Your Energy Drink May Work Like a Pre-Workout—With One Catch
Caffeine and taurine sit side by side in energy drinks and pre-workouts, but does the pair actually boost performance? A new meta-analysis of 11 randomized trials (234 participants) found moderate improvements in peak power and time to exhaustion, plus lower perceived effort. Heart rate didn't budge, and the reaction-time result was too inconsistent to trust. The catch is that the studies were small and can't show whether taurine adds anything beyond caffeine. Here's what the data say, and who should think twice.
The Energy Drink Ingredient That Boosts Endurance on Its Own
Everyone talks about caffeine, but the other ingredient on the energy drink can may be quietly doing its own work. A 2018 meta-analysis of 10 studies found that isolated taurine improved endurance performance (Hedges' g = 0.40), and a single dose appeared to be enough. Neither dose (1–6 g) nor supplementation length changed the effect in a meaningful way. The catch is a small evidence base and wide confidence intervals, so this is a promising signal, not a guarantee. Here's what the study found and how to try taurine sensibly.