Citicoline
What Is Citicoline?
Citicoline is a naturally occurring brain chemical that is produced in all living cells. It is also found in several foods, but only in small amounts. The foods with the highest concentrations of citicoline are meats and animal products, for example liver, brain, and other organs. It is suggested to help support the phospholipids used to build brain cells and to optimize cell functions. It helps to stabilize brain cell membranes, assists in healthy neural repair, and in regeneration. It increases the levels of acetylcholine, which is one of the most important neurotransmitters associated with learning, attention, and memory. Also, citicoline supports cerebral blood flow, which helps supply more oxygen for the brain.
How Does Citicoline Work?
When it is ingested, citicoline splits into two compounds named choline and cytidine. Cytidine later gets converted to uridine in the body. Acting as a prodrug for choline and cytidine, citicoline appears to display cognitive-promoting effects in the body.
- Choline: your body then converts choline to acetylcholine in the body. Acetylcholine is known as the “learning neurotransmitter” through its ability to improve signal strengths between neurons. This improves memory, learning, attention, and recall. Choline is found in high amounts in egg yolks.
- Uridine: a nucleotide base found in high levels in beer. Uridine is used for increasing the synthesis of cellular membranes as well as for other neurological properties. Uridine helps to repair and protect your brain cells so that you can stay at the top of your game. Studies have shown uridine to have cognitive enhancing properties and works synergistically with fish oil.
But What Are The Benefits Of Me Taking Citicoline??
Citicoline has been seen to increase dopamine, increase dopamine receptor densities, and aid in the protection of neurons related to dopamine. These effects actually make citicoline a popular compound in studies for cocaine as well as for other drug addictions [4, 5, 6]. Citicoline also helps to improve attention, more at the 250mg dose rather than 500mg dose. It has also been seen to decrease cognitive decline associated with the aging process. There is also evidence that citicoline improves memory in healthy older adults [6].
Where Is The Proof For All These Great Benefits?!
One study on citicoline saw that attention focus (omission errors) and attention inhibition (commission errors) improved significantly at the dose of 250mg citicoline. Results at 500mg were slightly less effective [1].
Citicoline was also seen to improve memory performance in recall tests (both immediate and delayed), word recall, object recall, and overall free recall tests [2].
Another study showed that citicoline significantly improved episodic memory and composite memory. Overall, citicoline was deemed to be safe and potentially beneficial for memory loss due to aging [3].
NEURO(X) contains 250mg of CDP-choline (citicoline) to help you maintain your focus all day long!
References:
- E. McGlade, A. Locatelli, J. Hardy, T. Kamiya, M. Morita, K. Morishita, Y. Sugimura and D. Yurgelun-Todd, "Improved Attentional Performance Following Citicoline Administration in Healthy Adult Women," Food and Nutrition Sciences, Vol. 3 No. 6, 2012, pp. 769-773. doi: 10.4236/fns.2012.36103.
- Alvarez XA, Laredo M, Corzo D, Fernández-Novoa L, Mouzo R, Perea JE, Daniele D, Cacabelos R. Citicoline improves memory performance in elderly subjects. Methods Find Exp Clin Pharmacol. 1997 Apr;19(3):201-10. PMID: 9203170.
- Eri Nakazaki, Eunice Mah, Kristen Sanoshy, Danielle Citrolo, Fumiko Watanabe, Citicoline and Memory Function in Healthy Older Adults: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial, The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 151, Issue 8, August 2021, Pages 2153–2160, https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxab119
- Taylor, P. and Brown, J.H. Synthesis, Storage and Release of Acetylcholine. Correspondence to Palmer Taylor and Joan Heller Brown, Department of Pharmacology, 0636, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093.
- Hasselmo, M.E. The Role of Acetylcholine in Learning and Memory. Curr Opin Neurobiol. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2009 Mar 24.
- Grieb, P. Neuroprotective Properties of Citicoline: Facts, Doubts and Unresolved Issues. CNS Drugs. 2014; 28(3): 185–193. Published online 2014 Feb 7.