At the cornerstone of any nootropic stack worth its salt is a good source of Choline. When we talk about Choline we are of course also talking about Acetycholine – the neurotransmitter so intimately involved in boosting your cognitive prowess and delivering results going way beyond the realm of placebo. Acetycholine is crucial for memory and learning new information. Acetycholine is crucial for encoding information and then being able to recall that information later. For this reason I recommend Choline to students or anybody on a path of learning new things and then retaining the knowledge learned.

If you’ve done any amount of research on stacking nootropics you’ll find that a source of Choline is usually always included. Choline is especially important when taking the racetams because they easily burn through natural stores of the stuff in no time at all creating Acetycholine.

Anyways, I have no doubt you fully understand the importance of Choline and perhaps you know there are many different sources of Choline available. 2 of the most popular forms of Choline are Alpha-GPC and CDP-Choline, also known as Citicoline. The differences between these 2 sources of Choline is grounds for another post. For now it is only important to understand that these 2 sources of Choline are extremely bioavailable to the body and both are solid Choline sources despite a some significant differences between the 2 compounds.

What is CDP-Choline (Citicoline?)

CDP-Choline is a compound that when ingested metabolizes into Choline in the body. It’s one of the few sources of Choline that becomes bioavailable via oral administration. Choline is a neuroprotective agent and helps keep the brain functioning at optimal levels. Despite many nootropics lacking scientific studies proving their efficacy, compounds like CDP-Choline have been well studied and boast numerous scientific papers on the matter.

This study shows the power of CDP-Choline in improving the memory function in elderly individuals suffering from cognitive decline.

This study shows CDP-Choline improving the attention span in healthy young women.

Another one shows the power of CDP-Choline to increast verbal memory.

Interestingly enough CDP-Choline also metabolizes into Uridine which is another powerful nootropic compound in it’s own right. Uridine has long been the cornerstone nootropics compound in the famous Mr. Happy Stack – the stack many people have found to alleviate symptoms of depression and bi-polar disorder. 

Uridine plays a key role in the central nervous system, improves cognitive functioning, and alleviates symptoms of depression allowing people to lead healthy and happy lives free from unexplainable day to day darkness. Especially when combined with Choline, Uridine is a powerhouse nootropic. As an interesting side note, Uridine is most concentrated in beer possibly explaining the enhanced cognitive benefits and upliftment in mood after a couple drinks. Any more however and you begin to see negative cognitive returns as the alcohol begins to overpower the subtle powers of the Uridine.

Because of the Uridine component, I recommend CDP-Choline over other sources especially if you are experiencing symptoms of depression.

Full Review of CDP-Choline

My experiences using CDP-Choline have been great. It gives me a level of focus and mental energy unlike any nootropic except Piracetam. In fact, It’s a crucial part of my stack when I am taking something like Piracetam. There is certainly an upliftment in my mood when I take CDP-Choline. It’s as if the little things that would normally bother me don’t have an effect. I also love taking this compound if my brain feels foggy or I feel I’m at a mental deficit from maybe drinking too much the night before or not getting a lot of sleep.

CDP-Choline truly delivers a boost in cognitive functioning with the right dose. And that’s the other component. It’s very crucial to get your dose correct. A good dose for you could be anywhere from 500 – 2000mg. This is why I recommend taking the powder version of CDP-Choline over the capsules because you can really dial in your dose to the right amount. I’ve mentioned a handful of times in my videos that too much Choline can actually induce depressive like symptoms. If you find yourself getting depressed definitely reduce your dosage. I’ve experienced depression and dullness from taking too much Choline and dialing back the dose was the right thing to do. When you get the capsules you don’t have an option to reduce the dose because everything is encapsulated.

Overall I love CDP-Choline and feel it truly enhances my thinking and allows me to focus on the things that matter. I can sit for hours at a time to get something done and not lose my focus or get scatter brained over social media or other distractions. This is crucial if you’re running a business, studying for school, or otherwise doing something requiring sustained mental energy and focus.

Conclusion

If you’re just starting out with nootropics something like CDP-Choline is a great starter compound. From there you can start experimenting with Piracetam which is extremely synergistic with Choline.

Let me know if you have any questions. Feel free to ask them in the comments or send me a message on my You Tube Channel.