Low choline intake ups risk of dementia, Alzheimer's disease

Low intake of dietary choline may increase the risk of incident dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a recent study has found.

To test the hypothesis that lower or higher dietary choline intake is associated with increased or decreased, respectively, risks of incident dementia and AD, researchers used data from the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort exam 5 to exam 9. Participants were free of dementia and stroke, with a valid self-reported 126-item Harvard food frequency questionnaire at exam 5.

The researchers estimated the intakes of total choline, its contributing compounds, and betaine using a published nutrient database. Intakes were then updated at each exam to represent the cumulative average intake across the five exams.

Finally, mixed-effect Cox proportional hazard models were used, adjusting for covariates, to examine the relationship between dietary choline intakes and incident dementia and AD.

Overall, 3,224 participants (mean age 54.5 years, 53.8 percent female) were followed up for a mean of 16.1 years (1991‒2011). A total of 247 incident dementia cases were documented, of which 177 were AD. Dietary choline intake had a nonlinear association with incident dementia and AD.

After adjusting for covariates, low choline intake (defined as ≤219 mg/d for dementia and ≤215 mg/d for AD) remained significantly correlated with incident dementia and incident AD.

Of note, earlier animal and human studies also reported the positive association of choline with cognition, according to the researchers.