Taking choline during pregnancy super-charges brain for life

Main Category: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Article Date: 12 Mar 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Taking a nutrient called choline during pregnancy could 'super-charge' children's brains for life, suggests a study in rats.

Offspring born to pregnant rats given the supplement were known to be faster learners with better memories. But the new work, by Scott Swartzwelder and colleagues at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, US, shows this is due to having bigger brain cells in vital areas.

Choline, a member of the vitamin B family, is found in egg yolks, liver and other meats - 'exactly the kind of things people were told not to eat' due to their high cholesterol content, says Swartzwelder.

He believes their results in the rats could translate to humans, and indeed the US Institute of Medicine added choline to the list of essential nutrients, particularly for pregnant women, in its 2003 recommendations.

The implications of the study's findings are 'potentially huge' Swartzwelder believes: 'If it turns out that it's true in humans and can make people smarter their whole lives and forestall age-related memory decline - that's potentially a very exciting prospect.'

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