938 replies to this topic

[Ariventa]

Just thought I let you guys know about my experience with Taurine. I was taking about 3 grams a day and avoiding HFC like the plague and I was clearing very well. Heck I cleared 95% then something aweful happened. I was at work and thought I was having a heart attack so they rushed me to the hospital. To make a long story short they said that I suffered a accute migrain attach! This was after 9 hours in horrible head pain and had to get a CT scan and a lumber puncture (spinal tap) from which I still suffer from back pain oh and a $2000 hospital bill (that insurance covered thankfully). The doctor asked me if I was drinking alot of energy drinks lately and I said no. I then told him about the supplements that I was taking and he said stop taking all of them especially the taurine! I had 3 of these attacks before but they weren't as severe so I just wrote them off as really bad head aches. I stopped taking taurine and haven't touched the stuff since (3 months now) and not a single migraine. But now my acne has returned

Thanks for sharing. Events like this are always the risk people run when they take isolated supplements, no matter how supposedly "safe" or "natural" people think they may be.

[LiliVG]

Just thought I let you guys know about my experience with Taurine. I was taking about 3 grams a day and avoiding HFC like the plague and I was clearing very well. Heck I cleared 95% then something aweful happened. I was at work and thought I was having a heart attack so they rushed me to the hospital. To make a long story short they said that I suffered a accute migrain attach! This was after 9 hours in horrible head pain and had to get a CT scan and a lumber puncture (spinal tap) from which I still suffer from back pain oh and a $2000 hospital bill (that insurance covered thankfully). The doctor asked me if I was drinking alot of energy drinks lately and I said no. I then told him about the supplements that I was taking and he said stop taking all of them especially the taurine! I had 3 of these attacks before but they weren't as severe so I just wrote them off as really bad head aches. I stopped taking taurine and haven't touched the stuff since (3 months now) and not a single migraine. But now my acne has returned

Wow, Thank you for letting us know your experience. I'm sorry you had to go through that. Did the doctor tell you how Taurine would have contributed to causing your migraines? I've never heard of that before.

[AcneMonster]

Just thought I let you guys know about my experience with Taurine. I was taking about 3 grams a day and avoiding HFC like the plague and I was clearing very well. Heck I cleared 95% then something aweful happened. I was at work and thought I was having a heart attack so they rushed me to the hospital. To make a long story short they said that I suffered a accute migrain attach! This was after 9 hours in horrible head pain and had to get a CT scan and a lumber puncture (spinal tap) from which I still suffer from back pain oh and a $2000 hospital bill (that insurance covered thankfully). The doctor asked me if I was drinking alot of energy drinks lately and I said no. I then told him about the supplements that I was taking and he said stop taking all of them especially the taurine! I had 3 of these attacks before but they weren't as severe so I just wrote them off as really bad head aches. I stopped taking taurine and haven't touched the stuff since (3 months now) and not a single migraine. But now my acne has returned

Wow, Thank you for letting us know your experience. I'm sorry you had to go through that.

No worries I might not be able to take pure taurine but that does't mean that everyone else shouldn't. It's great stuff just some people like me have a sensitivity to it. Thanks alot LiliVG for the info on high fructose corn syrup. Now I look more closely at every label to make sure this stuff is either not in it or in very low quantities. This info on HFC alone is gold! I'm back to B5 after a long break from it and I forgot how well it worked. Now with my avoidance of HFC it will work even better. Thanks again

[janus]

Just thought I let you guys know about my experience with Taurine. I was taking about 3 grams a day and avoiding HFC like the plague and I was clearing very well. Heck I cleared 95% then something aweful happened. I was at work and thought I was having a heart attack so they rushed me to the hospital. To make a long story short they said that I suffered a accute migrain attach! This was after 9 hours in horrible head pain and had to get a CT scan and a lumber puncture (spinal tap) from which I still suffer from back pain oh and a $2000 hospital bill (that insurance covered thankfully). The doctor asked me if I was drinking alot of energy drinks lately and I said no. I then told him about the supplements that I was taking and he said stop taking all of them especially the taurine! I had 3 of these attacks before but they weren't as severe so I just wrote them off as really bad head aches. I stopped taking taurine and haven't touched the stuff since (3 months now) and not a single migraine. But now my acne has returned

holy shit. good you are okay . maybe a good idea first timers to start on a very low dose

[janus]

I think I linked to that page at some point a while back in the thread. LOTS of info there!

