Serine And Choline Supplements: What They Do For Brain Health
Choline and Serine are two of the first supplements people come across when looking to improve their brain function. Serine and Choline can come in complex forms and many people don’t really know what they are buying or looking at.
Choline and Serine are absolutely vital for brain health and function. They are the starting molecules or pre-cursors to Phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylserine that are active in the brain.
Phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylserine are two essential phospholipids for brain performance and memory formation.
Their role is very important components of nerve cell membranes. They are therefore classed by many as supplemental nootropics or brain specific supplements. Here we will cover in-depth what Choline and Serine do for your brain health.
What are Phospholipids?
Phospholipids are combinations of phosphorus, glycerol and fatty acids. In plain English the name, phospholipid, means phosphate and fat or lipid. That is basically what they are.
They are crucial for all cell membranes, because animal cell membranes need to maintain a moving or fluid structure. You can see my article on fat types and health here.
Phospholipids are highly important for nerve cells, or neurons, to function normally. Phospholipids clump together to make a basic structure around your cells for protection. This is known as a double membrane, or phospholipid bilayer.
What do Phospholipids Do For Brain Function?
Phospholipids are also crucial for the cell to cell communication of every cell, not just nerve cells. That means sending messages across the brain to all the different parts.
Phosphatidylserine is one of the most important phospholipids within the body and makes up a very high percentage of the total phospholipids within membranes.
Nerve cells or neurons have a specialised coat called Myelin. Myelin is a really fatty substance surrounding ‘transmitting’ nerves that is rich in phosphatidylserine.
Myelin sheaths are crucial for signalling messages in the brain. More Myelin or fat content is correlated with a higher speed of brain signal movement. Lower fat or lipid content surrounding myelin sheaths is correlated with cognitive diseases such as dementia.
From birth to old age, the amount of phosphatidylserine in your infamous grey matter, associated with brain power, doubles.
Serine as a nutrient, or supplement, can seem to be quite essential for your brain health. Reductions in Serine phospholipid combinations, in the brain are linked to the worsening of memory loss or cognitive impairment.
Serine and Choline Phospholipid Supplementation
Serine and Choline phospholipids have both been touted as an effective complementary therapy for cognitive decline.
They are not often found as standalone active ingredients. Usually people make a mixed nutritional nootropic to support healthy brain functioning.
Oral phosphatidylserine or Serine works effectively in patients with cognitive issues, such as memory impairments. Just 300mg per day helped to improve attention span, verbal recall, learning, memory and apathy in one study.
Phosphatidylserine or Serine (PS) has also been shown to slow cognitive decline as a result of aging. Alzheimer’s disease is associated with lowered PS and DHA levels.
Most phosphatidylserine supplements are sold as Serine PS extract, with the typical choices being PS derivations from soy or from sunflowers (1)(2)(3).
Choline and Brain Function
The US FDA has acknowledged that phosphatidylcholine or Choline supplements, found under various forms (synthetic & natural compounds) including GPC Choline, can help improve risk of cognitive dysfunction in the elderly.
Phosphatidylcholine has also been shown to help university/college students to significantly improve their memory vs a placebo (4)(5)(6)(7).
Phosphatidylcholine also provides choline, a major building block for many brain neurotransmitters including acetylcholine, noradrenaline and dopamine. These are crucial for healthy nerve cell signalling and memory formation.
These examples alone provide an excellent case as to why phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylserine could help to improve your cognitive functioning, making them a good option as a nootropic for people of all ages. Citicoline, or Choline, is the pre-cursor form to phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylcholine as well as many structural phospholipids.
As choline is a starting molecule for so many compounds used in the brain, it’s an essential ‘rate limiting’ nutrient for the development and maintenance of healthy nerve cells.
Choline can also re-make phosphatidylcholine, it also protects your nerve cell membranes. Choline contributes indirectly to nerve cell membrane repair.
Citicoline Choline has also been clinically shown to have some potential to help with cognitive dysfunction. It has been widely used to help treat conditions where brain function deteriorates (8)(9).
Choline is an essential nutrient because your body can’t make enough of it. Your body can’t remake acetylcholine and so requires a constant stream of choline to reform acetylcholine. You can obtain it through eating eggs, liver, beef and milk for example.
It is thought that Serine and Choline supplements could be useful for many individuals who are consuming diets low in fats, particularly saturated fats, and cholesterol. This is because they are a good source of these nutrients.
Choline Form Supplement Studies
Studies found that Citicoline had a positive effect on cognition. When taking between 600-1000mg per day improvements were seen in memory and behaviour of patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases (9)(10).
Research suggests that Choline supplements can slow or even reverse declines in memory. One study, using citicoline as a therapy to treat people suffering from memory problems, found that taking 1000mg/day was enough to improve memory.
This shows it has potential as a nootropic and cognitive supplement and does not just apply to the elderly.
Adult men who took between 250mg and 500mg of citicoline form Choline had a remarkable significant increase in attention span, psychomotor speed and reduced impulsiveness (11)(12)(13).
There are many forms of choline found in supplements. The most recommended forms are citicoline form (CDP-choline), Alpha GPC or choline citrate. Most companies use choline tartrate. This is a cheaper form with inclusive evidence that it helps your brain (14).
Conclusions On Serine and Choline
Phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylserine have massive potential to help you to improve and restore aspects of cognitive functioning.
In particular, the fact that all are so crucial to the maintenance of nerve cells and the production of essential nerve cell compounds, makes them great nootropics for people of all ages to try.
There are many great brands out there for you to try to see if you respond well to.
