Can A Prenatal Supplement Prevent Mental Illness?

[Lin]

Can a Prenatal Supplement Prevent Mental Illness?
If this hadn't been in Medscape, I would have thought it was a click bait article.

What do you guys think? @haidut , @Giraffe, @tara, We haven't discussed choline much here in the forum. Some of the best sources like eggs, liver and red meat, are no longer eaten as much as they used to be, thanks to the anti-cholesterol crowd.

 

[haidut]

Can a Prenatal Supplement Prevent Mental Illness?
If this hadn't been in Medscape, I would have thought it was a click bait article.

What do you guys think? @haidut , @Giraffe, @tara, We haven't discussed choline much here in the forum. Some of the best sources like eggs, liver and red meat, are no longer eaten as much as they used to be, thanks to the anti-cholesterol crowd.

I think choline has its physiological role in the synthesis of phospholipids. However, choline in higher doses can be excitotoxic and it is not a coincidence that all the cholinergic drugs that were tried for Alzheimer disease failed miserably. Estrogen manifests a lot if its effects through the cholinergic system and anti-cholinergic drugs can reverse learned helplessness. So, depending on what dose the authors suggests it could be helpful or it could be very dangerous. In any event, I would eat eggs if I found out I needed choline for whatever reason.
Since 2002, 99%+ of Alzheimer Disease trials have failed
New Page Title Here

 

[Lin]

Unfortunately, this is an interview, not the actual study. But, it is a human study, the children are now four years old, and the results are very encouraging. There was an unsupplemented control group as well.

"We also did a follow-up study 4 years out showing that supplemented children have a significantly lower degree of attention and behavioral problems as well as social isolation, which are predictors of future schizophrenia."

They had tried supplementing adolescents who were showing early signs of schizophrenia, but it didn't work . They think the prenatal person is a critical time, kinda like with folic acid and neural tube defects . ...

Course, who knows, maybe thesee kids will develop problems later.