Choline (bitartrate)

While long considered a non-essential vitamin, recent evidence confirms that the body cannot synthesize enough choline to meet daily needs. This has prompted the National Academy of Science to create a daily value for choline of 550 mg. Dietary intake of choline is often below this level. Choline is an important nutrient for methylation, cell membrane structure and neurotransmission, and lipid metabolism and transport. Choline and its metabolites are the major source of methyl groups in the diet. Methylation plays many roles including neurotransmission, vitamin assimilation, DNA synthesis and gene regulation. Choline is required for the synthesis of phospholipids and acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in attention, learning and memory. Certain genetic variations in MTHFD1 and PEMT, enzymes that play critical roles in methylation and phosphatidylcholine synthesis, respectively, have been associated with increased dietarycholine needs. Since the de novo synthesis of phosphatidylc