Is Alpha GPC The Best Choline Source To Use?

How does Alpha GPC compare to other Choline supplements on the market? Choline is a water soluble essential nutrient that is closely related to the B-complex vitamin family.

It is also a type of phospholipid that makes up cell membranes, especially in brain neurons. As the main precursor molecule to the powerful neurotransmitter Acetylcholine, Choline plays a crucial role in the development and formation of memory along with a number of other cognitive processes.

This nutrient is further involved in protecting neurons in the brain and maintaining good brain health.

If you are interested in using a Choline supplement to improve your cognitive power, you might have come across Alpha GPC Choline. Alpha GPC is one of the most popular choline sources especially for stacking with other brain supplements called “Nootropics”.

You will find Alpha GPC in many products like Alpha Brain by Onnit Labs, or you can purchase it independently to use in a nootropic stack with Piracetam, Noopept, or Aniracetam. How does Alpha GPC compare to other choline and Acetylcholine supplements out there?

Alpha GPC

Cholinergic Supplement

Memory

Attention

Neuro- protective

How It Works:

• Choline source to support memory function
• Increases attention, focus & energy
• Neuroprotective for brain cell health

Dosage:

Between 300mg to 1,200mg per day

Safety:

Generally Regarded as Safe

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Choline Is Essential To Good Health:

It has been known for several decades that Choline is an essential nutrient both for the brain and whole body health. This nutrient was first discovered in 1864 by Adolph Strecker and then chemically synthesized two years later.

During the early research on insulin, Choline was discovered as necessary to prevent fatty liver conditions, helping to regulate cholesterol levels. It was classified as an essential nutrient by the Food and Nutrition Board of the US Institute of Medicine in 1998.

The body is able to create small amounts of choline, but it must also be consumed from foods in order to ensure proper availability. While it can be found in some types of foods like eggs and beef liver, the amounts are usually quite small.

In fact, most people today are deficient in their levels of Choline, making supplementation very important.

Choline is important for everyone, but especially pregnant women. Low Choline intake is reported to raise the rate of neural tube defects in infants and may actually impair the memories of children.

Women who consume high levels of Choline have also been shown to have lower risks of breast cancer. One study in rats even found that taking Choline at conception produced offspring with higher intelligence scores.

If you have low levels of choline it can lead to problems including liver disease, atherosclerosis, and possibly some forms of neurological disease. It may also increase the levels of specific liver enzymes like ALT.

While all of these benefits of choline are no doubt advantageous to your overall health, the main reason that people seek out choline supplements is to increase their intellect and brain capacity.

Choline has become particularly popular to use with Piracetam and other Cholinergic racetams because it was discovered to amplify the effects seen with these cognitive enhancers.

When using a Piracetam Choline Stack, you may experience significant gains in memory, learning, analytical reasoning, brain energy, focus, and mental fluidity.

This is because Choline sources create synergy with Piracetam which essentially increases the demand for Acetylcholine at certain brain receptors. Choline may also be able to prevent some negative side effects associated with Piracetam such as headaches.

Choline is available as a supplement only, and the FDA has not approved Choline as a drug to prevent or treat any conditions.

Why is Alpha GPC Best?

Two of the most commonly used sources of Choline are Soy Lecithin and Phosphatidylcholine. These are found both in food and supplement sources and your local nutrition shop probably carries it in some form or another.

The problem is the fact that these are both fairly inefficient sources of the nutrient. Lecithin, for example, has only around a 6 to 10 percent concentration of pure Choline.

Phosphatidylcholine does improve upon this a bit, but not much with a 13 percent Choline concentration. Furthermore, these supplements do not have very good penetration of the blood-brain barrier which means that much of what you consume is not getting to where you need it the most.

You could also try to change your diet and get Choline sources exclusively from the food you eat. The problem with this is the potential for unintended side effects. Eating 8 egg yolks per day would provide a solid amount of Choline, but it could possibly raise your cholesterol levels.

Beef liver could also be consumed, but the expense required to reach adequate levels on an ongoing basis might not make this feasible. There are certainly ways that you can get more choline in your diet by changing what you eat, but for the best cognitive enhancement results, taking supplements is usually required to see noticeable effects.

Choline Bitartrate

Choline Bitartrate is another source which could be considered. It is also fairly cheap to buy and use. Many Nootropic users actually like to stack this source of Choline with other supplement such as Aniracetam, Oxiracetam, Piracetam, and even Noopept.

This source does contain a higher concentration of Choline than the previous mentioned sources. It also is better able to convert into the neurotransmitter Aectylcholine, which is essential for improving memory and other cognitive processes.

The main disadvantage to Bitartrate sources of Choline is that it is not very efficient at crossing the blood-brain barrier.

Unfortunately, this also means that a lot of the potential effect is wasted, since it must actually reach the central nervous system in order to be effective at improving Nootropic effects.

Best Choline Sources

There are three main other Choline supplements that actually do an effective job at crossing the blood-brain barrier and producing Nootropic effects. All of these are also commonly stacked with other Racetam supplements, although they can certainly be used on a standalone basis.

Alpha GPC (sometimes called Choline Alfoscerate) is a highly concentrated version of soy lecithin that works as an effective Acetylcholine precursor.

Centrophenoxine is a synthetic version that is derived from DMAE. It is also extraordinarily powerful and results in higher levels of Acetylcholine, primarily due to phospholipid transformation.

The third option is CDP Choline, also known as Citicoline. This is another very effective source, although it undergoes a double conversion (Choline in the intestines and then back into Citicoline in the brain).

Of these options, many people think that Alpha GPC may be the best available Choline supplement. This is because Alpha GPC actually has a slightly different pathway for increasing Acetylcholine levels in the brain.

Research shows it has the best transportation into the brain of all of the choline supplements listed above. It is more concentrated than its closes competitor CDP Choline, containing the same amount of choline at a dosage of 46%. It has also been assessed as more effective on a per weight basis in various observed clinical interventions.

While Alpha GPC tends to be more expensive than Citicoline or CDP Choline, the fact that it is almost twice as strong means that you are actually paying less per dosage for Alpha GPC powder. A typical manufacturer recommended dosage for Alpha GPC is 250 – 500 mg while some other sources may require twice that amount or more.

Alpha GPC is also regarded as extremely safe if you are using it as directed. Some individuals may see mild discomfort when exceeding the typical dosing schedule, but these adverse effects are extremely rare with all choline supplements.

However, it is not necessary that you use Alpha GPC in your nootropic stack and you may see equally good results by taking more CDP Choline. The best advice regarding Choline sources is to avoid lecithin and Phosphatidylcholine based sources, as they are the least bioavilable.

They are not concentrated enough to produce any real Nootropic effects. While Choline Bitartrate can be used if you are pressed for money or time, this will only be moderately effective.

Focus your Choline supplementation efforts by using CDP Choline, Alpha GPC, or Centrophenoxine. Which one you choose is really a personal decision. The ideal course of action would be to try all three and then see which one is most effective for you.

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