8 ms·

Anxiety disorders tied to low levels of choline in the brain

98 points by clumsysmurf 11mo ago

ulbu 11mo ago
or is it low levels of choline tied to anxiety disorders?
- deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
- Proofread0592 11mo ago
  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-025-03206-7 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-025-03206-7 > This suggests that chronically elevated arousal in AnxDs may increase neurometabolic demand for choline compounds without a proportionate increase in brain uptake, leading to reduced tCho levels. Reduced cortical NAA suggests compromised neuronal function in AnxDs. Future studies may clarify the clinical significance of reduced cortical tCho and the possibility that appropriate choline supplementation could have therapeutic benefit in anxiety disorders.
LatteLazy 11mo ago
The most annoying thing about pieces like this is how easy it would be to actually test the hypothesis. They could just give people choline (double blind placebo including some participants who are not anxious). And test the effect on both choline levels and anxiety. It’s also ready sold OTC. Instead people just sit around and do meta studies on meta studies on correlation and publishing whatever statistical anomalies they can find.
- an0malous 11mo ago
  Is it because it costs a lot of money to do the study and can’t be patented?
  - IAmBroom 11mo ago
    No.
- bognition 11mo ago
  I can understand why this may seem simple, but when it comes to the brain almost nothing is simple. Choline a key component in Acetylcholine is the primary neurotransmitter used in your hippocampus. Its an excitatory neurotransmitter meaning it turns neurons on. The hippocampus is a massive parallel feedback circuit that when over stimulated can and will begin to seize. In fact many people who suffer from seizures have over active hippocampal circuitry. Simply "flooding" the brain with more choline could have very very bad effects. Likewise, taking choline might not work as the brain actively controls and regulates the contents of the cerebral spinal fluid. Unlike the rest of your body, the capillaries in the brain are not leaky, but instead are enshrouded in the blood-brain barrier and there are active transport proteins for anything that isn't lipid soluble. Choline is actively transported into the brain and the brain has additional internal mechanisms to regulate the levels of choline. Lastly, neurotransmitters aren't just floating around in the soup of your brain. They are released by specific neurons which are integrated into specific circuits. Parkinson's disease is a perfect example here. There is tiny region of the brain involved in regulating voluntary movements that is rich in dopamine neurons. For Parkinson's these neurons die off while the rest of the brain remains relatively strong. Simply putting dopamine into the brain doesn't fix the issue you need to up the dopamine released by these specific neurons. The treatment here is l-dopa which is a precursor to dopamine which does this, but once those neurons are gone they're gone and there is little we can do to stop the disease. So if this works for l-dopa why won't it work for choline? My guess is because of the tight regulation the brain has around choline levels as its needed to prevent the hippocampus from seizing up.
- eden_hazard 11mo ago
  This is how research works. Someone, somewhere, someday will see this study and do just that. Or it could be the next step for the researchers at UC Davis who published this.
- PaulKeeble 11mo ago
  Trials are really different skill set compared to the scanning for these chemicals or in this case meta studying. Trials involve large numbers of people you have determined do and do not have the condition you are trying to treat and then having your treatment and having some way to measure if the treatment is impacting the thing you expect it to (brain choline levels) and whether that impacts the symptoms (anxiety). Trials cost millions and in this case would require a number of different expertise, meta studies on the other hand is just reading and statistical analysis with knowledge of the biases of papers and assessing them critically and they don't cost millions.
- quantumtheremin 11mo ago
  Anecdotal, but I've had life long issues with anxiety. First time hearing about choline, but about a year ago I started taking omega 3 capsules on a whim, and its been a game changer. Eating salmon as they suggest has a similar positive effect. YMMV.
Trasmatta 11mo ago
But also be careful about taking too much choline. There's lots of anecdotal reports of people taking too much choline supplements and becoming massively depressed.
- zamalek 11mo ago
  Interestingly many antidepressants are anticholinergic (as are many nootropes, so you have to be super careful mixing to the two).
  - deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
- clumsysmurf 11mo ago
  The other problem with supplementing with too much choline may be elevated TMAO: "Dietary Choline Supplements, but Not Eggs, Raise Fasting TMAO Levels in Participants with Normal Renal Function: A Randomized Clinical Trial" https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8410632/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8410632/
