Linda in Virginia: My doctor did an amino acid assay. The test showed I was deficient in many; so he had a compounding pharmacy make up the recommended dose for me in pill form. However, he crossed through the taurine. He wanted me to take it in liquid form only because he said taurine could cause the candida to grow like crazy. I have never heard or read this anywhere else. Has anyone else heard this? He wanted me to use Taurine Plus by American Biologics (which is liquid). I use a dropper-full 2 or 3 times a day. It has really helped with my food allergy reactions. (Each ml contains 75 mg of taurine in distilled water and 1% ethyl alcohol.)
When I am allergic to a food, I get joint pain in my fingers along with swelling, redness and knots. Sometimes the knots become so swollen they crack open and bleed (very painful). This was the shape of my hands while I was trying to figure out what food and/or supplement was causing the problem. I started taking taurine and my hands returned to normal within a few days. I never did figure out what was bothering me. I ran out of taurine recently and the joint pain came back full force. I wouldn’ t be without my taurine.
In the book, Prescription for Nutritional Healing, they mention that people with candida tend to lose taurine through their urine (page 41). I know Polly has mentioned this too. I just started reading the book, The Liver Cleansing Diet and I found some good information on taurine that I wanted to share. More information on taurine is at http://www.whas.com.au/livertonic.htm
“ Impaired body synthesis of taurine will reduce the ability of the liver to detoxify environmental chemicals such as chlorine, chlorite (bleach), aldehydes (produced from alcohol excess), alcohols, petroleum solvents, and ammonia. … Recent findings are demonstrating that taurine is one of the major nutrients involved in the body’ s detoxification of harmful substances and drugs and should be considered in the treatment of all chemically sensitive patients.”
RB: Glad you found something that is helping Linda. Nothing brightens my day more then knowing that someone we care for and support is getting well. We all celebrate this accomplishment with you.
Shelley: Linda – WOW. I don’ t know where to start. When you say you are taking a dropper full is that under the tongue or mixed with water? And do you have any idea why swallowing a pill of taurine would make yeast grow but this will not? Would be really interesting to know. I am getting chemical sensitivities by the gobs… and incidentally have subjected my liver to many of the things on that list of toxins…like years in an art with organic solvents.
Linda in Virginia: I take the dropper full directly in my mouth (without added water), sometimes under the tongue. It is supposed to be taken sublingually. I just spoke to one of my doctors and she said taurine can promote the growth of pathogenic bacteria in the gut. It should be taken sublingually (or by shots), so it is absorbed through the blood rather than the gut. I asked if she learned this at the alternative medical school where she teaches. She said yes.
Shelley: I forget my other question! It is sooooo hot in my house I am losing focus! OH! I know! This was it. Did you notice a change in your bowels (less bile therefore different color) when you stopped taking the taurine when you ran out? What a thing for me to ask! But really, here we all are at the Forum of All Candida Secrets Bared….if you want…thanks. Really, this is a big big piece for me.
Linda in Virginia: Hi Shelley, Hey, no secrets here. My bowel color was normal before I started taking the taurine. It did not change with the taurine.
Phyllis: Where can I get taurine?
Linda in Virginia: N.E.E.D.S. carries the liquid taurine (phone 1-800-453-1422). The product is Taurine Plus by American Biologics. I just ordered some for my mother (candida seems to run in the family).
MM: You can get capsules of taurine at any health food store. If you already have a dropper bottle and taurine capsules, it should be simple to make your own liquid. It is just taurine and water.
Franca: Whatever the bottle may say, I strongly advise that you take taurine with food. I took it for two weeks every other day on an empty stomach (my bottle said, take it an hour before or after eating, if I remember correctly), and ended up with acid reflux, and a seriously unhappy stomach and GI tract. The image of stomach acid spreading throughout my body, dissolving me from the inside out kept going through my mind during the worst times. Please note that I’m not saying don’ t take taurine. I’m about to feed some to my unsuspecting fiancé. I’m just saying take it with food. Please!!”
Michelle H: Polly, I recall that you mentioned in a previous article that you noticed an improvement in your health after starting to take taurine. How did it help you and what dosage did you have to take. Many thanks.
Polly: Taurine accumulates rapidly in the body and is metabolized slowly. So it is probably best to start with small doses and to observe your reactions. Salt in the diet is important because sodium and chloride are needed for the transport of taurine to the brain. The pancreas and intestine must be releasing enough bicarbonate for the taurine to be absorbed from the intestinal tract. Taurine in the blood doesn’ t necessarily correspond to the taurine in the brain. Low zinc and B6 may result in low taurine levels in the brain even though taurine is adequate or high in the blood. If blood taurine measures high, then check to make sure zinc and B6 are adequate.
