Homotaurine Benefits For Brain And Bone Health
Homotaurine is a newly identified molecule for its potential health benefits for both brain and bone health. It is an aminosulfonate compound that naturally occurs in seaweed. Homotaurine is an amino acid. Homotaurine is a variation of the taurine molecule and was originally identified during research on Alzheimer’s disease. This molecule has been demonstrated to be safe to use so far and crosses the protective blood brain barrier.
Homotaurine was shown to have remarkable effects on reducing some key risk factors in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and shows potential as a preventative mediator of inflammatory conditions. Considering its effects within the body, it has the potential to encourage optimal bone health as well as brain health and has been the topic of some very recent cutting-edge research.
Protecting bone and brain health is of increasing importance as we age. As research comes through, it is becoming more apparent that homotaurine could play a key preventative role in inflammatory diseases related to the bones and brain in the future. Considering the changing age demographics of our societies, identifying compounds that assist with diseases associated with the brain and bones is also of increasing importance.
Whether homotaurine is a potent antioxidant or not is debated and it seems to be an antioxidant mediator, protecting antioxidant status in the body. Homotaurine has been shown to have DNA protecting effects, whilefurther research could show it has cancer preventative benefits. Taurine has been shown to conserve a crucial antioxidant in the body known as glutathione, which is an important defender against oxidative stress, helping to eliminate inflammation.
Let’s take an in depth look at homotaurine and its benefits, focusing mainly on benefits on brain and bone health.
Homotaurine Benefits
The results of one recent study using homotaurine showed that it had effects on the accumulation of reactive oxygen species within the body. This means it either has antioxidant potential within the body or influences antioxidant activity within the body. Considering research on taurine, it is most likely able to directly influence antioxidant activity. As a mediator of oxidative stress, homotaurine could therefore be of benefit to our health.
How Antioxidants Influence Our Health
Highly oxidative compounds are very reactive, because of their high energy status, which means they can cause oxidative damage to key parts of the body. They are very dangerous to our long-term health. The accumulation of oxidative stress, from chronic oxidative damage that goes unchecked, is a leading cause of various chronic diseases.
These oxidative molecules can react with key parts of your cells, including proteins and cell membrane fatty acids, causing them to become damaged beyond repair and need immediate replacing. This can lead to cancer events caused by DNA damage.
The role of antioxidant molecules within the body is to provide a balance to these reactive compounds in the body. Through this role they aid in maintaining an overall state of optimal wellness in the body that is required for life, preventing the incidence of diseases. Antioxidants reduce the inflicted inflammatory damage on the body throughout the day. They also assist with recovery from exercise, which is also an inflammatory process that requires nutrients. Higher antioxidant status leads to an improvement in muscle fibre strength, because of improved capacity for recovery. Without proper recovery, muscle cells die off.
Inflammatory Stress
For disease prevention, including inflammatory diseases within the brain, managing oxidative stresses should be of high importance. Chronic cell stress triggers the stress response pathway, leading to the production of excess cortisol. Stress is also a condition becoming more and more prevalent in society. Managing oxidative stress in the body is also a way to consciously manage this condition. Considering that it was found to reduce the levels of oxidative stress within the body, homotaurine could have profound benefits to brain health. It could also help to manage our overall stress levels in the body too.
We’ve mentioned muscle recovery here but antioxidant compounds can reduce chronic inflammation. This means that antioxidant promoting compounds or oxidative stress mediating molecules, like homotaurine, can also reduce chronic inflammation. This includes the inflammation experienced with chronic joint diseases. This is a newly identified application for homotaurine, that will certainly be investigated in the future for its potential health benefits.
Homotaurine Benefits For Healthy Ageing
People generally associate the build up of stress, or oxidative stress, with ageing or getting older. This is true, chronic oxidative damage to cells is how the cellular aging process works. A lot of low-grade inflammation causes declines in the functioning of tissues and organs. Restricted recovery and induced oxidation of cells leads to ageing.
