GPC--A Neuroceutical for Mental Performance

Increasingly demanding lives, with demands for peak mental performance, are driving consumers to look for an extra edge. That edge is here. GPC is an orthomolecule, intrinsic to our biochemistry, found in all human cells and naturally present in mother's milk.

GPC (glycerophosphocholine, pronounced gli-ser-o-fos-fo-ko-lean) is a neuroceutical, proven through double blind testing to sharpen alertness, reasoning, information processing and many important measures of mental performance. After proving consistently efficacious and safe in 22 clinical trials that involved more than 4,000 subjects, GPC occupies a highly favored position among neuroceuticals.

GPC has been successfully tested on healthy youth, the middle aged and the elderly. Young, healthy subjects became more focused after seven to 10 days on GPC. Middle-aged subjects experienced faster reaction time and improved response to stimulus. Older subjects with impairment due to trauma, circulatory insufficiency or accelerated cognitive decline experienced clinically significant improvement after their first month on GPC. Whatever the subjects' ages, GPC's benefits were broad, consistent and meaningful to health and productivity.

In two double blind studies with male and female volunteers aged 19 to 38 years, GPC consistently benefited attention and "working memory." GPC even improved baseline levels of function, significantly better than did pharmaceuticals such as idebenone and aniracetam. This capacity to enhance mental performance in healthy, youthful subjects places GPC in a special category of usefulness.

With respect to the older population, in a comprehensive meta-analysis of GPC's benefits published in 2001,¹ veteran Italian researcher Dr. Lucilla Parnetti concluded, "The extent of improvement of cognitive functions observed was generally high." From an earlier double blind trial that she coordinated,² Parnetti concluded, "GPC induces global functional improvement, to a degree which may improve the patients' quality of life."

GPC is also unique for its capacity to improve cognition in brain trauma patients. One large study on stroke recovery involved 176 hospital centers within Italy and more than 2,000 seriously ill patients. After six months, investigators judged GPC had significantly helped more than 95 percent of the patients. They noted that GPC was excellently tolerated by this fragile patient population.

GPC also improved mental functioning in subjects with brain damage from heart surgery. In subjects with mental deterioration related either to poor circulation (vascular dementia) or to unknown causality (Alzheimer's-type dementia), GPC consistently improved both cognition and mood. But it may be exceptionally effective for vascular dementia--Parnetti found that for this category, GPC "...improved overall clinical symptoms, such as memory and attention impairment, affective disorders and somatic symptoms (fatigue, dizziness) in all trials...".³

GPC is not a vitamin because human cells can synthesize it. However, its availability may become limited under conditions of biochemical challenge. The native GPC molecule is an important osmotic and electronic water-phase buffer in all the organs of the body. GPC plays this role in all living organisms--from the simplest to the most complex. In humans its considerable buffering capacities help protect the liver and kidney cells that are chronically vulnerable to toxic damage from filtering blood.

GPC's role as a cell-protective buffer overlaps its role as a convenient packaging for choline. Despite choline's universal involvement in life processes, for living cells the native, "free" choline is actually difficult to handle--a biochemical hot potato. Free choline is chemically unstable in the watery medium of the cell interior or the blood. GPC is the body's main water-phase choline "buffer" and reservoir.

GPC is highly bioavailable and once ingested rapidly raises the blood's total choline level. In all the organs, choline from GPC provides methyl groups for tissue renewal and helps maintain the phospholipid pools for cell membrane expansion. GPC also readily crosses the blood-brain barrier to elevate the brain's choline and acetylcholine (ACh) status. The importance of the chemical transmitter ACh extends beyond the brain; it is essential for nerve-muscle stimulation and thereby for mind-body integration and overall endurance.

GPC is also the body's most important metabolic reservoir of phospholipids, the orthomolecules that are the structural and functional foundation of cell membranes, circulating lipoproteins, surfactants and bile digestive fluid. GPC can be converted into PC (phosphatidylcholine) or Sph (sphingomyelin) with minor expenditure of precious ATP energy.

Additionally, GPC may be a highly valuable anti-aging supplement. Several studies were carried out with GPC to assess whether it would restore growth hormone (GH) production by the pituitary gland. In older subjects, GPC was found to improve GH release when co-injected with GHRH (growth hormone releasing hormone). This research is still preliminary, but several animal studies support GPC's anti-aging potential.

GPC has an excellent safety record. Of the thousands of patients who received GPC in clinical trials, not one serious adverse effect has been reported. This contrasts with herbal "brain boosters." The daily GPC dose used in the trials was 1,200 mg, but 600 mg/d has been found to significantly raise brain choline levels and could be a reasonable "maintenance" intake.

As a ubiquitous cell protectant, pro-vitamin, pro-neurotransmitter and pro-phospholipid, GPC is unique even among orthomolecules. GPC supports life functions, from the most basic survival level to the most sophisticated level of brain-body integration. Whether its fortunate consumer is young, middle aged or old, healthy or unhealthy, GPC should noticeably enhance mental performance.

Parris Kidd, Ph.D., is a biomedical consultant and nutrition educator, widely recognized for his expertise on the nutritional paradigm in health and disease.

References

1. Parnetti L et al, "Pharmacological treatment of non-cognitive disturbances in dementia disorders." Mech Ageing Dev 122(16):2063-9, 2001.

2. Parnetti L et al, "Multicentre study of l-alpha-glyceryl-phosphorylcholine vs. ST200 among patients with probable senile dementia of Alzheimer's type."Drugs Aging 3(2):159-64, 1993.

3. Parnetti L, op. cit. 2001.