Nutrients – Choline

Choline

Overview

Choline is similar to the B vitamins and is made in the liver. Choline is not strictly defined as a vitamin, but it is an essential nutrient. Choline is used for liver disease, including chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis. It is also used for depression, memory loss, Alzheimer's disease and dementia, Huntington's chorea, Tourette's disease, a brain disorder called cerebellar ataxia, certain types of seizures, and a mental condition called schizophrenia.

Choline is synthesized by the human body in small amounts, but still must be consumed to have an adequate supply. Athletes use it for bodybuilding and delaying fatigue in endurance sports. Choline is taken by pregnant women to prevent neural tube defects in their babies and it is used as a supplement in infant formulas. Other uses include preventing cancer, lowering cholesterol, and controlling asthma.

Deficiency Signs and Symptoms

The most common signs of choline deficiencies are fatty liver and hemorrhagic kidney necrosis. Dietary intake of a choline full diet can reduce the severity of the deficiency. Choline deficiency may play a role in liver disease, atherosclerosis, and possibly neurological disorders. One symptom of choline deficiency is an elevated level of the liver enzyme ALT.

Tests

There are a few tests, but none that I can find that your doctor may use. The doctor may know which tests are available to use. One that is mentioned is the platinochloride test for choline in human blood; however, this is not listed when looking for choline tests that I researched.

Recommended Daily Allowance

Adequate Intake (AI) for Choline
Life stage	Age	Males (mg/day)	Females (mg/day)
Infants	0-6 months	125	125
Infants	7-12 months	150	150
Children	1-3 years	200	200
Children	4-8 years	250	250
Children	9-13 years	375	375
Adolescents	14-18 years	550	400
Adults	19 years and older	550	425
Pregnancy	All ages	-	450
Breast-feeding	All ages	-	550

Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) for Choline
Age group	UL (g/day)
Infants 0-12 months	Not possible to establish*
Children 1-8 years	1.0
Children 9-13 years	2.0
Adolescents 14-18 years	3.0
Adults 19 years and older	3.5

Notice that the top chart is in milligrams and the bottom chart is in grams.

Function

Choline is similar to a B vitamin. It is used in many chemical reactions in the body. Choline seems to be an important element in the nervous system. In asthma, choline might help decrease swelling and inflammation.

Food Sources

It is in foods such as liver, muscle meats, fish, nuts, beans, peas, spinach, wheat germ, and eggs. It is generally recognized that it is important to get dietary choline from these foods as well.

Animal and plant food	Choline (mg)	Calories
5 ounces (142 g) raw beef liver	473	192
Large hardboiled egg	113	78
Half a pound (227 g) cod fish	190	238
Half a pound of chicken	150	543
Quart of milk, 1% fat	173	410
A gram soy lecithin	30 approx.	8
100 grams of Soybeans dry	116	268
A pound (454 grams) of cauliflower	177	104
A pound of spinach	113	154
A cup of wheat germ	202	432
Two cups (0.47 liters) firm tofu	142	353
Two cups of cooked kidney beans	108	450
A cup of uncooked quinoa	119	626
A cup of uncooked amaranth	135	716
A grapefruit	19	103
3 cups (710 cc) cooked brown rice	54	649
A cup (146 g) of peanuts	77	828
A cup (143 g) of almonds	74	822

Precautions

There is some concern that increasing dietary choline intake might increase the risk of cancer of the colon and rectum. One study found that women eating a diet that contains a lot of choline have an increased the risk of colon cancer. However, more research is still needed to determine the effects of diet on colon cancer.

Choline is seems to be safe when taken by mouth and used appropriately. Doses up to 3 grams daily for pregnant and breast-feeding women up to 18 years of age, and 3.5 grams daily for women 19 years and older are not likely to cause unwanted side effects. There isn’t enough information available about the safety of choline used in higher doses in pregnant or lactating women. It’s best to stick to recommended doses.

Possible Interactions

High doses (10 to 16 grams/day) of choline have been associated with a fishy body odor, vomiting, salivation, and increased sweating. The fishy body odor results from excessive production and excretion of trimethylamine, a metabolite of choline. Taking large doses of choline in the form of phosphatidylcholine (lecithin) does not generally result in fishy body odor, because its metabolism results in little trimethylamine. A dose of 7.5 grams of choline/day was found to have a slight blood pressure lowering (hypotensive) effect, which could result in dizziness or fainting. Choline magnesium trisalicylate at doses of 3 grams/day has resulted in impaired liver function, generalized itching, and ringing of the ears (tinnitus). However, it is likely that these effects were a result of the salicylate, rather than the choline in the preparation.

Little is known regarding the amount of dietary choline most likely to promote optimum health or prevent chronic disease in older adults. At present, there is no evidence to support a different intake of choline from that of younger adults (550 mg/day for men and 425 mg/day for women).

Methotrexate, a medication used in the treatment of cancer, psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis, inhibits the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase and therefore limits the availability of methyl groups donated from folate derivatives. Rats given methotrexate have shown evidence of diminished nutritional status of choline, including fatty liver, which can be reversed by choline supplementation. Thus, individuals taking methotrexate may have an increased choline requirement.