Last week I came across an article about the use ofcholine for the treatment of fatty liver disease. This grabbed my attention because many years ago I had acquired fatty liver disease after flirting with fruitarianism for several months. The primary cause of fatty liver is fructose (fruit sugar) or alcohol. Half of regular white sugar is fructose and is the reason doctors are seeing an epidemic of fatty liver among teenagers because they are drinking so many sodas and sugar based beverages. Even so called “healthy” fruit drinks are full of fructose and trigger fatty liver disease.
So after eating a dozen or more pieces of fruit a day for many months, I developed fatty liver. Back then doctors had no idea that fatty liver could come from sugar. They only knew that alcohol could cause this and it would then proceed into cirrhosis of the liver. They asked me howmuch booze I drank, and had a hard time believing me when I explained that I never drank any alcohol of any sort. I was on my own finding an answer, so my first assumption was that I was not meant to be a groovy fruitarian. Years later the sugar connection was discovered, but this week was the first time that I learned that choline protects the liver from the damaging effects of fructose.
I knew what choline was, but assumed it was made by the body since nobody ever told me it was an essential nutrient that had to be obtained from our diet. They didn’t know this back when I was in school. This was only discovered in 1998. You must get choline from the diet. It is grouped with the B vitamins, but is not a B vitamin. I have never seen it as an ingredient in a multiple vitamin/mineral supplement. The two main dietary sources for choline are liver and egg yolks. So if your diet does not involve a lot of either liver or egg yolks, then chances are you are deficient in choline. Tiny amounts are found in cruciferous vegetables like Brussels sprouts and cauliflower, but you would have to eat 8 to 10 cups a day of these to get enough. In comparison your needs can be met with only 4 egg yolks or 5 ounces of liver a day. What? You don’t eat 5 ounces of liver every day?
So besides preventing fatty liver, what does choline do? How about making acetylcholine, the mainneurotransmitter for your entire nervous system? Memory, muscle function, visual processing, heartbeat, and many other basic functions require choline. Choline moves cholesterol out of the liver. It is required for making cell membranes and cell to cell messaging molecules. It is even used to help make your DNA. But because this need is so recently discovered, there is no official established levels needed. Without this official label of need with a number of milligrams needed attached to it, it has been ignored. Research is showing that the need is highly variable between people and at different ages. Adults generally seem to need 450 to 550 mg a day.
Symptoms of a choline deficiency may include:
low energy levels / fatigue
memory loss
cognitive decline
learning disabilities
muscle aches
nerve damage
mood changes or disorders
fatty liver
The research on people is still being done and definite answers have not come in yet as to just how much we need. Definitely pregnant women need it along with folate to prevent neural tube defects in the baby. Post menopausal women also seem to be vulnerable to not getting enough. But studies with men all being given the recommended amount still showed some of them showing deficiency signs and symptoms. Unlike other vitamins that produce specific diseases when you are deficient, choline affects so many systems that it is hard to recognize just when someone is low in choline.
My take in such vague situations is to bump up my level of intake for a couple months and see how I feel. Then I stop for another month and see if I feel worse. This is really a trial and error situation. It is a no-brainer if you already have fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In this case get on this stuff right away. If you consume a lot of alcohol, choline may help protect your liver. If you experience memory loss or cognitive decline, then give it a try. In these cases I would use the most easily absorbed forms of choline for the brain, CDP-choline or alpha- GPC. Both of these forms are considered nootropics, meaning they are known to enhance brain function.
If you are a bacon and eggs type of person, then including three or four eggs a day or more liver and cod in your diet will meet your needs. If you are a vegan then you are pretty much stuck with having to take supplements, just like having to take B12 and L-carnitine.
So this caught my attention, and I figured sharing it would probably help some of you.