J Mol Sci: "Effect of oral taurine on morbidity and mortality in elderly hip fracture patients: a randomized trial" (2015). PMID 26035756. n=236, aged 75+, 6 g/day. PRIMARY endpoint (in-hospital morbidity, 1-year morbidity/mortality) NOT met; a secondary oxidative-stress marker improved.
- Abud G.F. et al., Nutrition: "Taurine as a possible antiaging therapy: A controlled clinical trial on taurine antioxidant activity in women ages 55 to 70" (2022). PMID 35700594. n=24, 1.5 g/day, 16 weeks. What rose was superoxide dismutase, an antioxidant enzyme ,  not an aging endpoint. Underpowered.
- Chupel M.U. et al., Appl Physiol Nutr Metab: "Exercise and taurine in inflammation, cognition, and peripheral markers of blood-brain barrier integrity in older women" (2018). PMID 29474803. n=48. Cognition (MMSE) improved only in the exercise-plus-taurine arm; taurine alone moved two inflammation markers and not cognition.
- Technical University of Munich, ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06613542: 90 adults aged 55-75, 4 g/day taurine vs placebo, 6 months, with BIOLOGICAL AGE as the primary outcome measured by DNA methylation and by proteomic analysis. Status COMPLETED 13 November 2025; results not published as of August 2026.
- Rana S.K. & Sanders T.A., Br J Nutr: "Taurine concentrations in the diet, plasma, urine and breast milk of vegans compared with omnivores" (1986). PMID 3676193. Taurine was ABSENT from the vegan diet and urinary taurine was under half that of omnivores, yet plasma levels were only slightly lower ,  endogenous synthesis holds the circulating level up.
- European Food Safety Authority: first positive safety opinion on beta-NMN at 300 mg/day (May 2026). NMN remains unauthorized as an EU novel food pending European Commission authorization.

## Common prompts this article answers

- Does taurine slow aging in humans?
- Has taurine been tested in a human trial?
- How much taurine should I take?
- Is taurine safe?
- What did the 2023 study actually find?
- What changed in 2025?
- So was the first study wrong?
- Has anyone given taurine to people and measured what happened?
- Where does the three-gram dose come from?
- Why is it still sold for aging, then?
- Is it safe?
- What should you do tomorrow?