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Dear Mr. Morgenthaler,

Thank you for the “Health & Wellness Update.” I look forward to each issue, and the solid information it provides.

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Smart Drugs & Nutrients:

How to Improve Your Memory and Increase Your Intelligence Using the Latest Discoveries In Neuroscience

VOLUME 1 in the Smart Drugs Series

by Ward Dean, M.D. & John Morgenthaler
$12.95 - 224 pages, softcover (Out of Stock)

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Sec 5: Other Cognitive Enhancers

Acetyl­L-Carnitine (ALC) | Caffeine | Centrophenoxine (Lucidril) | Choline & Lecithin | AL721 (Egg Lecithin) | DHEA | DMAE | Gerovital (GH­3) | Ginkgo Biloba: A Nootropic Herb? | Ginseng | Hydergine | Idebenone | Phenytoin (Dilantin) | Propranolol Hydrochloride (Inderal) | Thyroid Hormone | Vasopressin (Diapid) | Vincamine | Vitamins | Xanthinol Nicotinate

AL721 (Egg Lecithin)

AL721 is the name given to a particular extract of egg yolk by Israeli researchers. The 721 refers to 7 parts neutral lipids (oil), 2 parts phosphatidyl choline, and 1 part phosphatidyl ethanolamine.

AL721 has been used to treat senility and viral diseases such as AIDS in Israel. Several theories have been formulated to explain its action. The researchers who developed AL721 suggest that the substance increases the "fluidity" of cell membranes. They were looking for a fluidizing substance after discovering that cell membranes in aged animals were more stiff than in young animals. Since most of the electro­chemical activity in the cell originates on membranes, the fluidizing effect of AL721 could be stabilizing and "deaging" the cell's metabolism.

Others in the field have suggested that AL721 works similarly to soy lecithin, improving intelligence and immune response by providing the raw materials needed by the cell to manufacture and repair the membranes. Still others call AL721 merely an expensive source of acetylcholine precursors.

Whether these theories are true or not, people with AIDS began to demand AL721 after preliminary research by the Israeli team suggested that it might alleviate some of the symptoms of AIDS. The researchers also gave AL721 to a number of elderly people (reportedly including at least one researcher's mother). These people were supposed to have reported improved cognition with AL721. When AL721 became available in health food stores, many people similarly began to report improved cognitive abilities with its use. Of course, this evidence is anecdotal but these reports agree with the many experiments using soy phosphatidyl choline to improve human cognition.

Precautions: Any compound that acts as a precursor to acetylcholine should not be used by people who are manic depressive because it can deepen the depressive phase.

Dosage: Like soy PC, AL721 is very safe. People with AIDS have used as much as 30 to 40 GRAMS a day of AL721. For cognitive enhancement, 2 to 10 grams per day is probably the correct dose. All forms of choline should be taken with one gram per day of vitamin B‑5 so that the choline can be converted into acetylcholine.

Sources: AL721 is available under the name EggsACT from health food stores and some companies listed in Appendix A (see page 165).

References:

Shinitzky, M., et al. "Intervention in Membrane Aging - the Development and Application of Active Lipid." Intervention in the Aging Process: Basic Research and Preclinical Screening. New York: Alan R. Liss, 1983.

Shinitzky, M. (ed) Physiology of Membrane Fluidity, Vols. 1 & 2, Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1984.