  - brigandish 11mo ago
    It helps to mention what TMAO is: > Choline is a dietary precursor to the gut microbial generation of the pro-thrombotic and pro-atherogenic metabolite trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO).
    - JKCalhoun 11mo ago
      Helped a little?
  - JKCalhoun 11mo ago
    My takeaway: do please go ahead and add egg to your diet.
    - 11mo ago
riazrizvi 11mo ago
My first-hand experience of the healthcare system in the USA leads me to conclude we don’t have good data on pathological anxiety levels. Psychiatry is over-incentivized to positively diagnose. You can get diagnosed with ‘anxiety’ when you’ve been in a hard circumstance for a while, since it’s simply a self-reporting questionnaire on levels of concern. That’s not a way to determine pathology - how do they tell when it’s appropriate behavior, eg when you’re actually in a dangerous situation. This economy, since the financial crisis, has had weak employment (when you factor in not-in-workforce trends over the last 50 years), being under-employed for a long time is a threat to life. You can be in a location or situation where you’re blind to a loss of economic opportunity because there is so much misinformation. Anxiety is not maladaptive then. This happened to me, and when my situation finally began to improve after a change in direction, my anxiety went down. Before I made that change, I found anti-anxiety meds put me in a dysfunctional ‘happy’ state, that made it harder to course correct or care about my reality. So I quickly stopped taking them last year, shortly after receiving them. And yet a diagnosis was made then, and looking at my medical report, this so called disease remains on my medical record. Ridiculous. All that self-reporting showed was normal human behavior. Luckily, at the worst time, I also hedged by seeing separately a psychologist who helped me understand through a series of interviews that all my behavior was appropriate to my situation.
- throw7494949 11mo ago
  [flagged]
  - chucksmash 11mo ago
    > Got no compensation Did you bring a lawsuit? In such a situation you don't need to rely on the kindness of people's hearts.
    - throw7494949 11mo ago
      Yes, I did, no result. First bite is free! If animal has no documented history of attacks, owner has no way to know their aggressive animal could harm people. And they are not responsible!
TriangleEdge 11mo ago
[flagged]
Traubenfuchs 11mo ago
I am suffering from medium levels of general anxiety and fighting with severe anxiety (panic?) in situations that stress me out, e.g. conflict or interviews. If I know I have those 2 hours beforehand and I can tranquilize myself with the betablocker propranolol which makes the relevant adrenaline receptors in your body immune to all the adrenaline your gland secrete and turns me into a cool and smooth operator. Choline gives me a severe stiff neck and makes me unable to sleep. I have experimented with many supplements and it was one of the most consistent and unfortunate effects I ever got from one.
- ryanjshaw 11mo ago
  Beta blockers can be dangerous in the sense they stop your natural adrenaline response when you or somebody else in your vicinity is doing something dangerous, and so you don’t acknowledge danger properly.
  - Traubenfuchs 11mo ago
    I have taken insane one time dosages up to 200mg and haven't noticed that effect. In my experience they never fully turn off the effects of adrenaline spikes at any dosage still bearable. They aren't magic zombie pills, at worst they turn you mostly fearless and consequently slightly unhinged (and make you feel like shit due to the low blood pressure).
deleted 11mo ago
[deleted]
CodinM 11mo ago
"...choline levels were 8% lower in those with anxiety disorders" that's by no means clinically significant. I feel like a lot of the studies coming out lately are trying really hard to corelate information and join the meta-studies wagon.
jimkri 11mo ago
A supplement that I take and comment about frequently is (Spirulina & Chorella), this is a study that shows the level of choline in Spirulina. Improving my diet and using a supplement like algae has had the most impact on my anxiety levels and focus. Mindfulness meditation also helps with consistent action to understand where my mind and body are at each day. Research - Functional properties of bioactive compounds from Spirulina spp.: Current status and future trends (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9513730/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9513730/)
- IT4MD 11mo ago
  [dead]
- freedomben 11mo ago
  Would you mind sharing the brand, and how much of it you take?
  - codr7 11mo ago
    I need pretty massive doses of algae, handfulls of pressed tablets per day, to see a difference. I'd recommend ramping that up gradually though.
    - markoman 11mo ago
      Thanks for commenting on this supplement. What reactions or symptoms should we look for in order to suggest that we're ramping up too quickly on it? Are we talking gastrointestinal effects or something else?
      - codr7 11mo ago
        I don't know, just a good idea in general. I've been pretty careless with ramping up dosage myself without any issues.
