by Chris D. Meletis, N.D.
One of the most important goals of aging is to maintain your independence. This means staying mobile. It means keeping your brain sharp. That way, you can continue to do what you love to do far into your senior years.
Two nutrients that can help support both physical and cognitive aspects of healthy aging are choline and phosphatidylcholine. Both these nutrients are plentiful in MYOS MD, courtesy of Fortetropin®, which is derived from fertilized chicken egg yolks, a rich source of choline and phosphatidylcholine.
Fortetropin® has benefits of its own. It’s been documented to increase protein synthesis, decrease anabolic resistance, and help mitigate sarcopenia. In other words, it can help you stay in better shape as you grow older, especially when combined with resistance exercise.
The choline and phosphatidylcholine found in Fortetropin® add to the muscle benefits of Fortetropin®. Research also shows these nutrients keep your brain healthy as you age. In this article, we’ll showcase the benefits of choline and phosphatidylcholine and how they can contribute to increased independence during aging.
Choline for Muscle Strength and Resistance Training
Choline can help you get the most out of resistance training. A 12 week study in adults aged 50-69 looked at how different choline intakes affected the results of a well structured resistance training program.1 The participants performed three sessions per week, working major muscle groups at about 70% of one rep max.
Everyone in the study followed a balanced, higher protein diet and took the same amount of protein supplement. The only difference was the amount of added choline from egg based powder.
All groups gained similar amounts of lean muscle (around 3%-4%), but strength gains told a different story. The group whose intake was only around half the recommended choline level gained only about 19% in combined upper - and lower-body strength. The groups closer to or above the recommended intake improved by about 47%—more than double the strength gains of the other group, despite doing the same training and eating similar protein.
This study suggests that choline is especially important for “quality” of muscle adaptation—how well muscle and nerves work together—rather than just muscle size. Likely reasons include its role in:1
- Acetylcholine production for nerve-muscle signaling.
- Phosphatidylcholine production for strong, resilient muscle cell membranes during heavy loading.
- Methylation (via betaine), which helps regulate gene expression and protein synthesis.
Brain Health During Aging
The same features that make choline and phosphatidylcholine helpful for muscle performance also matter for the brain. Choline helps the brain by serving as a precursor for acetylcholine (a key neurotransmitter involved in memory and learning).2 In addition, choline is a source material for phosphatidylcholine, a major building block of healthy brain cell membranes.
Healthy, phosphatidyl choline-rich membranes support both synapses (for cognition) and muscle fibers (for strength). Adequate acetylcholine is crucial for memory and for muscle contraction. Meanwhile, choline-derived betaine feeds into methylation pathways that influence brain plasticity and muscle repair and growth.1,2
A large Finnish study followed almost 2,500 middle-aged men for about 22 years and tracked their usual choline intake from food, mainly eggs, meat, and dairy.2 Typical intakes averaged around 430 mg/day total choline with about 190 mg/day as phosphatidylcholine.
Men who consumed the most phosphatidylcholine (the main form of choline in egg yolks and many animal foods) had a significantly higher chance of maintaining their cognitive performance with age than those who consumed the least. This was even after accounting for confounding factors such as overall diet quality.
Total choline and phosphatidylcholine intake were associated with better performance on memory and thinking tests four years after diet assessment. This was especially true for tasks relying on frontal and temporal lobe function (such as verbal fluency and memory).
Keep Your Brain Sharp and Muscles Strong
MYOS MD is a rich source of choline and phosphatidylcholine, thanks to the egg yolk-derived Fortetropin® in the product. Fortetropin® promotes muscle growth and reduces muscle loss. As a source of choline and phosphatidylcholine, it may also support healthy brain aging.
Practical Implications for Health
Taken together, these findings support four practical points for healthy, aging adults:
- Aim to meet (not wildly exceed) the recommended intake of choline most days, especially if you are 50+ and doing resistance training or concerned about long-term brain health.
- Include regular sources of choline and phosphatidylcholine—such as eggs, meat, fish, and some plant foods—as part of an overall cardiometabolic-sensible diet rather than avoiding them out of a blanket fear of cholesterol.
- Recognize that marginal choline intake (around half of recommended levels) may not show up as an obvious deficiency, yet can still blunt strength gains and potentially impact memory.
- Consider adding MYOS MD to your supplement program to enrich your diet with additional choline and phosphatidylcholine.
References:
1. Lee CW, Lee TV, Galvan E, et al. The Effect of Choline and Resistance Training on Strength and Lean Mass in Older Adults. Nutrients. 2023;15(18).
2. Ylilauri MPT, Voutilainen S, Lönnroos E, et al. Associations of dietary choline intake with risk of incident dementia and with cognitive performance: the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study. Am J Clin Nutr. 2019;110(6):1416-1423.