Taurine Decreases Oxidative Stress After Eccentric Exercise in Rats: Human Equivalent Dose ca. 3.5g-4g

Regular readers of the SuppVersity will certainly be familiar with the sulfur-amino-acid taurine and its various benefits on exercise performance, insulin sensitivity and weight management. So, it may not come as a surprise that a recent study conducted by young scientists from the Postgraduate Program in Health Sciences at the Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense in Brazil found that 14-days "preloading" with 300mg/kg taurine per day reduced the exercise induced increase in oxidative stress in rats.

Taurine supplementation was found to decrease superoxide radical production, CK [creatine kinase], lipoperoxidation and carbonylation levels and increased total thiol content in skeletal muscle, but it did not affect antioxidant enzyme activity after EE [excentric exercise].

It is rather speculative, whether standard dose equivalent calculations apply to one situation or another - IF they did, you could probably get away with as little as 3.5-4.0g of taurine per day to achieve similar results. It would however warrant further investigations to find out, how, for example, the consumption of beta-alanine (cf. News on the Taurine vs. Beta Alanine Antagonism) would increase the need for supplemental taurine.

Additional advice: Do not buy your taurine in caps. Rather go for some bulk powder. It is cheap as hell and, at the suggested dose of 4.0g, a 500g pot will last you 125 days. And just another thing: Better take your taurine in divided doses. I've heard of people getting severe diarrhea from doses greater than 2g.

Both, Protein and Carbohydrate After Workout Ineffective in Ameliorating CK-Response and Muscle Soreness After Exercise

While people keep debating, whether you need or you do not need carbs post workout, a very recent US-study (Dahlstrom Burnley. 2010) shows that neither protein nor carbs effectively protect against CK-elevation and muscle soreness following an excentric strength training session.

Figure 1: Serum creatine phosphokinase (CPK) activity according to treatment.
*There was no significant difference in CPK activity (ANOVA) among treatment groups.

There are however two major drawbacks to this study. Firstly, the scientists do not quantify the amount of protein or carbohydrate the subjects consumed after their strength training session. And secondly, both CK elevations, as well as muscle soreness are part of the adaptation process, we actually train for. So, if protein & carbs do not reduce these overs signs of an ongoing adaptive response, this does not have to be a bad thing.

After all, this is thus another one of those studies especially protein-phobic Drs will cite in order to convince you that your protein drink, of which they will tell you that it will kill you, does not even help with muscle gains ;-)