How taurine affects performance and recovery for running, OCR, and endurance sports
Thomas Solomon, PhD.
Updated onReading time approx 7 minutes (1400 words).
What you’ll learn:
Taurine is an amino acid your body can make from cysteine. It doesn’t build proteins; it helps cells keep their shape, handle water, and manage calcium — key jobs for working muscle. You also get taurine from meat, dairy, seafood, and seaweed.
Current evidence shows that taurine supplements don’t consistently boost running or endurance performance. People who rarely eat taurine-containing foods might respond differently, but that’s still unclear.
Curious about the how and why? Scroll down for the details, the nuances, and the nerdy bits.
The information I provide is not medical advice. Taurine can have side effects and might interact with other drugs, nutrients, and medical conditions (see here). If you are unsure, always consult your doctor to ensure that a specific supplement is safe for you to use.
What is taurine?
Taurine is an amino acid and the body makes it from another amino acid (called cysteine), but we also get it from food — mostly meat, dairy, seafood, and algae-containing foods like seaweed (see here and here). Unlike some amino acids, taurine doesn’t build proteins. Instead, it helps control how water and electrolytes move in and out of cells, supports cell membrane stability, and keeps calcium handling on track during muscle contractions. Those jobs matter for both the heart and skeletal muscle. For a deep dive into the physiology of taurine, see Lambert et al. 2014.
Because taurine helps with calcium control and contraction, people often assume it could improve strength or endurance. That’s one reason you’ll see it listed on energy drink cans (hello Red Bull). But energy drink labels and science aren’t the same thing, so let’s look at the evidence.
What is the scientific evidence on taurine’s impact on athletic performance?
Taurine appears safe at amounts used in studies, and typical energy drinks contain much less than doses linked with adverse events (see here and here). Clinical studies have tested about 3 to 10 grams per day and reported good short-term tolerance. That said, there’s no evidence-informed “performance dose” for runners or endurance athletes.
One meta-analysisA meta-analysis quantifies the overall effect size of a treatment by compiling effect sizes from all known studies of that treatment. (see Waldron et al. 2018) reported that taking taurine before exercise might slightly extend time-to-exhaustion. The effect looked clearer in people with heart failure and was fuzzy in healthy folks and athletes. It’s also unknown whether people who eat very little taurine get more benefit — we just don’t have that answer yet.
A meta-analysis (Souza et al. 2017) of energy drinks found a positive link between higher taurine dose and better performance when the drink was taken before exercise — but those drinks also contained caffeine, so you can’t tell what taurine did on its own. A separate meta-analysis by Waldron et al. 2018 that looked specifically at taurine dose did not find a dose-response for performance.
Overall, the current quality of evidence is low, high-quality dose-response studies are lacking, and high-quality randomised controlled trials are urgently needed.
Can taurine enhance athletic performance?
Taurine is unlikely to improve performance.
The lack of benefit appears to be similar between trained athletes and untrained folks, and between males and females; however, further research is needed in females because they are underrepresented among studies in this field.
Keep in mind: due to the low quality of evidenceA low quality of evidence means that, in general, studies in this field have several limitations. This could be due to inconsistency in effects between studies, a large range of effect sizes between studies, and/or a high risk of bias (caused by inappropriate controls, a small number of studies, small numbers of participants, poor/absent randomization processes, missing data, inappropriate methods/statistics). When the quality of evidence is low, there is more doubt and less confidence in the overall effect of an intervention, and future studies could easily change overall conclusions. The best way to improve the quality of evidence is for scientists to conduct large, well-controlled, high-quality randomized controlled trials. from existing clinical studies, the overall effect sizeAn effect size is a standardized measure of the magnitude of an effect of an intervention. Unlike p-values, effect sizes show how large the effect is and indicate how meaningful it might be. Common effect size measures include standardised mean difference (SMD), Cohen’s d, Hedges’ g, eta-squared, and correlation coefficients. is unclear.
Additional high-quality randomised controlled trialsThe “gold standard” approach for determining whether a treatment has a causal effect on an outcome of interest. In such a study, a sample of people representing the population of interest is randomised to receive the treatment or a no-treatment placebo (control), and the outcome of interest is measured before and after exposure to the treatment and control. are needed to formulate evidence on the effects of taurine on performance in humans.
The nice part: taurine doesn't appear to hurt performance. So, if you like it and believe it works for you, give it a whirl. But, remember that time and money spent trying to improve your performance with something that has no obvious benefit might be better spent optimising your training load, sleep habits, and dietary/nutritional choices.