To put this simply, accumulated oxidative stress over time leads to body ageing. This is why the body experiences ageing with long term sun exposure and can look weathered afterwards. Some call this inflammaging. Chronic oxidative stress also leads to a reduced capacity of the body to detoxify and repair too.
As a potential mediator of oxidative stress, this highlights some potential health benefits of homotaurine and possibly homotaurine supplements too.
Homotaurine Bone Health Benefits
As a potential antioxidant, or mediator of reduced oxidative stress in the body, homotaurine may have specific benefits to the cells of our bones. This was investigated by one recent study that identified homotaurine as having anti-inflammatory effects on mesenchymal stem cells. Other studies have shown that homotaurine reduces levels of inflammatory cytokines. Stem cells help the body to recover itself after damage. These specific cells are implicated in the optimal recovery and health of our bones and brain too.
Homotaurine significantly reduced oxidative stress in mesenchymal stem cells. This molecule improved cell stress outcomes, seen through reduced stress response pathway activation. While it also improved the survival rate of mesenchymal stem cells.
Specific to bone health, homotaurine encouraged the production of bone and also blood vessel formation. These are interesting phenomena. Difficult to imagine, but the body is a constantly changing environment. Homotaurine was thought to be a genetic switch. It activated genes that encourage healthy growth of blood vessels and bone. Through stimulating bone production and skeleton regeneration, it could have benefits against osteoporosis.
Homotaurine Brain Health Benefits
This activity clearly also has benefits for brain health, which requires a constant supply of blood with health supporting nutrients. Interestingly, osteoporosis is also linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s. Homotaurine may possibly improve outcomes from this sort of cognitive disease, through reduced oxidative stress in the brain, as observed in animal brain cells.
Amyloid accumulation in the brain is linked to Alzheimer’s progression and studies show that homotaurine may be able to bind to this protein. Taken together, current research suggests that homotaurine may be an effective neuroprotective agent.
Supplements with homotaurine and citicoline have been identified as a potential preventative neuroprotective treatment. This combination improved nerve cell survival against excitotoxins in one study. Homotaurine supplements on their own were shown to reduce inflammatory cytokine levels in patients and also improved short term memory recall. The supplements were therefore shown to reduce symptoms of amnesia through anti-inflammatory effects on the brain.
Homotaurine And Inflammatory Joint Diseases
Mesenchymal stem cells can also produce new cartilage, which is heavily implicated in inflammatory joint diseases where joint cartilage wears away. This means that homotaurine could also have potential benefits in joint inflammatory diseases through encouraging mesenchymal stem cell survival. These cells can also amplify molecular signals to promote tissue repair and reduce inflammation. This further highlights the potential of homotaurine supplementation for inflammatory joint diseases.
Summary
Homotaurine has a lot of potential as supplement that has preventative health effects. The main two areas where homotaurine seems to have more researched benefits are with bone and brain health. It is a naturally occurring amino acid in seaweed and is a variation of the taurine molecule. Taurine preserves crucial antioxidants in the body, such as glutathione, that protect against oxidative stress.
Homotaurine has been shown to reduce oxidative stress in the body. It also reduces key risk factors for the progression of Alzheimer’s. While not thought to be a strong antioxidant, homotaurine is considered to have a role in mediating antioxidant activity. Antioxidants are essential for protecting our overall health and encouraging healthy cellular ageing. They protect the body from developing cancers and chronic inflammatory diseases. Antioxidants also protect the body from excessive levels of stress.
One study looked at how homotaurine effects oxidative stress levels in the body. It reduced oxidative stress levels in mesenchymal stem cells. These cells form new cartilage, while helping with bone and blood vessel formation. Homotaurine improved the survival of these stem cells, which improves skeleton regeneration and bone formation potential within the body.
Through anti-inflammatory effects, homotaurine may improve outcomes from inflammatory diseases of the brain. It may be a neuroprotective agent and homotaurine supplements do show potential for improvements in cognitive function. Considering that it encourages mesenchymal stem cell survival, key for new cartilage formation, homotaurine supplements may have benefits for inflammatory diseases.
Homotaurine shows a lot of potential as a preventative molecule against various diseases of global significance.
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