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Comment by mobilejdral | Hacker News Reader

Tying this to APOE, specifically e4 which has an increased requirement for choline and when choline levels are low there can be a metabolic push that leads to elevated PHGDH activity and consequently, increased serine synthesis. That is a neat connection and maybe why when we study choline supplements we see positive results.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000291652...

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That is super interesting, as is the relationship between choline and sleep. With restorative sleep function, and specifically slow-wave activity, considered to be a significant driver of AD.

https://www.jarlife.net/3844-choline-sleep-disturbances-and-...

And then this ties to estrogen, HRT is known to reduce the risk of dementia/AD (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10480684/).

PEMT (phosphatidylethanolamine N-methyltransferase) is what makes choline in the body, but it depends on estrogen.(https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3020773/)

Yeah, part of my work is in dementia with slow-wave sleep enhancement, and we're putting together a menopause study hopefully to start in 2026.

> In conclusion, our findings suggest that moderate dietary choline intake, ranging from 332.89 mg/d to 353.93 mg/d, is associated with lower odds of dementia and better cognitive performance.

Gemini tells me that amounts to ~850mg of alpha GPC or ~1900mg of citicoline. Eggs it is then.

How are you going to check Gemini’s math on that?

Claude tells me that’s 4-5 eggs per day or 5x150 mg alpha gpc capsules.

The eggs would be a lot more expensive in both time and materials plus most egg farms seem cruel (especially male chick killing)… I’m leaning towards alpha gpc supplements.

> How are you going to check Gemini’s math on that?

Gemini used 40% choline by weight for alpha GPC and 18% for citicoline, which seems to check out with other sources.

> I’m leaning towards alpha gpc supplements.

I haven't looked into the studies recently, but there have been some negative findings with alpha GPC supplementation[1]. May be worth a gander.

[1] https://examine.com/supplements/alpha-gpc/#what-are-alpha-gp...

Eggs are safe as long as you limit yourself to one medium egg per day.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38733921/

Does a 100% safe and effective source of choline exist? Maybe a combination of eggs and supplements are the way to go?

This stuff goes over my head, but perhaps one can take something to lower TMAO (I see EVOO, allicin, resveratrol, PQQ from a cursory search) to offset choline supplementation. This is assuming TMAO is the cause of increased disease risk and not just a biomarker.

wow, thanks for sharing.

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