Ive just stated takeing bromelain and taurine 2x500 bromelain and about 1 grams taurine
2x a day. I have only been on it for a small week, and haven't noticed any real improvement yet
I buy the NOW Foods tauine powder and NOW Foods bromelain 500mg its dirt cheap, so its definitely wort a try. will report back how it turns out, good ore bad
5% discount code for iherb KIX143

ps: Taurine capsules are a total rip off, just buy a big cane and it will last you a long time

here is what I have noticed in the past 2 weeks. my skin does looks clearer, and if I get a pimple the pimple goes away allot quicker. there is definitely an improvement in my skin
I think anyone who suffer from inflammation should at least try it out
ps:if anyone knows any good cheap supplement stores in europe then pl post them

update, I have begun taking it every other day only, but the positive result seems to remain
I also belive my skin is less dry, but I have only been taking breaks
for about 10 days so who knows. but I believe what a poster earlier wrote about taking breaks as mean not to develop tolerance. one strange thing I have noticed, it feels like it makes me sleepy if I take it before bedtime.

[MROTH720]

I was thinkking since fructose is so hard on the liver alcohol must be a terrible thing due to the fatc that directly affects livers fat metabolism, and also increses glucose levels rapidly and drops blood sugar levels short after like sugar does. so would alcohol be worse than fructose?

[LATOO]

I'm on accutane and I read Vit A(which is accutane) increases taurine levels. Does this mean im already getting the right amount of taurine???

[MROTH720]

is it possible to breakout 2 or 3 days after eating fructose or hfcs?

[LivesInABox]

Ouch - I'm really sorry to hear that happened. I always worry about things like this happening, especially as a similar thing happened to me with cod liver oil, although not as bad as in your case. Under the many desperate attempts i had to "cure" my acne with a magic supplement bullet, i followed the advice on here to swap from o3 fish oil, to cod liver oil and ramp it upto 3g's per day. I did this for two weeks. After taking my last teaspoon for that day i started feeling dizzy. Then my vision became slightly blurred and then i nearly fell over. After that i felt sick, my vision totally went, my hearing became impaired, i couldn't stand properly and i felt like i was dying. I was put into bed, and managed to sleep it off, even though i went to the doctors and he told me i probably had a severe vitamin A overdose, and could have eventually resulted in my death, so of course i stopped taking the cod liver oil immediately, and i've been fine ever since - and i've even resumed taking 1g of cod liver oil split into two per day (with a day off every fortnight) and have felt great - so for me it was just the dangerous dose building up over time.

Obviously i don't recommended you go back on taurine - but you could try and incorporate more of it naturally with eggs & meat and keep to a low fructose diet if the taurine was helping you. Theres was about 3-4 other people (out of around 30+) that had bad reactions to taurine (even though taurine is made by the body, and is in meat & eggs naturally). My advice would be to make sure you get enough B vitamins, and essential amino's through food so that you give your body the best tools to make taurine if it wants it. Do you drink a lot of coffee (especially coffee shop stuff), drink lots of soda or eat a lot of chocolate by any chance? Have you been tested for high/low blood pressure? What other supplements were you taking?

There's some research that has found that migraine sufferers have elevated taurine levels (and other amino's) in their cerebrospinal fluid compare to people that don't have migraines, but it hasn't been proved that this is a cause - it could well be a indication that something else is out of balance as there are some drug companies currently testing migraine medication that contains taurine!

I think your doctor maybe misinformed about taurine though. A lot of bad publicity was given to taurine over the deaths of a few people who drank 3 or more cans of red bull then died while doing strenuous activities (one from mixing them with alcohol and dancing, the others from sport & weightlifting). This was many years ago, and France had energy drinks banned for the last 12 years, but this year had to lift the ban due to lack of evidence that taurine is dangerous as these energy drinks have been drunk all over the world without mass deaths or hospitalizations.

Those deaths were eventually thought to be from a high dose of caffeine and over exercise and not in fact taurine, but you can't ban caffeine - it's not economically viable, even though more deaths and diseases have been linked to caffeine (nervousness, irritability, anxiety, tremulousness, muscle twitching (hyperreflexia), insomnia, headaches, respiratory alkalosis, and heart palpitations, peptic ulcers, erosive esophagitis, and gastroesophageal reflux disease etc) and has some nasty withdrawal effects. Around 10 cups of strong coffee shop coffee (around 2g of caffeine) has been known to cause hospitalization.

