Posted by Hugh on November 26, 2017, at 15:08:55
Women who take extra choline during pregnancy may significantly lower the risk of their children developing schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, low intelligence, and memory loss later in life.
The following is from The Seattle Times:
Choline is as important as folic acid during pregnancy. "For fetal brain development, choline is a critical nutrient," said Stephen Zeisel MD, Ph.D., professor of nutrition and pediatrics at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "If it's not there at the right time, the baby's brain doesnt form correctly."
Zeisel and Marie A. Caudill, Ph.D., RD, a nutrition professor at Cornell University, both spoke about choline at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' annual Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo in Chicago last month. Caudill says that our national deficiency is concerning, because data suggest that the new daily recommended intakes may be too low.
During pregnancy, extra maternal choline reduces a woman's risk of developing pre-eclampsia or having a baby with neural-tube defects, and babies born to moms who got ample choline have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Caudill said these "choline babies" may have a lower lifetime risk of developing stress-related diseases like high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and depression. After birth, choline continues to be vital for normal brain development in the infant and young child.
Recent research suggests that only 8.5 percent of pregnant women meet the daily choline recommendations, but as of last year, none of the top 25 prenatal multivitamins contained the recommended 450 mg dose of choline for pregnant women. This prompted the American Medical Association (AMA) to recently call for increasing the amount of choline in prenatal vitamins.
Complete article:
https://www.seattletimes.com/life/wellness/choline-the-essential-but-forgotten-nutrient/
Robert Freedman of the University of Colorado, Denver has been giving the dietary supplement phosphatidylcholine to pregnant women, and has found that the offspring of these women are showing fewer of the early signs of schizophrenia.
https://www.livescience.com/52674-prenatal-choline-schizophrenia-risk.html
Dr. Freedman's talk on preventing schizophrenia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4ZUMgLAryU
In a clinical trial that Dr. Freedman is conducting, he instructs pregnant women to take five 450 mg phosphatidylcholine capsules at breakfast and five 450 mg phosphatidylcholine capsules at dinner. This is the equivalent of approximately 1250 mg of choline per day. To get this amount of choline through diet alone, a person would have to eat six eggs a day.
poster:Hugh
thread:1096073
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20160521/msgs/1096073.html