What is Taurine?
Taurine is named after taurus (latin for ox) because it initially was extracted from ox bile. Despite what you may have heard it doesn’t come from bull semen. Gross.
Taurine is an amino acid, a chemical that is a required building block of protein. The brain, retina, heart, and blood cells contain large amounts of taurine as it essential for many functions in the body. The best food sources are meat and fish, or The Anti Hangover. (I added that last part.)
Taurine has a myriad of benefits, from heart health and eye health to high blood pressure and ADD. It also eases chemotherapy symptoms and helps for diabetes, psychosis and alcoholism. But we are focussed on certain other benefits.
Why is it in The Anti Hangover?
Research suggests that taking taurine improves liver function. The liver filters or processes everything that goes in your mouth, including that seventh Jagermeister. After a big night, that poor sucker needs all the help it can get.
Taurine is also a well-researched regulator of cell volume, as it regulates fluid balance. So it keeps your cells full of water while your body is dumping all that alcohol. Besides hydrating your muscles, it also hydrates your brain, which help you think clearly. A dehydrated brain is the cause of that babelas headache most of us know so well.
It is also used to improve mental performance, so you are not quite as slow as you were last night. You may not be the smartest person in the room the next morning, but you should be able to outperform Karen in HR.
There are several studies that show taurine supplementation can regulate blood sugar levels in the body. Blood sugar levels drop after a big night out, and often, because of the nausea, getting your blood sugar up can be a challenge. Taurine helps use any blood sugar you can get in, so that greasy breakfast is put to use in the right way, in your body and not, well on the floor. But that’s where the ginger in Anti Hangover comes in…
