Choline

Choline is a vitamin because dietary levels can, according to reliable research, affect health. Choline has been shown to be helpful in the treatment of several neurological disorders, including tardive dyskinesia, Huntington's disease, Gilles de la Tourette's Disease, Friedreich's Ataxia, presenile dementia, manic depression, and Alzheimer's Disease.

Choline's role in neurological diseases begins with its role in normal neurological function. Choline is a component of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter. When a nerve impulse jumps the gap from one neuron to another, a neurotransmitter must be there. Don't lose the significance of that reaction in its apparent simplicity. Everything we do depends on those nerve impulses.

Tardive dyskinesia results when some of those impulses are deranged by certain medications commonly given to psychotic patients (haloperidol and phenothiazine). This derangement results in a grotesque loss of control over the facial muscles. Involuntary grimaces, chewing, puckering, and tongue protrusions result. Until a few years ago, nothing could be done for people suffering this man-made, or iatrogenic (doctor-induced), disease except to take their medications away, which usually resulted in worse mental symptoms in addition to lingering tardive dyskinesia.

Doctors then theorized that tardive dyskinesia resulted from the medication's interference with the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Simultaneous research indicated that dietary choline could affect brain levels of acetylcholine in animals. The next step involved a leap of faith in science. Doctors tried boosting human brain levels of acetylcholine by giving high doses of choline to people with tardive dyskinesia. While no one has volunteered to have his brain dissected to measure acetylcholine levels, high doses of choline did have a beneficial effect on tardive dyskinesia. In one study, massive doses of choline (150 mg. per kilogram of body weight daily the first week, 200 mg./kg. thereafter) were given orally to twenty psychiatric patients also suffering tardive dyskinesia. The spasm decreased in nine people, worsened in one, and were unchanged in ten. This is a strikingly better track record than any other treatment. Choline did not interfere with the therapeutic effects of the psychiatric medications. Other trials with choline have had similar, or even better results. Many of the patients in the above study were elderly and had been receiving medications for many years. Doctors speculate that the choline may not have been able to overcome all the effects of the medications because of how long the people had been taking them.

The first symptom of Alzheimer's disease is usually memory loss. Researchers believe that the nerve cells that perform memory functions use acetylcholine. If this is so, boosting dietary choline should also boost acetylcholine concentrations and improve memory. Several studies have tried supplementary choline on people with Alzheimer's disease, and the results are encouraging.

Huntington's Chorea, or Huntington's disease, is similar to tardive dyskinesia in that the sufferer loses control over certain muscles. Unlike tardive dyskinesia, however, it is not brought on by medications, and dementia usually occurs along with the spasms. Choline has been tried in the treatment of this disease with enough encouraging results to warrant further study, but not with the degree of success found in tardive dyskinesia.

Choline is finding more and more potential applications in the treatment of diseases of the nervous system. Research in Europe has found the vitamin useful in the treatment of depressive diseases. In eight psychiatric patients suffering from a range of symptoms, including hypochondria, depression, sleeplessness, paranoia, suicidal tendencies, anxiety, and moodiness, choline injections resulted in significant improvement in all the patients. The most consistent effect was the complete disappearance of depression in all patients.

Animal experiments have shown that a diet deficient in choline and high in fat produces cardiovascular lesions, whereas the same diet supplemented with choline does not. Further experiments have shown that choline supplementation also protects animals against a high-fat diet combined with toxic doses of vitamin D (which also produces cardiovascular lesions). The effect of supplementary choline on heart disease mortality in people was tested by giving one group of 115 heart patients choline supplements and another equal group none or a placebo. Within three years there were thirty deaths among the unsupplemented group and twelve deaths among the supplemented group.

Choline supplements are available in a wide range of doses, from a few milligrams to several hundred milligrams. Some choline supplements have the drawback that they are degraded by the gut bacteria and produce a substance which causes a fishy odor. Lecithin does not cause this problem, since it is absorbed by the intestine. However, lecithin does have the disadvantage of supplying a considerable number of calories.

Choline is relatively nontoxic. At the high doses used in some of the psychiatric experiments (for tardive dyskinesia), nausea, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea were suffered by a few patients. Also, a small number of psychiatric patients became depressed when given choline.

Where is it found ?

The best natural source of choline is lecithin, an oily substance derived from soybeans or corn, but also found in egg yolks and milk. Some of the above-mentioned studies used lecithin as a source of choline. Other sources of B vitamins, such as whole grains, yeast, fish, eggs, legumes, and liver are also good sources of choline.

Who is likely to be deficient ?

Although choline deficiencies have been artificially induced in people, little is known about human deficiency in the real world.

How much to take

Small amounts of choline are present in most B complex and multivitamin supplements.

Side effects

At several grams per day, some people will experience abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, or nausea. Supplementing straight choline (as opposed to phosphatidylcholine) in large amounts (over 1,000 mg per day) can lead to a fishy odor; PC does not have this effect.
The body uses both PC and pantothenic acid to form acetylcholine.

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