Health supplements are the best way to gain the respective nutrients needed by the body. Health supplements can be in form of multivitamins, fish oil, traditional herbs, and many more. The use of supplements may entice women in pregnancy to help them achieve all the nutrients for their bodies and the baby. However, we all know how whatever is eaten or consumed by the mother can easily affect the baby they are carrying. Hence, deciding on which supplement to take may not be as easy as it seems because there are a few considerations that need to be taken seriously before consuming any health supplements.
Taurine is always associated with energy drinks or sports drinks. This is because it does help to boost an athlete’s performance level by enhancing their endurance. There is so much more to taurine than just being used in the energy drink. Taurine is an amino acid and the amount is high in chicken, beef, and shellfish. Although taurine is considered a “conditionally essential” amino acid that is not directly linked with the formation of protein in the body, it does exist abundantly in most cells in the body. Generally, humans themselves can produce their taurine by a process in the liver but this does not apply to the baby.
As mentioned, taurine is more than just an aid for athlete performance. Taurine plays a great role in maintaining almost all body functions, especially the brain, eye, and muscles. For the eye, taurine helps to slow down the aging process of the eye which can lead to early cataracts. Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease can be helped with taurine supplementation as it acts as a protective agent against further cell damage from the aging process. Taurine also has been proven to aid with mood improvement, especially among those struggling with mental health disorders.
In pregnancy, taurine plays a significant role in the baby’s early life stage, and a deficiency of taurine may cause a baby to sustain some disability in the future. Remember that a baby cannot produce its taurine? Babies receive taurine from their mothers either through the placenta or breast milk. This shows that the level of taurine in the mother’s body is directly reflected in the baby. Hence, when the mother is a taurine deficiency, the baby will also be at risk for low taurine. Babies receiving a low level of taurine will face growth problems such as being small in size or having low weight. Low birth weight has been linked to the development of chronic illnesses in the baby’s future adulthood such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, hypertension, and stroke. A baby with a low level of taurine is at risk of having disturbance of normal brain function and the eye.
Since it is understood that low levels of taurine in the mother during pregnancy can greatly cause misfortune to the baby, the mother needs to make sure they have a good level of taurine in the blood system. Taurine supplements can greatly help a lot of people with taurine deficiency but the use of this supplement during pregnancy has not been studied much due to limited studies done in groups of pregnant women. Even logically taurine supplements should not pose threat to pregnant women as taurine is already naturally produced in the human body, lack of evidence might not be able to support this. Therefore, pregnant women need to get medical advice first before taking any taurine supplement. This is to avoid possible side effects that might be coming from ingredients used in the taurine supplements and affecting their pregnancy overall. Know about our hajj vaccination package
