The energy-drink ingredient offers striking health benefits in mice, monkeys and worms. But more work is needed to investigate its link with ageing.

Ageing mice, worms and monkeys can live longer or healthier lives when fed large amounts of taurine, a common ingredient in health supplements and energy drinks, a study suggests.

Researchers showed that levels of the naturally occurring amino acid — which has been linked to other aspects of health — decline as the animals age, and that offsetting this loss with a taurine supplement might delay the development of age-related health problems.