  - jimkri 11mo ago
    Yeah for sure, this is what I buy on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FAB10ZI https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FAB10ZI) and the dosage depends on what you are experiencing. I was doubling my dosage, but have lowered it back to the recommended dosage on the package (10 pills, they are tiny). I have also taken the powered version but the umami taste is really strong, so I went back to the pill version. I like to take it with Psyllium Husk Fiber / Metamucil to help increase the fiber in my diet since the higher dosage is like eating a lot of kale at one time, it can move through you super quickly. Here are some studies that I commented before that I have read that has helped with learning more about the supplements and the dosages depending on what you are experiencing: - High-dose supplementation of Chlorella and Spirulina increases beneficial gut Bacteria in healthy ICR mice: A 90-day feeding study (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2025.106796 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2025.106796) - Spirulina in Clinical Practice: Evidence-Based Human Applications (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3136577/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3136577/) - Effect of spirulina and chlorella alone and combined on the healing process of diabetic wounds: an experimental model of diabetic rats (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8212205/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8212205/) - Beneficial Effects of Spirulina Consumption on Brain Health ( https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14030676 https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14030676) This is a new study that I found, that I'm going to read, but it shows the impact on neuroinflammation, and from experience the supplement has helped me with inflammation, and why I think it has helped with my ADHD/Anxiety.
fnord77 11mo ago
choline supplements make me viciously depressed
- Modified3019 11mo ago
  I encountered the same effect too, and just posted a warning about it. Unfortunately the effect is hard to come across in a search, unless you are specifically searching for it.
dzonga 11mo ago
some eggs, some steak, some vegetables, some human company, feeling valued & working on things that bring fulfillment that's how most people never experience anxiety in most parts of the world. no need for drugs, medicines etc.
- sunrunner 11mo ago
  > most people never experience anxiety in most parts of the world Citation needed? And how much is 'most'?
- deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
- FredPret 11mo ago
  I would add exercise and sunshine. But yeah, our ancestors lived in constant danger of getting eaten by sabre tooth tigers, freezing in the snow, catching maalria, and, in general, watching terrible things happen to their tribe. They had no therapy, no supplements, no self help section on the cave wall art. They were forced into a continual outward focus with no time for navel-gazing. They carried on through all exigencies, and succeeded mightily.
Modified3019 11mo ago
A word of warning, while the issues of low choline tend to be what shows up in a search, too much can also have negative effects, such as inducing strong depression. Because choline touches so much in the brain/body, there are other things that can happen as well, such as subtle mental effects and changes in blood pressure. TMAO generation may also a concern. So be careful trying supplements, and monitor your mental/physical state. Choline from normal food sources isn’t typically a problem, but supplements and additives like lecithin can push people over the edge. This looks like a decent summary of why it may cause depression: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6fdb/adf596271afea393659cbf413d4e7be8e45c.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6fdb/adf596271afea393659cbf... (World Nutrition 2019;10(1):54-62 “Too much of a good thing? Lecithin and mental health”)
josefresco 11mo ago
Misleading headline. This is more accurate: "Meta-analysis finds people with anxiety disorders have lower levels of choline in their brains" There's no evidence (yet) of anything being "tied to" anything else.
meindnoch 11mo ago
A lot of things are going to be different in a brain in constant fight or flight mode. It isn't surprising that flooding your system daily with stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline has an effect on brain chemistry. But this doesn't mean causation, and especially doesn't mean causation with regards to dietary choline intake.
tsoukase 11mo ago
Choline and it's more active similar, acetylcholine, is present in wide areas of the central nervous system. Definitely this is a correlation not implying anything about any mechanism. Especially because they didn't try to test giving choline to the same subjects. At the moment you cannot hack pathological stress with food. Maybe only a mild one and the effect will be indistinguishable from placebo.
- IAmBroom 11mo ago
  <reads after ordering 1-lb package of choline from Amazon, on 1-month (most popular!) subscription saving 5%> Dammit. <puts down spoonful of choline>

