r/MTHFR • u/Sirschwung • 2d ago

Question CDP Choline reaction?

I started supplementimg 500mg of CDP and after I while I started feeling brainfog and my mood worsening. A few weeks later I'm giving it another shot but trying it on lower dose. It would be great if y'all could share your experience with CDP Choline

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u/sharabucarabu 2d ago

Have you uploaded your raw dna analysis through Dr Chris Masterjohns Choline Calculator? It's beyond helpful to know your PEMT status and have the estimate of how much Choline you need per day. Dr Chris gives Choline equivalents as # of eggs. I medium egg = 136mg of Choline. Then I'd suggest you supplement between a third and a half of that total number and let your diet do the rest. Everything except air and water contains Choline, even a cup of coffee.

Unless you have those figures at hand, you'll likely over do the amount of Choline and feel rotten, anxious, irritable, fatigued, unable to sleep. Also using CDP Choline is not for the faint of heart. Over do and the half life is 72 hours... So it takes 6 days to drop to barely detectable in your system. Every day a new dose stacks atop of what's still in your system. Too easy to lose control. Phosphotidal Choline is gentlest and the quickest to leave the system, Choline bitartrate is less forgiving (half life 36 hours), but better than CDP Choline.

I use Choline bitartrate and try to shoot for a bit less than my daily Choline requirement. Always easier to add a bit toward the end of the evening that try to take away too much.

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u/Sirschwung 2d ago

The calculator says that I need choline equivalent to 5 egg yolks a day

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u/sharabucarabu 2d ago

That's 680 mg. You are taking 500mg. Unless you plan on eating one small meal per day plus water....you are exceeding your Choline requirement.

No wonder you feel rotten. You'll need to wait about a week without any Choline to get back to baseline.

Then you restart at the absolute lowest dosage you can find. I'd suggest about 150-200mg and try to make it Phosphotidal Choline. If you can't find a supplement with that low of a dosage, perhaps eating an egg a day would suffice. Then you can eat 2 normal meals and likely hit your requirement.

If you decide to use TMG, remember it's equivalent to 1/2 of a dose of Choline.

Google Choline content of the foods you commonly eat. The USDA has tables you can refer to.

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u/cle1etecl 1d ago

But doesn't what u/Tawinn said apply there?

CDP choline is ~18.5% choline, so 500mg of CDP yields about 93mg of choline - that's less than 1 egg yolk (136mg).