The essential nutrient that may help fight Alzheimer ’s disease

The vast majority of Americans — 90% to be precise — are deficient in choline, an essential nutrient that’s vital for neurological health as well as liver and metabolic function. Could this deficiency play a role in the memory-robbing Alzheimer’s disease? A new study by researchers at the ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center, ASU School of Molecular Sciences, and the Banner

Brain and Body Donation Center presents evidence that low levels of choline in the bloodstream are associated with increased severity of Alzheimer’s disease pathology in the brain.

The research shows that, compared with healthy individuals, patients with Alzheimer’s disease have reduced circulating choline and its derivative, acetylcholine. Levels were lowest in those with the most severe pathology. The research, published in Acta Neuropathologica, offers hope that supplying sufficient choline may help to protect the brain from Alzheimer’s disease, or at least delay the onset of symptoms of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.