To minimise the risk of consuming a supplement that contains prohibited substances, only choose products that have been independently tested (e.g., Informed Sport). And, remember: Supplements do not make athletes and do not replace training; they're just the icing on a very well-baked cake. Before reaching for pills and potions, optimise your training load and dial in your sleep, nutrition, and rest.
How to use this: If you still want to experiment, keep expectations low. There’s no proven performance dose. Some clinical studies used about 3 to 10 grams per day, but that was for safety, not performance. Track your training and results for a few weeks, then decide if it’s worth continuing.
Strengthen the fight for clean sport
Remember: You are the only person responsible for what goes in your body! Ignorance is not an excuse! Stay educated. Be informed.
Consult WADA’s prohibited list, cross-check your meds against the Global DRO drug reference list, and only choose supplements that have been tested by an independent body (e.g., Informed Sport or LabDoor).
Information you can trust. All content on Veohtu is meticulously researched and written by Thomas Solomon, PhD. He does not sell supplements, recovery products, or ad space, and he has no sponsorships, brand affiliations, or ambassador roles. Everything you read reflects his independent views, shaped solely by peer-reviewed scientific evidence — and that will never change.
Full list of meta-analyses examining taurine for performance.
Here are the meta-analyses I've summarised above:
Does One Shot Work? The Acute Impact of a Single Taurine Dose on Exercise Performance: A Meta-Analytic Review. Denget al. (2025) Scand J Med Sci Sports.
The Dose Response of Taurine on Aerobic and Strength Exercises: A Systematic Review. Chen Q, Li Z, Pinho RA, Gupta RC, Ugbolue UC, Thirupathi A, Gu Y. Front Physiol (2021).
The Effects of an Oral Taurine Dose and Supplementation Period on Endurance Exercise Performance in Humans: A Meta-Analysis. Mark Waldron, Stephen David Patterson, Jamie Tallent, Owen Jeffries. Sports Med (2018)
Acute effects of caffeine-containing energy drinks on physical performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Diego B Souza, Juan Del Coso, Juliano Casonatto, Marcos D Polito. Eur J Nutr (2017)
Photo of pyramid by Eugene Tkachenko on Unsplash
Share this article with your people:
Who is Thomas Solomon?
My knowledge has been honed following 20+ years of running, cycling, hiking, cross-country skiing, lifting, and climbing, 15+ years of academic research at world-leading universities and hospitals, and 10+ years advising and coaching in athletic performance and lifestyle change.
I have a BSc in Biochemistry, a PhD in Exercise Science, and over 90 peer-reviewed publications in medical journals.
I'm also an ACSM-certified Exercise Physiologist (ACSM-EP), an ACSM-certified Personal Trainer (ACSM-CPT), a VDOT-certified Distance Running Coach, and a UKVRN Registered Nutritionist (RNutr).
Since 2002, I’ve conducted biomedical research in exercise and nutrition and have taught and led university courses in exercise physiology, nutrition, biochemistry, and molecular medicine.
And, with my personal experience of competing on the track (800m to 10,000m), the road (5 k to marathon), on the trails, and in the mountains, by foot, bicycle, cross-country ski, and during obstacle course races (OCR), I deeply understand what it's like to train and compete — I've been there, done it, and gotten sweat, mud, and tears on my t-shirt.
Disclaimer: I occasionally mention brands and products, but it is important to know that I don't sell recovery products, supplements, or ad space, and I'm not affiliated with / sponsored by / an ambassador for / receiving advertisement royalties from any brands. I have conducted biomedical research for which I’ve received research money from publicly-funded national research councils and medical charities, and also from private companies, including Novo Nordisk Foundation, AstraZeneca, Amylin, the A.P. Møller Foundation, and the Augustinus Foundation. I’ve also consulted for Boost Treadmills and Gu Energy on R&D grant applications, and I provide research and scientific writing services for Examine.com. Some of my articles contain links to information provided by Examine.com but I do not receive any royalties or bonuses from those links. Importantly, none of the companies described above have had any control over the research design, data analysis, or publication outcomes of my work. I research and write my content using state-of-the-art, consensus, peer reviewed, and published scientific evidence combined with my empirical evidence observed in practice and feedback from athletes. My advice is, and always will be, based on my own views and opinions shaped by the scientific evidence available. The information I provide is not medical advice. Before making any changes to your habits of daily living based on any information I provide, always ensure it is safe for you to do so and consult your doctor if you are unsure.