98 points by clumsysmurf 11mo ago

ulbu 11mo ago

or is it low levels of choline tied to anxiety disorders?

deleted 11mo ago
[deleted]
Proofread0592 11mo ago
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-025-03206-7 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-025-03206-7 > This suggests that chronically elevated arousal in AnxDs may increase neurometabolic demand for choline compounds without a proportionate increase in brain uptake, leading to reduced tCho levels. Reduced cortical NAA suggests compromised neuronal function in AnxDs. Future studies may clarify the clinical significance of reduced cortical tCho and the possibility that appropriate choline supplementation could have therapeutic benefit in anxiety disorders.

LatteLazy 11mo ago

The most annoying thing about pieces like this is how easy it would be to actually test the hypothesis. They could just give people choline (double blind placebo including some participants who are not anxious). And test the effect on both choline levels and anxiety. It’s also ready sold OTC. Instead people just sit around and do meta studies on meta studies on correlation and publishing whatever statistical anomalies they can find.

an0malous 11mo ago
Is it because it costs a lot of money to do the study and can’t be patented?
- IAmBroom 11mo ago
  No.
bognition 11mo ago
I can understand why this may seem simple, but when it comes to the brain almost nothing is simple. Choline a key component in Acetylcholine is the primary neurotransmitter used in your hippocampus. Its an excitatory neurotransmitter meaning it turns neurons on. The hippocampus is a massive parallel feedback circuit that when over stimulated can and will begin to seize. In fact many people who suffer from seizures have over active hippocampal circuitry. Simply "flooding" the brain with more choline could have very very bad effects. Likewise, taking choline might not work as the brain actively controls and regulates the contents of the cerebral spinal fluid. Unlike the rest of your body, the capillaries in the brain are not leaky, but instead are enshrouded in the blood-brain barrier and there are active transport proteins for anything that isn't lipid soluble. Choline is actively transported into the brain and the brain has additional internal mechanisms to regulate the levels of choline. Lastly, neurotransmitters aren't just floating around in the soup of your brain. They are released by specific neurons which are integrated into specific circuits. Parkinson's disease is a perfect example here. There is tiny region of the brain involved in regulating voluntary movements that is rich in dopamine neurons. For Parkinson's these neurons die off while the rest of the brain remains relatively strong. Simply putting dopamine into the brain doesn't fix the issue you need to up the dopamine released by these specific neurons. The treatment here is l-dopa which is a precursor to dopamine which does this, but once those neurons are gone they're gone and there is little we can do to stop the disease. So if this works for l-dopa why won't it work for choline? My guess is because of the tight regulation the brain has around choline levels as its needed to prevent the hippocampus from seizing up.
eden_hazard 11mo ago
This is how research works. Someone, somewhere, someday will see this study and do just that. Or it could be the next step for the researchers at UC Davis who published this.
PaulKeeble 11mo ago
Trials are really different skill set compared to the scanning for these chemicals or in this case meta studying. Trials involve large numbers of people you have determined do and do not have the condition you are trying to treat and then having your treatment and having some way to measure if the treatment is impacting the thing you expect it to (brain choline levels) and whether that impacts the symptoms (anxiety). Trials cost millions and in this case would require a number of different expertise, meta studies on the other hand is just reading and statistical analysis with knowledge of the biases of papers and assessing them critically and they don't cost millions.
quantumtheremin 11mo ago
Anecdotal, but I've had life long issues with anxiety. First time hearing about choline, but about a year ago I started taking omega 3 capsules on a whim, and its been a game changer. Eating salmon as they suggest has a similar positive effect. YMMV.