Anyway - i hope you recover well from this and i wish you luck find a solution for your acne - and that other people take away the lesson to be careful about what you take, even if it works for other people!

Just thought I let you guys know about my experience with Taurine. I was taking about 3 grams a day and avoiding HFC like the plague and I was clearing very well. Heck I cleared 95% then something aweful happened. I was at work and thought I was having a heart attack so they rushed me to the hospital. To make a long story short they said that I suffered a accute migrain attach! This was after 9 hours in horrible head pain and had to get a CT scan and a lumber puncture (spinal tap) from which I still suffer from back pain oh and a $2000 hospital bill (that insurance covered thankfully). The doctor asked me if I was drinking alot of energy drinks lately and I said no. I then told him about the supplements that I was taking and he said stop taking all of them especially the taurine! I had 3 of these attacks before but they weren't as severe so I just wrote them off as really bad head aches. I stopped taking taurine and haven't touched the stuff since (3 months now) and not a single migraine. But now my acne has returned

[LivesInABox]

Well it's been just over a year since i started using taurine. I can't believe this has been unpinned! What heresy is this? I still owe Lilly a huge debt! Thanks to taurine & a low fructose diet i have my acne under control - not cured, but i can control it. When i stop taking the taurine & other supplements or eat badly then i get a few spots, no where near as bad as before, but the spots still appear. But this combo works great for me and i guess the others that tried it and no longer frequent these boards probably worked for them too.

Heres a run down of what i do and what i'd recommend if you want to try this

Avoid fructose (that include fruits). I occasional have a small handful of some low fructose fruit but not often.

Have a low sugar diet. Some sugar is ok, glucose / some sweetners seem to be ok - but don't go crazy.

Most of your diet should be meat/veg based. Try to avoid lots of potatoes, chips and carbs at every meal.

When choosing things to eat, make sure to get some good protein and fat, a few carbs and if possible not too high in saturated fat. Always pick the lowest sugar option - but take into account the ingredients and size of the portion.

Don't drink your calories - water (and maybe some weak dilute flavouring) is the best 90% of the time and don't drink when your eating as your diluting important starch enzymes in your saliva that help break up some carbs.

Every now and then i can cheat a little and get away with it - but if i cheat all the time, or binge in one meal then i will breakout, this isn't a cure, it's a way of controlling it.

Ease your self from one regime to another, do not simply start taking lots of different supplements, cutting things out, adding things in - ramp up/ down slowly and monitor yourself, you should have an idea whether your health/well being is getting worse or better.

Do some exercise, just 15 mins of walking twice a week would be something. You don't need to do anything over the top, but it's well worth the time.

Take a break from supplements every so often. I usually take 1 or 2 days off per fortnight. So hopefully this counteracts any slight build up (like the B vitamins) over time. Seems to have worked for the last 12 months or so.

If in doubt, seek medical advice. Changing your lifestyle can and will impact on your health and put stresses on your body in various ways. Taking excess supplements can be dangerous and some people can have bad reactions to supplements just like foods. Speaking from experience - be safe, not sorry.

Foods Suggestions

Healthy chicken soup (low sugar)
Unpasteurized Cheese (max 50g per day)
Most veg (limit peas, sweetcorn etc)
Most meats (limit steak/beef once/twice a week, grill lean bacon, sausages (low carb))
2-3 slices of low sugar wholemeal bread max per day (8g carb per slice)
Small portion of chips once per week
Fish (usually salmon, plaice - fresh, no breadcrumbs or sauce)
1 & 1/2 potato with a meal max twice a week
Whole eggs (max 7 per week)
Porridge (40g max 3 times a week)
86% dark chocolate (50g per day max)
tea (once per day)
treat every week (usually either biscuits or small bit of cake, or few slices of pizza)

Supplements

Myprotein.co.uk (5% off first order MP39361 or use a code from their forums)

3g taurine powder

500mg L Glutamine (100% Pure L-Glutamine) powder

1g Vitamin C

Super B Vitamin Tablet (half tablet per day)
Thiamin 45mg
Riboflavin 25mg
Niacin 25mg
Vitamin B6 20mg
Vitamin B12 2.5ug
Biotin 0.025mg
Pantothenic Acid 35mg
Inositol 37mg
Choline 37mg
Para Amino Benzoic Acid 25mg
Oat Bran Fibre 5mg
Lactobacillus Acidophilus Culture 2mg

