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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

Choline & Lecithin

Choline is the precursor of acetylcholine (a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in memory). Choline improves memory by increasing the amount of acetylcholine in the brain.

Choline can be found in health food and vitamin stores in several forms including choline bitartrate, choline chloride, and phosphatidyl choline. Phos­phatidyl choline (PC) is the active ingredient of lecithin.

Choline, in its various forms, has been shown to improve performance by normal, healthy humans in a variety of intelligence and memory tests (Sitaram, 1978).

PC has some unique effects as well. PC is a source of the materials from which every cell membrane in your body is made. Since most of the important electro-chemical activities in the cell arise from the membranes, PC is very important. Nerve and brain cells in particular need large quantities of PC for repair and maintenance. It also aids in the metabolism of fats, regulates blood cholesterol, and nourishes the fat‑like sheaths of nerve fibers.

Recycling of choline at the synapse, the site of communication between nerve cells. Many cognition-enhancement compounds, including choline, work by increasing available acetylcholine at the synapse. (Redrawn from Hospital Practice, 1978.)

Precautions: Any compound that acts as a precursor to acetylcholine such as choline, PC, or DMAE should not be used by people who are manic depressive because it can deepen the depressive phase. Choline bitartrate and choline chloride can sometimes cause a fishy odor or diarrhea. PC, however, does not have either of these effects.

Dosage: 3 grams of choline per day in three divided doses. If lecithin is used as a source of choline, you may want to take more than the 3 grams, because only part of the lecithin is choline. Often the label will provide information on the quantity of choline per tablespoon. 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: Choline and lecithin are nutritional supplements that can be found at health food or drug stores. Commercial lecithin usually contains other oils and phosphatides besides phosphatidyl choline. Look at the label before you buy, and make sure the product contains more than 30% phosphatidyl choline. Lecithin easily becomes rancid, and there is no way to guarantee that the lecithin you buy is fresh. The best way is to buy your lecithin from a high‑volume health food store which has a high product turnover. A high quality lecithin will have a pleasant, slightly sweet taste. TwinLab sells a product called PC‑55 which is an excellent soy lecithin product. Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw have designed a good tasting drink mix that contains choline and all of the co-factors necessary for the brain to manufacture acetylcholine. Appendix A on page 165 lists sources for these products.

References:

Gelenberg, A., et al. "Lecithin for the Treatment of Tardive Dyskine­sia." Nutrition and the Brain. 1979, Vol. 5, pp. 285‑90.

Pearson, D., Shaw, S. Life Extension: A Practical Scientific Ap­proach. New York: Warner Books, 1982.

Pelton, R., Pelton, T.C. Mind Food & Smart Pills. New York: Double­day, 1989.

Sitaram, N., Weingartner, H. "Human Serial Learning: Enhancement with Arecoline and Choline and Impair­ment with Scopolamine." Science. 1978, 201, pp. 275‑76.

Werbach, M. Nutritional Influences on Illness. Tarzana, CA: Third Line Press, 1988.