Become A “Mentality Monster” With Choline

Choline is cognitive boosting supplement which is often included in pre-workout formulas for its supposed impact on mental focus.

But despite it’s rapid rise in popularity over the last few years, the jury remains out on whether it actually works.

I’ll be taking a comprehensive look at the research on it here, before deciding whether choline deserves a place in your pre-workout alongside the likes of caffeine and creatine, or whether it’s best left on the side-lines.

Can Choline Improve Mental Focus?

Yes, it can.

Choline assists in the formation of a compound called acetylcholine (a.k.a. the “learning” neurotransmitter), so after you take it you’ll feel like you can hear colours.

When we consider that exercise depletes our body’s natural reserves of acetylcholine, it makes sense that topping up with a supplement should improve performance. Also, by increasing acetylcholine we should also be able to enhance muscle contraction force and even the mind/muscle connection, so it’s easy to see why choline could be a very good pre-workout ingredient! (2, 3)

Unfortunately, all of the above is dead wrong. Yep, this is one of those crazy situations life takes your best laid plans and kicks you straight in the bollocks.

Choline was first hyped as a cognitive booster back in 2013, when Spanish researchers did a study on rodents and found that they were able to improve attention span and the rats’ ability to learn new skills. (4)

Unfortunately for them (and us), all human trials have failed to replicate the results. (5, 6, 7)

In fact, the only human trails to show positive results are those which involve children. The most notable came in 2020 via the Journal of Neurodevelopment Disorders. In this review study, researchers followed up with the participants involved in a choline study performed four years earlier and discovered that the children who used choline displayed noticeably better memory and nonverbal intelligence than those who did not. So while it’s not the cognitive booster we thought, it may be useful for your kids (more research is needed, though). (8)

Choline + Huperzine A

Life has seen many great tag teams:

• Edge and Christian
• Rock and roll
• Bangers and mash

And now there’s a new one: choline and huperzine A.

This little known ingredient has recently found its way into some of the more “cutting edge” pre-workout formulas even though it offers no direct training benefits.

It’s there because research suggests that huperzine A might decrease the breakdown of acetylcholine, so when we combine it with choline it gives us a potential “dream team” (less acetylcholine breakdown and more acetylcholine production) which may lead to superior mental focus. (13, 14)

The early signs are pretty good on this combo, but more research is needed before I’ll change my stance that choline is simply not a good cognitive booster.

Using Choline For Liver Health

This is where choline really starts to shine.

Studies dating back to the 1930s indicate that doctors were able to resolve fatty liver disease (which is caused by a choline deficiency) in cats and dogs by giving them choline in supplement form. (9)

Human trials were carried out in the 80s, and the results were great! (10)

These findings have been re-confirmed several more times in recent years, so it’s safe to say that choline can definitely help when it comes to optimizing liver health. (11, 12)

Unfortunately, a 2018 meta-analysis published in Nutrition Today Journal discovered that most of the American public do not obtain enough choline via their diet to unlock any of these benefits. It was even elevated the the status of “essential nutrient” by the Food & Nutrition Board of the National Academies of Medicine way back in 1985, but to this day most of the public remain largely unaware of its importance to liver health. (1)

So this is one reason you probably should be supplementing it.

Which Foods Are Highest In Choline?

Food	Choline mg (per 100g)
Chicken liver	290mg
Salmon	220mg
Chicken broilers	65mg
Almonds	48mg
Eggs	35mg
Shiitake mushrooms	25mg
Milk	17mg

4 Different Types Of Choline Supplements

There are four different types of choline:

• Alpha GPC (alpha-glycerol phosphoryl choline)
• Choline chloride
• Choline dihydrogen citrate
• Choline bitartrate

I’ve listed these from highest-to-lowest in terms of quality, so Alpha GPC is the pick of the bunch. This will give you the biggest bang for your buck, because it unlocks the benefits of choline at a smaller dose than any of the others, while side-stepping the headaches which come from high doses.

Aim for a dose of 500mg-1500mg per day.

This is the product I recommend.

Russ’ Rating

Choline presents me with a conundrum.

We know how it should work, and we know why it should work… but there’s not enough research showing us that it actually does work!

For example, a 2018 review paper on optimal nutrition supplements for the brain didn’t even consider it a viable option as a cognitive booster because it noted that there’s such a lack of evidence to back up the outlandish claims being made by supplement companies. (15)

Until this changes, I simply can’t recommend choline as a “must have” supplement.

For the time being, the biggest benefit it offers is that it appears to have a positive impact on liver health – and considering this is a rising issue due to unhealthy diets, I can recommend it for that alone.

Further Reading:

If you enjoyed this blog, then you’ll probably also like reading these.

>> Russ’ Guide To Supplements
>> Creatine: Your Best Pal For Building Muscle!
>> Tribulus: An Ineffective Test Booster!

References:

1. Wallace T. C., et al. Choline: The Underconsumed and Underappreciated Essential Nutrient. Nutrition Today (2018).
2. Sam C, et al. Physiology, Acetylcholine. StatPearls Publishing (2022).
3. Conlay L. A., et al. Exercise and neuromodulators: choline and acetylcholine in marathon runners. Int J Sports Med (1992).
4. Moreno H., et al. Chronic dietary choline supplementation modulates attentional change in adult rats. Behave Brain Res (2013).
5. Naber M., et al. Improved human visuomotor performance and pupil constriction after choline supplementation in a placebo-controlled double-blind study. Sci Rep (2015).
6. Warber J. P., et al. The effects of choline supplementation on physical performance. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab (2000)
7. Deuster P. A., et al. Choline ingestion does not modify physical or cognitive performance. Mil Med (2002).
8. Wozniak J. R., et al. Four-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial of choline for neurodevelopment in fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. J Neuro Dev Disorders (2020).
9. Caudill M. A., et al. Folate, choline, vitamin B12, and vitamin B6 (chapter 25). Biochemical, Physiological, and Molecular Aspects of Human Nutrition (2013).
10. Buchman A. L., et al. Choline deficiency causes reversible hepatic abnormalities in patients receiving parenteral nutrition: proof of a human choline requirement: a placebo-controlled trial. JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr (2001).
11. Zeisel S. H., et al. Choline, an essential nutrient for humans. FASEB J (1991).
12. da Costa K., et al. Elevated serum creatine phosphokinase in choline-deficient humans: mechanistic studies in C2C12 mouse myoblasts. Am J Clin Nutr (2004).
13. Wessinger C. M., et al. Effect of Huperzine A on Cognitive Function and Perception of Effort during Exercise: A Randomized Double-Blind Crossover Trial. Int J Exerc Sci (2021).
14. Li Y, et al. Pharmacokinetics of huperzine A following oral administration to human volunteers. Eur J Metab Pharmacokinet (2007).
15. Meeusen R., et al. Nutritional Supplements and the Brain. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab (2018).