Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2024 June 6

= June 6 =

Health risk of taurine consumption
Realistically, how worried should people be about the health risks of consuming taurine as a supplement? I only ask because half the literature says they find it helpful and beneficial at some unknown dosage, while the other half says it is potentially carcinogenic and could contribute to colon cancer. As a layperson, I find this very confusing. Some of the literature says it could be simply a matter of dosage, but nobody seems to know what the safe or harmful limits are. Can anyone offer some risk analysis devoid of emotion? Should we avoid anything with taurine in it, or not worry at all about it? Viriditas (talk) 01:27, 6 June 2024 (UTC)


 * As far as Wikipedia is concerned, WP:MEDRS applies. That means that the minimum quality level for WP:RS making medical claims are systematic reviews indexed for MEDLINE (there are some exceptions from this indexation, but generally speaking MEDLINE is the gold standard). tgeorgescu (talk) 03:29, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Our article states that there is no good clinical evidence that taurine supplements provide any benefit to human health, Why pay for useless supplements? The human body naturally produces a large amount of taurine, far more than one can reasonably take in as a supplement. There is increasing evidence that taurine actually plays a role in preventing cancer. Any carcinogenicity of supplements can only be due to their being fake, or a lack of quality control in their production. --Lambiam 07:23, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
 * The underlying issue is that large doses of taurine are added to energy drinks. Nobody seems to know why.  A current study is looking at an association between energy drink consumption and the rise in colon cancer in young adults. Viriditas (talk) 08:23, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Even disregarding any potential carcinogenic risks, there are enough studies that show damaging health effects of high consumption levels of energy drinks. --Lambiam 18:28, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
 * ¼ liter of my favorite energy drink has 80 mg caffeine, while adults usually consume up to 400 mg caffeine per day. And I use the energy drink totally without sugar. tgeorgescu (talk) 18:59, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
 * The energy drink thing may be related; most energy drinks contain vitamin B12. There is a concern that (mega)dosing B12 in excess of daily requirements carries with it a slight increase in risk of cancer due to B12 containing cobalt, which is both a heavy metal and has a trace of radioactive cobalt-60. Abductive  (reasoning) 20:25, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Thank you, that's helpful. I just read the comments by the epidemiologist on that topic, and while my reading might be flawed, they seemed to indicate that dosage and tobacco smoking played a significant role in the risk. Viriditas (talk) 22:02, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Real skepticism cuts both ways. Taurine is in human breast milk, evidence of benefit of at least one energy drink exceeding risk. :-) But our article has imho excessive, even dubious doubt in that section on its conditional essentiality or benefit for infants, and thus its common use in another energy drink. Doubt that appears to stem from OR or opinion rather than the source, which says e.g. "Thus the new data provide further support for the view that taurine is a conditionally essential nutrient for the preterm infant" & that ethical considerations seem to prevent further research.John Z (talk) 03:57, 7 June 2024 (UTC)