Tag Archive for: tumor

Is Taurine Safe?

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The title said, “Could your energy drink be fueling cancer?”

“Now what?!” was my first thought. Researchers reported in a press release that the amino acid taurine may help cancerous cells make energy to fuel their growth. Because taurine is found in energy drinks and protein supplements, I wanted to check whether this is something to be concerned about or not.

This was a complex study from the perspective of identifying what were the potential stimulators of tumor progression in bone marrow. A taurine carrier was identified. The researchers conducted tests which added taurine to specific types of leukemia cells to determine tumor progression. They concluded that further research was necessary to find something that would block taurine carriers from carrying taurine into tumor calls where they could stimulate the production of energy via glycolysis. That may be correct or not.

The methods section of the paper was over five single-spaced pages long; that doesn’t make it bad, but each unique test has to have a standard error of the method. In other words, how specific and precise does the method measure the variable?

  • Using available leukemia cell lines is a first step to test theories, but we don’t know if that’s how it would work in living human beings.
  • They did testing on rodents, but there were only a few rodents in each group.
  • On top of that, taurine is naturally produced in the body, and they specifically identified tumor sites as one of the locations where taurine is produced. How can that be differentiated from natural production and supplementation?

In my opinion, they were far too aggressive in their conclusions about energy drinks potentially fueling cancer. For now, the most conservative approach is that if you have an aggressive myeloid leukemia, consider reducing taurine intake from all sources, which would also include meats, dairy, and eggs. There’s a lot more research that has to be done before we definitively know how this information impacts the real world.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

References:
1. https://scitechdaily.com/could-your-energy-drink-be-feeding-cancer-what-scientists-just-discovered/
2. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09018-7

Omega-3s May Kill Tumors

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As exciting as Tuesday’s Memo might have been on omega-3s and superbugs, today’s Memo probably tops that. Before we get too excited, it’s important to remember that this was another test-tube study. That’s fine; that’s how research into any topic begins, but it still has to be proven in human trials.

Researchers in Belgium exposed tumors to various types of polyunsaturated fatty acids including omega-3s and omega-6s. This is the important part: as they made the medium more acidic, the tumors preferentially used fatty acids as fuel. The tumor cells started to implode via a process called ferroptosis. Literally, it means “iron cell death.” What seems to happen is that as the tumor becomes more acidic, it can’t store the fat as well. That creates free radicals, and the tumor cells are destroyed from the inside out. The fish-oil DHA was the most effective at killing tumor cells.

What does this mean for us? Nothing yet, but in another study, when mice were given DHA, their tumors developed more slowly. Remember, what happens in tumors may not happen in the body because actual tumors may have developed a more sophisticated defense system. Then there’s the matter of causing acidity—not necessarily easy to do systemically or targeting just the cancer. But just as with the superbugs, it gives us a reason to take our fish oil with EPA and DHA. And of course, there are other potential benefits to the body as well. Fish burps seem a small price to pay for all this protection, right?

How about the recent research on DHA and atrial fibrillation? I’ll tackle that issue in next week’s Memos. It comes down to scientists asking the correct question.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Cell Metabolism. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2021.05.016.