I thoroughly expected to be taking taurine for quite a while before I noticed a difference. Yet that is not what happened in my case. I took one pill (500 mg) per day for only three days when I noticed a big difference — much more energy and much less brain fog. It actually became a pleasure to think, as opposed to a chore. (Yet I still have some lingering memory and verbal problems.) At first, I could only take additional taurine once or twice per week. If I took it more often, my dreaming was so intense that I felt I was awake all night. (A year later, the dose did not matter; if I wanted, I could take 500 mg every day with no obvious changes.)
Many books will say to take B6 until you start to recall your dreams. However, I was taking plenty of coenzyme B6 and I was still unable to recall any dreams until I added the taurine. I’ ve read that a lack of dream recall can be also be due to a lack of choline or dopamine precursors. [2] Taurine might have helped my dreaming because it can raise dopamine and increase acetylcholine. [3] (You also need B6 to use taurine correctly.)
The other thing that I noticed on the third day of supplementation was very dark green stool. This meant that my liver was producing more bile, and more poisons were probably being dumped in the bile. Since starting the taurine, I’ ve noticed more clearing in my irises, so I believe that I’m getting rid of some more toxins. I don’ t know how much of this is due to a synergistic effect of taking taurine, coB6 and TMG. If I get lazy and take less coB6 there is less dreaming.
One other minor change. My ears used to be always plugged with wax. The taurine quickly got rid of this problem. Yet, I got a couple of earaches afterwards too. I hadn’ t had an earache since I was a kid, fifty years ago. Maybe it is because bacteria like taurine too? Or maybe my body was just finally clearing out dead material near the ear canal that the bacteria liked? Who knows? Ritchy Shoemaker, MD, in his book Desperation Medicine (page 176) states,
“ …one of the major chemicals with the ability to transport the toxins inside cells is taurine…”
Mary: Stan, how does taurine help, and why do diabetics take it?
Stan: Taurine production is inadequate in diabetes. 1,500 mg of supplemental taurine daily was found necessary to raise the serum levels to normal in IDDM. It is protective of the heart, kidneys, eyes and vasculature. Animals that do not produce their own taurine (cats, dogs) develop cardiomyopathy and severe eye problems when fed a taurine deficient diet. High doses of taurine (5g – 8g per day) are used to treat human congestive heart failure. Recent research shows that taurine ameliorates cardiac remodeling after heart attack and may thus slow the decline into end-stage heart failure. Diabetics frequently develop nephropathy— probably exacerbated by chronic taurine deficiency. Protein in urine can be reduced by 50% by supplemental taurine, which might explain why a high-protein diet is “ curiously” less damaging to the kidneys than hordes of experts expect, especially if the protein is taurine-rich, like shell fish and some organ meats.
Polly: The Eskimos eat almost all meat, but they eat it raw. From what you just explained, the reason that they can tolerate so much meat may have something to do with the taurine content of raw meat. When you cook the meat, you destroy some of the taurine. In fact, the lack of taurine is one of the reasons why cooked meat will make cats very sick. Humans can usually make some taurine from cysteine, but not cats. Cats must get all of their taurine from their diet. Dogs can produce some taurine, but they need a lot in their diet.
Although taurine can be highly beneficial, there are still many reasons to be cautious when starting with taurine supplementation.
1) Some people with mercury poisoning will have high levels of taurine relative to cysteine. In this case, supplementing taurine would not be a good idea. (If taurine levels in the blood and urine read high, look for a possible lack of B6 or zinc. However, the usual blood test for amino acids isn’ t very accurate for taurine. (Taurine measurement takes an extra step in testing.)
2) Taurine and B6 are mild diuretics. Hence salt, potassium and magnesium stores should be adequate before using large quantities of these.
3) As others have mentioned, don’ t take taurine if you have ulcers because taurine releases stomach acid. Take taurine with food. Don’ t take it with aspirin.
4) Since taurine has the potential to increase the growth of yeast, it may be best to wait to try taurine until after you have gotten the yeast somewhat under control. Or, you can do as Linda’ s doctor suggested and let the taurine be absorbed under the tongue.
5) In Leon Chaitow’ s book, he mentions that after an initial loading, smaller doses of taurine are usually desirable. Consistent daily does of around 50 mg to 100 mg are considered more effective than high doses. [4] More is not necessarily better. Yet, to control seizures, Dr. Braverman says that large amounts of taurine are often needed. I’ ve heard numbers between 500 mg and 1500 mg per day.
6) Taurine has the ability to increase acetylcholine levels in the brain. [5] Starting with smaller doses of taurine might give your body time to adjust. This may be of particular importance if you were to have low initial levels of acetylcholine. If acetylcholine were low, your body may have compensated by up-regulating your acetylcholine receptors, making you sensitive to increases in acetylcholine.
In the book The Healing Nutrients Within by Eric R. Braverman, M.D there is a whole section on the amino acid taurine. His book is excellent. Timothy Birdsall, ND, has a good article on taurine here. http://www.thorne.com/altmedrev/.fulltext/3/2/128.html.