Trasmatta 11mo ago

But also be careful about taking too much choline. There's lots of anecdotal reports of people taking too much choline supplements and becoming massively depressed.

zamalek 11mo ago
Interestingly many antidepressants are anticholinergic (as are many nootropes, so you have to be super careful mixing to the two).
- deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
clumsysmurf 11mo ago
The other problem with supplementing with too much choline may be elevated TMAO: "Dietary Choline Supplements, but Not Eggs, Raise Fasting TMAO Levels in Participants with Normal Renal Function: A Randomized Clinical Trial" https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8410632/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8410632/
- brigandish 11mo ago
  It helps to mention what TMAO is: > Choline is a dietary precursor to the gut microbial generation of the pro-thrombotic and pro-atherogenic metabolite trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO).
  - JKCalhoun 11mo ago
    Helped a little?
- JKCalhoun 11mo ago
  My takeaway: do please go ahead and add egg to your diet.
  - 11mo ago

riazrizvi 11mo ago

My first-hand experience of the healthcare system in the USA leads me to conclude we don’t have good data on pathological anxiety levels. Psychiatry is over-incentivized to positively diagnose. You can get diagnosed with ‘anxiety’ when you’ve been in a hard circumstance for a while, since it’s simply a self-reporting questionnaire on levels of concern. That’s not a way to determine pathology - how do they tell when it’s appropriate behavior, eg when you’re actually in a dangerous situation. This economy, since the financial crisis, has had weak employment (when you factor in not-in-workforce trends over the last 50 years), being under-employed for a long time is a threat to life. You can be in a location or situation where you’re blind to a loss of economic opportunity because there is so much misinformation. Anxiety is not maladaptive then. This happened to me, and when my situation finally began to improve after a change in direction, my anxiety went down. Before I made that change, I found anti-anxiety meds put me in a dysfunctional ‘happy’ state, that made it harder to course correct or care about my reality. So I quickly stopped taking them last year, shortly after receiving them. And yet a diagnosis was made then, and looking at my medical report, this so called disease remains on my medical record. Ridiculous. All that self-reporting showed was normal human behavior. Luckily, at the worst time, I also hedged by seeing separately a psychologist who helped me understand through a series of interviews that all my behavior was appropriate to my situation.

throw7494949 11mo ago
[flagged]
- chucksmash 11mo ago
  > Got no compensation Did you bring a lawsuit? In such a situation you don't need to rely on the kindness of people's hearts.
  - throw7494949 11mo ago
    Yes, I did, no result. First bite is free! If animal has no documented history of attacks, owner has no way to know their aggressive animal could harm people. And they are not responsible!

TriangleEdge 11mo ago

[flagged]

Traubenfuchs 11mo ago

I am suffering from medium levels of general anxiety and fighting with severe anxiety (panic?) in situations that stress me out, e.g. conflict or interviews. If I know I have those 2 hours beforehand and I can tranquilize myself with the betablocker propranolol which makes the relevant adrenaline receptors in your body immune to all the adrenaline your gland secrete and turns me into a cool and smooth operator. Choline gives me a severe stiff neck and makes me unable to sleep. I have experimented with many supplements and it was one of the most consistent and unfortunate effects I ever got from one.

ryanjshaw 11mo ago
Beta blockers can be dangerous in the sense they stop your natural adrenaline response when you or somebody else in your vicinity is doing something dangerous, and so you don’t acknowledge danger properly.
- Traubenfuchs 11mo ago
  I have taken insane one time dosages up to 200mg and haven't noticed that effect. In my experience they never fully turn off the effects of adrenaline spikes at any dosage still bearable. They aren't magic zombie pills, at worst they turn you mostly fearless and consequently slightly unhinged (and make you feel like shit due to the low blood pressure).

deleted 11mo ago

[deleted]

CodinM 11mo ago

"...choline levels were 8% lower in those with anxiety disorders" that's by no means clinically significant. I feel like a lot of the studies coming out lately are trying really hard to corelate information and join the meta-studies wagon.

jimkri 11mo ago

A supplement that I take and comment about frequently is (Spirulina & Chorella), this is a study that shows the level of choline in Spirulina. Improving my diet and using a supplement like algae has had the most impact on my anxiety levels and focus. Mindfulness meditation also helps with consistent action to understand where my mind and body are at each day. Research - Functional properties of bioactive compounds from Spirulina spp.: Current status and future trends (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9513730/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9513730/)

