Antidepressant Effect Of Taurine In Chronic Unpredictable Mild Stress-induced Depressive Rats

[General Orange]

In a chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS)-induced depressive rat model taurine pre-administration hindered:

• decreased levels of 5-hydroxytryptamine, dopamine, noradrenaline;
• increased levels of glutamate, corticosterone;
• decreased expressions of fibroblast growth factor-2, vascular endothelial growth factor and brain derived neurotrophic factor;

Antidepressant effect of taurine in chronic unpredictable mild stress-induced depressive rats

Depression, a psychiatric and dysthymic disorder, severely affects the learning, work and life quality. The main pathogenesis of depression is associated with central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction. Taurine has been demonstrated to exert protective effects on the brain development and can improve learning ability and memory.

Our study investigated the antidepressant-like effects of taurine pre-treatment by examining the changes in depression-like behavior, hormones, neurotransmitters, inflammatory factors and neurotrophic factors in the hippocampus of a chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS)-induced depressive rat model.

Taurine was found to inhibit the decrease of sucrose consumption and prevent the deficiency of spatial memory and anxiety in rats exposed to CUMS, suggesting a preventive effect of taurine on depression-like behavior.
Furthermore, the decreased levels of 5-hydroxytryptamine, dopamine, noradrenaline; the increased levels of glutamate, corticosterone; and the decreased expressions of fibroblast growth factor-2, vascular endothelial growth factor and brain derived neurotrophic factor in depressive rats were hindered by taurine pre-administration.
However, tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β levels were not significantly changed by taurine.
The results demonstrated that the anti-depressive effect of taurine may be involved in the regulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the promotion of neurogenesis, neuronal survival and growth in the hippocampus.
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[General Orange]

Further

Taurine supplementation prevents learned helplessness via up-regulation of the ability to make more neurons (BDNF)..

Taurine up-regulated the expression of neurotrophic factors in the hippocampus of depressive rats
The deficiency of neurotrophic factors is one of the indicative pathogens during depression. In the present study, the interaction between taurine administration and stress exerted significant effects on the gene and protein expression of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)
The main effects of taurine and stress also had significant effects on the gene expression of BDNF and the protein expression of BDNF.

Figure 7 illustrated the decreased mRNA and protein levels of BDNF, FGF-2 and VEGF in the CUMS rats compared with those of rats in the control group (p < 0.001). mRNA expression of these three neurotrophic factors in both the T1 + CUMS and T2 + CUMS groups was up-regulated compared with that in the CUMS group (p < 0.001). Compared with the CUMS group, protein expressions of BDNF, FGF-2 in the T1 + CUMS and T2 + CUMS groups were significantly up-regulated (p < 0.001); protein expression VEGF was only significantly up-regulated in the T2 + CUMS group (p < 0.001). The results indicated that taurine pre-administered could up-regulated expressions of these neurotrophic factors, especially in the T2 + CUMS group.

 

[pisser]

I take 3-4g of taurine everyday. I don't think it's flat out improved my depression, but it may have played a role in helping me rationalize underlying emotions. I still get anxious though.

 

[Sergey]

I have tried taking taurine several times and get very depressed shortly after. Any idea why?

 

[bromuda]

BCAA's seem to have a greater impact for me than taurine when it comes to anxiety/depressed state

 

[milk_lover]

BCAA's seem to have a greater impact for me than taurine when it comes to anxiety/depressed state

Do you take it alone or a meal containing protein? I get very sad when I take it without other amino acids sadly.

 

[milk_lover]

I have tried taking taurine several times and get very depressed shortly after. Any idea why?

It can lower blood sugar or the increased metabolism from taurine could cause a stress reaction if you don't take enough fuel. Also, consider impurity in individual amino acid supplements.

 

[bromuda]

Do you take it alone or a meal containing protein? I get very sad when I take it without other amino acids sadly.

