What is Choline
Bitartrate ?
Choline Bitartrate is a water-soluble part of the B Vitamin family.
Choline Bitartrate is produced in the body but at such low quantities
people should be obtaining it through diet or supplementation. For the
most part Choline Bitartrate is involved in activities related to the
nervous system and the brain. Egg yolk is the best way obtain Choline
Bitartrate through diet. Other good foods are peanuts, wheat germ,
organ meats and legumes.
Choline Bitartrate is known to influence muscle contractions, movement
and coordination. It also is involved in higher level brain functions
like memory, thought and intellect. Choline Bitartrate is vital to the
structural integrity of cell walls, the production of amino acids and
proteins and the metabolism of fats.
In studies Choline Bitartrate was able to:
* Enhance memory
* Aid in the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease
* Improve cognitive function
* Improve the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease.
* Enhance the effectiveness of lithium in the
treatment of manic depression.
The body needs B vitamins to manufacture neurotransmitters, chemicals
that control alertness and mood by speeding nerve signals through the
brain. Studies have shown that some people with depression or signs of
decreased mental functioning actually have deficiencies in B vitamins.
Even a mild lack of B vitamins may cloud the mind. Correcting these
deficiencies can ease the depression or improve concentration and
memory.
Choline in the
marathon
Under ordinary circumstances there's a fair amount of choline roiling
around in your blood at all times. As needed, your nerve cells grab
some of this choline, use it to make acetylcholine, and keep their
muscular friends happy and active.
Of course, there's not an infinite supply of choline in your body,
which means that you've got to eat the stuff on a regular basis. True,
some nutritionists have contended that if you don't eat much choline
and your body's levels of the stuff drop too low, an amino acid called
methionine can 'pinch-hit' for choline, but we now know that this can
only happen if you're eating abundant quantities of methionine. Since
that can be hard to do, it's safest to just eat adequate amounts of
choline. Around a half-gram to gram of choline daily is about right.
Now, when you run a race like the 5K or 10K, not much of a dent is made
in your blood-choline levels, and even when you compete in something
long like the half-marathon, choline concentrations stay okay. It
appears that your choline levels plummet precipitously only when you
run a marathon (or exercise continuously for approximately two hours or
more). However, it's important to note that when choline concentrations
do drop, they really drop: careful studies carried out with
Boston-Marathon participants in 1985 and 1986 revealed that their
blood-choline levels bottomed out at up to 50-per-cent-below normal
levels by the end of the race.
Why does this happen? Physiologists reckon that acetycholine is
actually broken down inside the neuromuscular junctions during
prolonged exercise. Nerve cells then 'reach out and touch' the choline
floating by in the blood, using it to make new acetylcholine so that
they can keep the sinews simmering. As a result, your blood- choline
levels start a downward slide.
Naturally, if your choline levels fall too far, acetycholine production
can come to a relative standstill, and your nerve cells will simply
refuse to stimulate your muscles. Some exercise scientists believe that
this is behind at least a portion of the devastating fatigue which
strikes near the end of a marathon. As mentioned, toward the end of the
marathon, there simply may not be enough choline left to keep
acetylcholine in decent supply. Therefore, some scientists reason that
choline supplements - if taken at the right time and in the right
amount - might help the nervous system continue to stimulate muscle
cells and keep you striding toward the marathon finish line at your
desired rate, even after 20 or more miles of very hard work.
Evidence for choline supplements
But can choline supplements really be beneficial? We know for sure that
choline levels do plunge near the end of a marathon, and we also know
that choline supplements can prevent this devastating downswing. In one
study, the simple act of taking in two grams of choline before exercise
began totally prevented the fall in choline normally associated with
prolonged activity.
However, the simple maintenance of choline levels does not
automatically mean that performance will be enhanced. To check on the
performance part of the equation, researchers recently asked 10 trained
runners (eight males and two females) to run 20 miles as fast as
possible after taking 2.8 grams of choline citrate one hour before the
run and the same amount (adding up to 5.6 total grams of choline) at
the half-way (10-mile) point of their efforts. On a second occasion,
the athletes ran the same distance without taking choline. Seven of the
10 subjects ran better times after taking choline, and average time for
the 20-miler was five minutes faster when choline was utilised (2:33
versus 2:38).
The researchers were also able to show that plasma choline levels
decreased significantly after the placebo (non-choline- supplemented)
run but actually increased by 74 per cent at the end of the 20-mile
exertion when choline was taken before and half-way through the run.
Choline on the
Court
In a separate study carried out with college basketball team members at
Harvard, Holy Cross, and Northeastern University, players were given a
fruit-juice drink containing 2.43 grams of choline bitartrate or just
plain fruit juice (the placebo) 15 to 30 minutes before practice and
again at the midway point through practice (adding up to 4.86 total
grams of choline per day in the treatment group) for a period of one
week. As part of a crossover design, players who had ingested choline
for one week 'crossed over' and drank only placebo for a week, while
placebo sippers tried out the choline bitartrate.
While the choline had no effect on vertical leaping ability, free-
throw-shooting accuracy, or post-scrimmage fatigue levels, the choline
supplements were associated with several positives:
* Choline takers were less fatigued before practices.
* Choline takers reported that they felt more vigour
as practices began.
* They also felt more vigorous at the ends of
practices.
On the negative side, two Holy Cross shooters complained of diarrhoea
while on choline (that's a common side effect), and another was forced
to warn his teammates of flatulence (another common occurrence). All in
all, though, daily intakes of choline seemed to increase vigour and
suppress fatigue in these college athletes.
Choline in the
pool
Swimmers have also been part of the choline picture. In a very recent
study, 16 members (nine males and seven females) of the Northeastern
University swim team swallowed either a placebo or 2.83 grams of
choline citrate 30 minutes before practice and again half-way through
practice (5.66 grams total per day) for a period of five days Again,
the study used a crossover design so that all athletes had a chance to
perform with and without choline supplementation.
On the third day of each five-day period, the swimmers took part in a
'T-30 Assessment,' which involved freestyle swimming at an all-out
intensity for approximately 30 minutes. In this test, each swimmer
began by swimming 300 yards as fast as possible, followed by a
10-second rest. After this brief respite, the swimmer again covered 300
yards at top speed, with only a 10-second rest at the end. This
alternating pattern of 300 yards at full velocity and 10 seconds of
rest was continued for a total of 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, the
total yardage covered by the swimmer was computed, and average pace per
100 yards was calculated. Just to make things a little more difficult,
the assessment was completed after a regular 4000-metre practice had
already taken place.
Again, choline supplements appeared to be effective. Without choline
supplementation, blood-choline levels skidded downward by about 22 to
32 per cent after workouts; with choline, they went up by 27 to 33 per
cent. Choline also enhanced pre-workout vigour and reduced post-workout
fatigue. Finally, 11 of the 16 swimmers improved their performances on
the T-30 assessments after taking choline, compared to the placebo, an
effect which was statistically significant.