Does taurine work against ageing?
Taurine supplements have not yet been proven as an anti-ageing intervention in humans. The animal results are promising and mechanistically supported, but clinical trials in humans are still entirely absent.
Taurine occurs naturally in your body, but levels decline measurably as you get older. This has been observed consistently in humans, mice and monkeys1. Lower taurine levels in humans are associated with more age-related conditions, but that is a correlation, not proof that taurine is the cause. Interestingly, exercise temporarily raises your taurine levels, which may partly explain why physical activity is good for you.
In mouse and monkey studies, taurine supplementation produced impressive effects: a longer healthy lifespan, and in mice also a longer total lifespan. Multiple ageing processes were slowed, including senescent cells that linger in the body, damage to genetic material, and chronic low-grade inflammation1. That breadth makes the mechanism biologically plausible.
For humans the picture is very different. There are simply no good trials yet demonstrating that taurine supplements slow ageing or extend lifespan. The researchers behind the largest review state this explicitly themselves1. All human data at this point are observational. There is a theory that taurine acts as a kind of 'conditional vitamin': when levels are deficient, the body might switch to survival mode at the expense of repair, but that remains a hypothesis2.
There is also a complicating finding: older adults with chronic conditions actually showed higher taurine production, and that higher production was associated with worse cognitive performance3. This most likely reflects a compensatory response by the body to illness, rather than harm caused by taurine itself. But it does show that the relationship in humans is more complex than in animals.
In the field of Alzheimer's disease, a protein that pumps taurine into cells was found to be nearly three times less active in Alzheimer's patients than in healthy peers4. This is an interesting clue, but clinical evidence on taurine supplementation in Alzheimer's disease is still completely lacking.
All claims are drawn from one central research article (PMID 37289866), supplemented by observational and mechanistic studies (PMID 30322941, 39423760, 40631607). No randomised trials in humans are available that have investigated ageing or lifespan as a primary endpoint. The evidence for humans is therefore exclusively associative.
Does spermidine actually do anything against ageing?
Animal research and population studies provide indications that spermidine can slow ageing processes, but evidence from randomised trials in humans is still largely absent. It is too early to recommend a supplement, but eating spermidine-rich food is at least harmless.
Does taking resveratrol make sense as an anti-ageing strategy?
For humans there is no convincing evidence that resveratrol supplements do anything against ageing; the animal research is interesting but has not yet translated into clinical practice, so hold off on supplements until better human data are available.
Does quercetin work against ageing and inflammation?
Quercetin shows promising signals in the laboratory and in animals, but in humans there is not yet solid evidence. Taking supplements on the basis of this early-stage research gets too far ahead of the science.
Does hyperbaric oxygen therapy help against ageing?
HBOT shows interesting signals in small, early studies regarding telomere length and cerebral blood flow, but the evidence is too thin and too susceptible to bias to recommend it as an anti-ageing treatment. Wait for larger, independent trials before taking on the considerable costs.
What do we really know about metformin and ageing?
Metformin may extend your healthy years by helping to prevent disease, from diabetes to heart and vascular disease. Whether it also slows ageing itself in people without diabetes is for the TAME trial to show, the first large study to test that directly. If you are considering it for that reason, expect stomach and bowel complaints and a falling folate level.
Do multivitamins help with healthy ageing?
Daily multivitamins appear to offer modest protection for older adults' memory, but for most other aspects of healthy ageing the effect is small or absent. If you have a confirmed deficiency in vitamins or minerals, supplementation is certainly worthwhile; do not regard it as a wonder remedy.