What type of Choline Vitamin Should You Use?

Choline is an important nutrient for brain health and mental performance, but unfortunately the average Western diet does not afford enough of this compound.

If you do not get sufficient levels of choline from your food, it could affect your ability to learn, remember and reason logically.

This is because Choline is a necessary component in the production of acetylcholine – one of the most prominent neurochemicals used by your brain.

For this reason, many people young and old are interested in taking Choline vitamins to boost their memory and overall cognitive abilities.

But there are several different sources of Choline that you can use which may leave you wondering what the best choline supplement to buy is.

Here are the best choices for which type of choline vitamin you should use as well as an explanation of some of their benefits.

Choline

Cholinergic Supplement

Memory

Brain Health

Cognition

How It Works:

• Supports memory and synaptic plasticity
• Raises acetylcholine levels
• Promotes brain health and focus

Dosage:

Between 250 - 1,000 mg per day

Safety:

Rated Likely Safe

Top Choline Products* ❯

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Why Choline is Important

Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that is related directly to the concept of brain plasticity.

Neuroplasticity is a measure of your brain’s ability to adapt, learn and form new connections between neurons.

The more plastic your brain is, the better retention you will have of new information and the better your short term memory will be.

Synaptic plasticity is often quantified as “fluid intelligence” which is the type of intelligence measured by the standard IQ test.

If you want to increase your brainpower and improve your memory, optimizing acetylcholine levels is an important first step.

Acetylcholine is synthesized in the brain from Choline which comes from certain foods that we eat. “Brain Foods” that are typically good sources of choline include eggs, fish, meat, tofu, almonds and some vegetables. However, you have to eat a lot of food to get the recommended amount of choline in your diet.

For examples, eggs are considered one of the best choline providers but you would need to eat 8 of these every single day in order to reach the suggested amount. For this reason, most people turn to Choline vitamins and supplements as their preferred source.

Another good reason for taking a choline vitamin is if you are using nootropics like Piracetam or Aniracetam. Nootropics are a class of brain-boosting supplements that are non-toxic to humans.

There are many different types of nootropics, but the most popular are called Racetams and they work by stimulating the release of acetylcholine in the brain. This causes improvements in cognitive abilities related to learning, memory, perception, focus, mood and energy.

Because Piracetam and other Racetams increase the demand on acetylcholine in your brain, it is often necessary to supplement your diet with additional acetylcholine supplements.

If you do not have enough choline when taking Piracetam, you may end up with an unpleasant headache as well as limit the effectiveness of the drug.

So what are some of the options for taking Choline vitamins?

Choline Bitartrate

The cheapest option is to buy a choline salt like Choline Bitartrate. This is what most nootropic stack products will use and it is a good choice for beginners.

The biggest problem with Choline Bitartrate is that much of what you ingest will not make it to your brain.

The same goes for another supplement known as Choline Citrate. Instead, it gets diverted by something called the Blood Brain Barrier which separate circulating blood from your neurons.

Choline vitamins are only truly effective at increasing brainpower if they can be used by your neurons to produce acetylcholine.

For this reason, it is better to look for a higher quality choline source that is more available to your brain.

Soy Lecithin

The second type of supplement we will look at is called soy lecithin and it is commonly used by vegetarians who tend to be very choline-deficient. It is derived naturally from soybeans and is a source of phosphatidylcholine which is actually an intermediary between choline and acetylcholine.

In other words, choline must first turn into phosphatidylcholine before it can be converted into acetylcholine. The average dosage of soy lecithin is between 500 mg and 1,000 mg taken in capsule form.

One issue with this type of Choline vitamin is that it has relatively low bioavailability which means it is not absorbed as well by the body. You may end up urinating much of this compound out if you take more than the recommended dosage.

CDP Choline

The next option to consider is CDP Choline or Citicoline.

This compound is quite a bit more potent than the previously listed products and it actually offers some nootropic benefits of its own.

CDP Choline is more bioavailable and has very good penetration of the blood brain barrier. In addition to supplying the body with choline, it also stimulates increased synthesis of phosphatidylcholine and tripeptide glutathione.

This supplement has also been shown to increase the density of dopamine receptor neurons which may lead to mood enhancing benefits. CDP Choline even has a stimulant-like effect and has been used successfully by people with ADD and ADHD.

Alpha GPC

A final source of acetylcholine is Alpha GPC which rapidly delivers choline to the brain. This compound actually breaks down directly into acetylcholine once it crosses the blood brain barrier and reaches your neurons.

It is regarded as having similar potency to CDP Choline and the choice of which to use is largely personal.

Alpha GPC also poses benefits to brain capacity beyond simply increasing acetylcholine levels. It is known to independently improve memory and cognition in both healthy individuals and people with Alzheimer’s.

Because it is so powerful you can expect to pay more for this supplement, but it is probably the best choice to use especially with other fast-acting brain boosters like Piracetam or Aniracetam.

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