Healthspan

OsteoPlus chewy tablets (2 of per day)
magnesium 150mg
calcium 400mg
zinc 2.5mg
Vit D 2.5mcg (100iu)
Copper 0.6mg
Boron 1.5mg

Orange & lemon flavoured Pure Icelandic Cod Liver Oil (1tsp per day)
DHA - 460mg
EPA - 345mg
Total Omega-3 - 920mg
Vitamin A - 970mcg
Vitamin D3 - 10.4mcg
Natural Vitamin E - 5.5mg

All that costs about 25p a day, or about £30 every 4 months, try to break up doses over a day if possible (split between different meals) to maximise availability, but i can't do that all the time so probably not essential.

Good luck if you try it, and i'll be around over Christmas to answer Q's if i can help!

[meat_pirate86]

Could you name some more of your food suggestions? I've been on an elimination diet for the past month, all my spots seemed to have surfaced, because no acne is appearing anymore! I feel that my health has improved so much from my diet, which is mainly vegetables, eafy greens nd some fats. It has been a naturally low sugar/fructose diet. I am feeling rather restricted and now that I am healthier I am looking into incorporating different foods in my diet. Will your diet only work with taurine? Will it work by itself? I am not fond of taking medication, back problems run in my family and any meds seem to cause me mild back pain.

[LiliVG]

I'm on accutane and I read Vit A(which is accutane) increases taurine levels. Does this mean im already getting the right amount of taurine???

Accutane is not Vitamin A. I forget exactly how it works, but Accutane is not vitamin A, so the answer is no. There's a good explanation of the relationship between accutane and Vitamin A on this board somewhere that would do a better job than me at explaining that.

[AltaPGT]

LiliVG - is the salt thing still working for you or is it too hard to tell since you're pregnant?

Thanks

[rakbs]

I'm on accutane and I read Vit A(which is accutane) increases taurine levels. Does this mean im already getting the right amount of taurine???

Accutane is not Vitamin A. I forget exactly how it works, but Accutane is not vitamin A, so the answer is no. There's a good explanation of the relationship between accutane and Vitamin A on this board somewhere that would do a better job than me at explaining that.

It is chemically related to Vitamin A, and is metabolized from Vitamin A by your body in small amounts. Look up the definition of retinoid for a more detailed explanation.

[TheX]

I just wanted to say that i've been taking TAURINE for one year, since beginning of 2008 (around the time that this topic was posted). Well it has been helping me ever since, either I don't get pimples or pimples do not become inflammed and are not filled with huge mounts of white blood cells just a small dot. . I eat everything except anything related to MILK and NUTS. MILK breaks me out no matter what. I use to eat coconut oil for anti-inflamation but the results didn't last for long, plus it tastes nasty lol. Hopefully this will continue to work for rest of this year.

I'm on accutane and I read Vit A(which is accutane) increases taurine levels. Does this mean im already getting the right amount of taurine???

Accutane is not Vitamin A. I forget exactly how it works, but Accutane is not vitamin A, so the answer is no. There's a good explanation of the relationship between accutane and Vitamin A on this board somewhere that would do a better job than me at explaining that.

It is chemically related to Vitamin A, and is metabolized from Vitamin A by your body in small amounts. Look up the definition of retinoid for a more detailed explanation.

[scarcrash]

Also, vegans have on average a 7 year shorter life span than meat eaters.

I'd love to know where this statistic comes from. I have done a lot of research on vegan diets and lifespan and have never seen any such statistic.

"The link between health and diet are well-documented. Doctors have been researching the health benefits of Veganism since the early 1990's. Dean Ornish, John McDougall, and Caldwell Esslstyn have been conducting research in the effects of a Vegan or near vegan diet have had on the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. The lifespan of Vegans is about 6-10 years longer than that of meat-eaters."

