Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. In a small study in human type 1 diabetic patients, those taking 1500 mg/day of taurine had a 125% increase in the ability of blood vessels to relax.
When discussing the detrimental health effects of diabetes, such as being the leading cause of kidney failure, non-traumatic lower-limb amputations, and new cases of blindness among adults in the United States (1), most attention is paid to those with type 2 diabetes. But those with type 1 diabetes have health problems just as serious and at a much younger age. Specifically, type 1 diabetics can have severe nerve damage even in the absence of symptoms (2), significantly increasing their risk of death (3). There is even evidence of cardiovascular abnormalities in diabetic children as young as 11 (4).
Because of the lack of symptoms in type 1 diabetics who can actually be very ill, every effort must be made to address the symptoms that do appear, such as blood vessel problems. Now research (5) suggests that taurine, an amino acid essential in the functioning of the brain, heart, lungs, blood, liver, pancreas, gall bladder and kidneys and known to play a role in the prevention of high blood pressure and stroke (6), may help with blood vessel health in type 1 diabetics.
In the study, 9 type 1 diabetic males all younger than the age of 30, with stable blood sugar levels and normal levels of a blood protein called albumin that becomes depleted in diabetics, were given 1.5 grams of taurine per day (500 milligrams taken three times per day) or placebo for 14 days. These diabetic patients were compared to 10 age-matched controls who did not have type 1 diabetes.
By the end of the 14 days, type 1 diabetics in the taurine group had a 125% increase in the ability of blood vessels to relax, called flow mediated dilation (4.0 to 9.0%) compared to 7.5% increase in the placebo group (4.0 to 4.3%, p = 0.04). This improved blood vessel health in the taurine group produced a nearly similar dilatation level to the control group (9.8% dilatation in the control group vs 9.0% in the taurine group).
The researchers also conducted a more sensitive form of blood vessel dilatation, called laser doppler fluximetry, which has been used in previous research on type 1 diabetics (5). The researchers found that while type 1 diabetics in the placebo group had a 5.5% decrease in dilatation (794 to 749%), those in the taurine group had a 1.5% increase (794 to 803%, p < 0.05), although it was well below the dilatation seen in the healthy control group (2113%).
For the researchers, “we have for the first time demonstrated that 2 weeks taurine supplementation in young, asymptomatic, type 1 diabetics [with normal albumin levels] restored conduit vessel dysfunction, reflected in improvements in flow-mediate dilatation”. They did caution that this small study warrants larger studies “to evaluate the role of taurine in patients [with high blood sugar], type-2 diabetics and diabetics with [low albumin levels] are essential, and assessment of taurine supplementation in these populations is mandatory, particularly in the setting of established cardiovascular disease.”
Source: Moloney, Michael A., et al. “Two weeks taurine supplementation reverses endothelial dysfunction in young male type 1 diabetics.” Diabetes and Vascular Disease Research 7.4 (2010): 300-310.
© The Author(s) 2010 Reprints and permission: sagepub. co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
Posted July 18, 2013.
Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com
References:
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- Sampson MJ. Progression of diabetic autonomic neuropathy over a decade in insulin-dependent diabetics. Q J Med 1990; 278: 635–46.
- Jarvisalo MJ. Endothelial dysfunction and increased arterial intima-media thickness in children with type-1 diabetes. Circulation 2004; 109: 1750–55.
- Moloney MA. Two weeks taurine supplementation reverses endothelial dysfunction in young male type 1 diabetics. Diab Vasc Dis Res. 2010 Oct;7(4):300-10. doi: 10.1177/1479164110375971. Epub 2010 Jul 28.
- Koitka A. Impaired pressure-induced vasodilation at the foot in young adults with type-1 diabetes. Diabetes 2004; 53: 721–25.
- Yamori Y. Istaurine a preventive nutritional factor of cardiovascular diseases or just a biological marker of nutrition? Adv Exp Med Biol 1996; 403: 623–29.
