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Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "
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08.11.2013 |
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Taurine makes muscles stronger
The researchers gave male rats taurine for two consecutive weeks. They added the substance to the animals' drinking water and as a result the amount of taurine in their muscles increased by 40 percent.
Athletes who use taurine will not experience such a big increase in such a short time; they would need to take taurine for longer. The dose that the Australians gave their animals was in human terms on the high side. The human equivalent of this dose would be in the region of several tens of grams per day.
At the end of the two weeks, the researchers subjected muscles in the rats' paws to electrical stimuli and measured how strongly the muscles were able to contract. Compared with the muscles in a control group, which had not been given taurine, supplementation with taurine boosted the isometric twitch force by 19 percent, they discovered.
When the researchers got the muscles to contract for long periods of time, they observed that taurine delayed the decrease in strength. The figure above shows this.
Calsequestrin is involved in calcium transport in cells. As muscle cells contract they need to pump calcium ions in and out of the parts that contract. Because taurine boosts the calsequestrin concentration, pumping the calcium ions is apparently easier.
"Our results point to a potential ergogenic effect of raising muscle taurine content with oral supplementation", the researchers write. "Further work is required to investigate the mechanism of taurine's action and whether similar results can be obtained in healthy and diseased human populations."
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