IT4MD 11mo ago
[dead]
freedomben 11mo ago
Would you mind sharing the brand, and how much of it you take?
- codr7 11mo ago
  I need pretty massive doses of algae, handfulls of pressed tablets per day, to see a difference. I'd recommend ramping that up gradually though.
  - markoman 11mo ago
    Thanks for commenting on this supplement. What reactions or symptoms should we look for in order to suggest that we're ramping up too quickly on it? Are we talking gastrointestinal effects or something else?
    - codr7 11mo ago
      I don't know, just a good idea in general. I've been pretty careless with ramping up dosage myself without any issues.
- jimkri 11mo ago
  Yeah for sure, this is what I buy on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FAB10ZI https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FAB10ZI) and the dosage depends on what you are experiencing. I was doubling my dosage, but have lowered it back to the recommended dosage on the package (10 pills, they are tiny). I have also taken the powered version but the umami taste is really strong, so I went back to the pill version. I like to take it with Psyllium Husk Fiber / Metamucil to help increase the fiber in my diet since the higher dosage is like eating a lot of kale at one time, it can move through you super quickly. Here are some studies that I commented before that I have read that has helped with learning more about the supplements and the dosages depending on what you are experiencing: - High-dose supplementation of Chlorella and Spirulina increases beneficial gut Bacteria in healthy ICR mice: A 90-day feeding study (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2025.106796 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2025.106796) - Spirulina in Clinical Practice: Evidence-Based Human Applications (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3136577/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3136577/) - Effect of spirulina and chlorella alone and combined on the healing process of diabetic wounds: an experimental model of diabetic rats (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8212205/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8212205/) - Beneficial Effects of Spirulina Consumption on Brain Health ( https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14030676 https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14030676) This is a new study that I found, that I'm going to read, but it shows the impact on neuroinflammation, and from experience the supplement has helped me with inflammation, and why I think it has helped with my ADHD/Anxiety.

fnord77 11mo ago

choline supplements make me viciously depressed

Modified3019 11mo ago
I encountered the same effect too, and just posted a warning about it. Unfortunately the effect is hard to come across in a search, unless you are specifically searching for it.

dzonga 11mo ago

some eggs, some steak, some vegetables, some human company, feeling valued & working on things that bring fulfillment that's how most people never experience anxiety in most parts of the world. no need for drugs, medicines etc.

sunrunner 11mo ago
> most people never experience anxiety in most parts of the world Citation needed? And how much is 'most'?
deleted 11mo ago
[deleted]
FredPret 11mo ago
I would add exercise and sunshine. But yeah, our ancestors lived in constant danger of getting eaten by sabre tooth tigers, freezing in the snow, catching maalria, and, in general, watching terrible things happen to their tribe. They had no therapy, no supplements, no self help section on the cave wall art. They were forced into a continual outward focus with no time for navel-gazing. They carried on through all exigencies, and succeeded mightily.

Modified3019 11mo ago

A word of warning, while the issues of low choline tend to be what shows up in a search, too much can also have negative effects, such as inducing strong depression. Because choline touches so much in the brain/body, there are other things that can happen as well, such as subtle mental effects and changes in blood pressure. TMAO generation may also a concern. So be careful trying supplements, and monitor your mental/physical state. Choline from normal food sources isn’t typically a problem, but supplements and additives like lecithin can push people over the edge. This looks like a decent summary of why it may cause depression: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6fdb/adf596271afea393659cbf413d4e7be8e45c.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6fdb/adf596271afea393659cbf... (World Nutrition 2019;10(1):54-62 “Too much of a good thing? Lecithin and mental health”)

josefresco 11mo ago

Misleading headline. This is more accurate: "Meta-analysis finds people with anxiety disorders have lower levels of choline in their brains" There's no evidence (yet) of anything being "tied to" anything else.

meindnoch 11mo ago

A lot of things are going to be different in a brain in constant fight or flight mode. It isn't surprising that flooding your system daily with stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline has an effect on brain chemistry. But this doesn't mean causation, and especially doesn't mean causation with regards to dietary choline intake.

tsoukase 11mo ago

Choline and it's more active similar, acetylcholine, is present in wide areas of the central nervous system. Definitely this is a correlation not implying anything about any mechanism. Especially because they didn't try to test giving choline to the same subjects. At the moment you cannot hack pathological stress with food. Maybe only a mild one and the effect will be indistinguishable from placebo.

IAmBroom 11mo ago
<reads after ordering 1-lb package of choline from Amazon, on 1-month (most popular!) subscription saving 5%> Dammit. <puts down spoonful of choline>