By Kennedy Shelley
Many of us find that our memory isn’t as sharp as we think it used to be.
We complain when we don’t feel like we are on top of our game mentally.
But what if a legal supplement may help give you more focus and improved memory?
That is the promise of Alpha-glycerophosphocholine or sometimes just glycerophosphocholine or Alpha-GPC which is the most effective way of getting choline into the body by eating.
People who take Alpha-GPC along with caffeine have been shown to have better mental focus and clarity along with greater memory.
People with Alzheimer’s use high doses along with conventional medications show significant improvement of mental functions.
Because it is absorbed in the liver there is some reason to believe that taking it with dietary fats seems to make it more effective.
While caffeine alone is known to make people more focused, they often get jittery which makes it tough for them to concentrate, but the combination of Alpha-GPC with the caffeine was shown to work well together to improve mental and physical performance in a 2015 study in an article published in the Journal of International Sports Nutrition.
It seems to cross the blood brain barrier increasing the amount of Choline in the brain.
Choline is a natural part of the brain and is vital to good brain health. We get it from a variety of food sources, especially liver and in the yolk of eggs.
Without Choline the body can’t produce acetylcholine which is what we use for memory and mental function.
The body produces some Choline naturally, but it can’t produce enough for life, it has to get extra from food or supplementation.
There isn’t a Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) on Choline like there is for many nutrients.
In other words, while it is estimated that most Americans are Choline deficient based on government websites unless a person has a specific genetic condition, there are not any known disorders that occur if you don’t get enough.
So, the people who are most interested in this are those who are not trying to treat a specific disorder but are interested in cognitive enhancement.
In other words, they are fine, they just want to increase their performance or get a mental edge.
There has been much more research on elderly patients who have found an increase in mental performance by increased Choline levels, but not much was done on healthy younger people.
Is it possible to get too much?
Taking more than 3,500 mg has been associated with “fishy body odor” excessive sweating and liver toxicity.
There is no known problem with taking this with any medications.
Do you need to supplement? Well, that depends on who you ask. If you ate three ounces of liver every day you would be getting 85% of the recommended Choline.
It might be worth looking into if you think you are suffering from some brain fog without having any other issues.
