A Tad Biased? Is DMAE *really* that bad?

1Fast400 Forums > Supplements


Posted by: salmonax Jul 16 2007, 07:05 PM
After reading the article on DMAE I was frightened enough by the dangers of it (all new to me) to sift around a bit for more info. It was then I realized that DMAE really *is* touted as some kind of wonder-substance just about everywhere else, so that if Dave decided to write a bunch of hyperbole about the thing in order to make it obvious that there are problems with it and fails to live up to the claims, more power to him. But I don't felt it answered nearly as much as it should have. In fact the article was so slanted in that direction that I left with more questions than answers.

The first and biggest problem with the article is that it seems to ignore that DMAE clearly does *something* in the brain enough not to bother trying to explain what it does do. It mentions in passing, and only in passing, that the mechanisms for its effectiveness in hyperactivity are unknown.

DMAE raises choline levels both in the CNS and peripheral tissue and slows choline break-down. That's a start, but what does it MEAN? I mean, what are the implications and what effects does this actually produce? ONE article on PubMed suggests that choline and DMAE can stimulate cholinergic receptors directly, albeit very faintly.

So am I expected to believe that raising choline alone is enough to account for the effects and just leave it at that? The research suggests a complicated mess of things, so how about some real information about those addition to all the stuff about how it doesn't?

As for the real dangers I've seen (I don't know where things like 'retardation' come from, as in the side effects in Dave's right-up, for instance)

1) Changes phospholipid composition over time.
2) Reduces Betaine production, which seems like it could reduce creatine production in people who aren't taking it as a supplement.
3) Slows choline uptake, whatever the hell that means. There was one study where rats administered DMAE were compared behaviorally to rats taking a known anticholinergic, and although the rat behavior didn't change much from baseline it did NOT exhibit the same sorts of effects as anticholinergic. This is probably the most confusing and unelaborated point.

One other thing. People have also talked about taking this with ALCAR, which provides the acetyl group in the synthesis of acetylcholine. Is that enough to make aCH from all the additional choline floating around in the CNS from DMAE administration? I've got to many missing pieces to say for sure, and without them I can't say I really know a damn thing about DMAE.