I usually take with sugar and salt. I use it as pre-workout mainly, not a lot though probably round 5g in total. I use taurine with coffee in the morning, by now it barely has any effect on me (I take around 2g). Strangely when I drink red-bull I can sometimes feel the anxiolytic effects. I have what you could describe as high functioning anxiety, I mostly get waves of anxiety out in public were there's a lot of people but it doesn't inhibit me from living though.

 

[Sergey]

It can lower blood sugar or the increased metabolism from taurine could cause a stress reaction if you don't take enough fuel. Also, consider impurity in individual amino acid supplements.

Hm, similar blood sugar drop would happen after taking niacinamide, right? It also makes me very depresses quickly.

 

[milk_lover]

I usually take with sugar and salt. I use it as pre-workout mainly, not a lot though probably round 5g in total. I use taurine with coffee in the morning, by now it barely has any effect on me (I take around 2g). Strangely when I drink red-bull I can sometimes feel the anxiolytic effects. I have what you could describe as high functioning anxiety, I mostly get waves of anxiety out in public were there's a lot of people but it doesn't inhibit me from living though.

When my stomach is happy (reduced endotoxins and serotonin), my anxiety goes to zero.

B6 is really helpful for anxiety (its dose is good in Red-bull, <10mg), but I find it really useless and sometimes harmful when I take it at night. During daytime, it makes me feel great.

Hm, similar blood sugar drop would happen after taking niacinamide, right? It also makes me very depresses quickly.

It really does lower blood sugar. So powerful that it can mess with blood sugar and makes you semi diabetic. Even when it's supposed to be 'pure', I still get allergy from it. It's either niacinamide supplements are processed in a way that produce contaminates (even at low levels, they harm me in a way) or it powerfully reduces my blood sugar and makes it prone to allergy. BTW, I was talking about BCAA causing me depressing feelings. In fact, taurine makes me feel good in general when I take it with food.

 

[Sergey]

It really does lower blood sugar. So powerful that it can mess with blood sugar and makes you semi diabetic. Even when it's supposed to be 'pure', I still get allergy from it. It's either niacinamide supplements are processed in a way that produce contaminates (even at low levels, they harm me in a way) or it powerfully reduces my blood sugar and makes it prone to allergy. BTW, I was talking about BCAA causing me depressing feelings. In fact, taurine makes me feel good in general when I take it with food.

Same thing with BCAA. Sometimes I think its easier for me to count supplements which do not cause depressing feeling, than those which do.
Were you able to identify any common mechanism why these depressing feelings occur? Blood sugar?
I have tried to take lot's of sugar with some of the "depressing" sups but didn't notice much of a difference. Thyroid function seem to be normal and taking thyroid in any form gives makes me jittery and agitated.

 

[milk_lover]

Same thing with BCAA. Sometimes I think its easier for me to count supplements which do not cause depressing feeling, than those which do.
Were you able to identify any common mechanism why these depressing feelings occur? Blood sugar?
I have tried to take lot's of sugar with some of the "depressing" sups but didn't notice much of a difference. Thyroid function seem to be normal and taking thyroid in any form gives makes me jittery and agitated.

From the top of my head, here is what I think those suspect supplements doing to our systems: blood sugar; impurity in them causing histamine, serotonin, or/and endotoxins; not balanced well by other nutrients like real food; the body doesn't simply need them at the current time or just needs them in very tiny amounts.

 

[Digital Samurai]

Been experimenting with Taurine in high doses (500mg or more) and getting negative effects. (extreme anger and irritability)

HOWEVER, when I switched the dose down to only 50mg, it works like a charm! (motivated, focused, optimistic, confident, etc)

Poison or potion is in the dosage.

Just because the 'studies' say a specific dosage works for the 'masses', doesn't mean that is what is ideal for YOU imho.

(In this case my hypothesis was that too high of a dose of taurine was pushing my dopamine way too high, thus resulting in anger/irritability from 0 situational input. Could be totally wrong but the mechanism is there and we have data to suggest it's a possible explanation. I think this is where machine learning and AI systems will be able to soon start to "predict" what would work for people health-wise, as it will have far superior data/knowledge and be able to infer things from all of it's datasets, but I digress)