"The cultures with the longest lifespans in the world are the Vicambas, who reside in the Andes of Ecuador, the Abkhasians, who live on the Black Sea in the former USSR, and the Hunzas who live in the Himalayas of Northern [Bharat.] [21]
Researchers discovered a striking similarity in the diets of these groups, scattered though they are in different parts of the planet. All three are either totally vegetarian or close to it. [22] The Hunzas, who are the largest of the three groups, eat almost no animal products. Meat and dairy products combined account for only 1-1/2% of their total calories.[23]
Particularly striking to researchers who have visited these cultures is that the people not only live so long, but that they enjoy full, active lives throughout their many years, and show no signs of the many degenerative diseases that afflict the elderly in our culture. `They work and play at 80 and beyond; most of those who reach their 100th birthday continue to be active, and retirement is unheard of. The absence of (excess protein) in their diets engenders slower growth and slim, compact body frames. With age, wisdom accumulates, but physical degeneration is limited so the senior citizens of these remote societies have something unique to contribute to the lives of others. They are revered.`[24] Heidelburg, 1975, page 95. [22] Hur, Robin, "Food Reform: Our Desperate Need", Heidelburg, 1975, pages 2, 95-96. [23] Leaf, A., "National Geographic", 143:93, 1973.Cited in Robbins, John, "Diet for A New America", Stillpoint Publishing, 1987."

The body makes taurine from methionine and cysteine and interesting enough:

"Recent studies confirm that dietary methionine restriction increases both mean and maximal lifespan in rats and mice, achieving “aging retardant” effects very similar to those of caloric restriction, including a suppression of mitochondrial superoxide generation."

[rakbs]

@scarcrash:

1. Where is the source for the first pargraph that you quoted? I'd be interested in taking a look at it.

2. You'd be highly interested in reading this article: http://www.beyondveg.com/tu-j-l/raw-cooked...cooked-3i.shtml It details how claims about the Abkhasians and Hunzas might be exaggerated.

3. I can't find any information about the Vicambas. Most articles about longevity that I've read list countries like Switzerland, Iceland, and Japan near the top, and none of those places are even near vegan or even vegetarian. I'd rather take notes from the diets of such well-documented countries, rather than mystical places for which documentation is scarce, and possibly far overblown.

4. Among vegetarians who had followed their current diet for <5 y, mortality was significantly higher than that in nonvegetarians from lung cancer, other causes, and all causes.

[alternativista]

Look into the Blue Zones in which researchers identify and study several regions in which the residents live very long healthy lives. They tend to have diets that are predominately plant based.

http://www.bluezones.com/

[rakbs]

Look into the Blue Zones in which researchers identify and study several regions in which the residents live very long healthy lives. They tend to have diets that are predominately plant based.

http://www.bluezones.com/

I took a glance at that, and no offense but it seemed to be reiterating the USDA's food pyramid. "Research shows that a plant based diet is important for health, weight management, and overall longevity."

I suppose it would simply kill them to actually the post the research that they quote.

Then they mention in a few places how nuts have healthy fats, but neglect to mention how the fats in nuts are any healthier than the fats in meat, which they seem to have some sort of grudge against.

Then, laughably, under their "Eat Wisely" section, they recommend buying grains instead of meat to save money, but then make a heartfelt recommendation for pomegranate juice, which I've seen selling for no less than $20/gallon (for the real stuff, that is). Clearly they have their reader's financial interests at heart--or maybe they're just trying to fulfill a contrived agenda. Either one, really.

If there are any specific good articles you'd like to link to, I'd love to see them, because I'm not impressed with their homepages at all. I guess I'm in the mood for something a bit more scientific.

[dostoyevsky]

The WHO (world health organisation) and BHA (British health association) are just 2 examples or organisations which are starting to say that a vegetable based diet is healthy and can be beneficial if done correctly. Obviously any diet if not researched and balanced won't do anyone any good but just from personal experience, I know it is benefitting me. I used to have allergies and get ill all of the time but since I changed my diet to a plant based one (3 years ago) my allergies have gone and I haven't had so much as a cold or even a headache.

I'm not telling anyone to stop eating meat but I think that to say vegans live an average of 10 years less than meat eaters is just ridiculous and whatever 'evidence' which claims to support this is probably by those who's interest it is to keep the public buying animal based products. It is well known that those who directly benefit from such products will recommend them. Even the government is guilty of doing this... advertising milk as being rich in calcium when in fact, the animal protein it contains leeches calcium from the bones so while yes there is calcium in milk, the protein cancels this out. The main reason why those countries which consume the most milk and you would think benefit the most from the calcium, have the highest cases of osteoperosis and other bone diseases compared to countries which consume the least.

There is plenty of information out there which can be researched. The China Study by T Colin Campbell is an especially good book... it is the largest study ever conducted on healthand diet with plenty of scientific research.