Modafinil and choline | What you should know

Decide if it's a good idea to mix Modafinil and choline together? You are in the right place.

Choline might help if you get a headache from taking modafinil, and these two together form a common compound. Modafinil stack.

Modafinil is a prescription medication for sleep disorders that is also a powerful nootropic agent, meaning it can help you stay more focused, energized, and productive.

One of the most common side effects of using Modafinil is headache, but combining Modafinil with choline, an essential nutrient that plays a key role in brain health, can help remedy this annoying side effect.

Here's what you need to know about using modafinil and choline together...

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What is modafinil?

Modafinil is a prescription medication that is known as a wakefulness agent. Its main approved use is to treat daytime sleepiness in people with sleep disorders such as narcolepsy, shift work sleep disorder, and obstructive sleep apnea.1].

However, Modafinil is also an extremely effective nootropic: it helps increase focus, productivity, energy, concentration, creativity and retention. For this reason, it is also used by many people looking for a boost in these areas, such as university students, entrepreneurs, and high-performing professionals. In fact, more “off-label” prescriptions are given for the drug than for the sleep disorders listed above, for reasons such as multiple sclerosis, depression, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [2].

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Modafinil benefits

Modafinil is one of the most popular nootropics due to its effectiveness. These are the scientifically validated benefits of Modafinil:

• Improved energy levels: Modafinil reduces fatigue and provides sustained, long-lasting energy, even in sleep-deprived people [3, 4, 5, 6].
• Best memory: In healthy people and people with depression, studies have shown that modafinil helps improve memory and learning [7, 8].
• More attention: Modafinil improves alertness and improves brain function, regardless of how much sleep the user has had [9, 10].
• Elevated mood: In animal and human studies, modafinil has been shown to improve mood, motivation, and self-reported well-being [11, 12].

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What is choline?

Choline is a nutrient that the body needs to function properly. It is a component of phospholipids, compounds that cover the cell membrane of every cell in the body. It is also vital to create acetylcholine, a key neurotransmitter that helps the brain send signals to other parts of the body and vice versa.

Choline is found in a variety of foods, but eggs and beef liver are the richest sources.According to the National Institutes of Health, most people actually don't get enough choline in their diets, although true deficiency remains rare.13]. Fortunately, there are several supplement options available.

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Choline benefits

Although choline is generally not top of mind when people think about essential nutrients, its benefits really cannot be understated. Here are just some of the benefits of choline:

• Acetylcholine production: As we mentioned before, acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter made from choline. Plays a role in memory and muscle regulation [14].
• Cholesterol metabolism: Choline helps metabolize cholesterol and prevent it from accumulating in the liver.15].
• Cell structure and function: Choline is needed to make phospholipids, which are part of cell membranes and help regulate what substances can enter and leave cells.16].

Additionally, researchers have noted that low levels of choline in red blood cells are linked to cluster headaches.17].

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Modafinil and choline | What you should know

Although there is no research to support this use, many Modafinil users swear by choline to help reduce headaches related to Modafinil use.

Modafinil is a powerful nootropic, but the headaches some users experience may be enough to stop taking it. However, there are several ways to help combat these headaches; you can read more in our post on how to get rid of them. Headaches with modafinil.

As nootropic users, there are several things we do to minimize the risk of experiencing Modafinil side effects, such as headaches. For example, we:

• Stay well hydrated
• Eat regularly and eat plenty before taking Modafinil.
• Get enough sleep
• Ensure judicious dosing of modafinil
• Don't skip exercise
• Perform posture correction exercises.
• Refrain from mixing Modafinil with other stimulants.

And when we feel that these methods are not enough to relieve those annoying headaches, we try to supplement them with magnesium, melatonin and L-theanine, which are known to help reduce tension.

Finally, if none of these remedies help with our modafinil headaches, we turn to choline supplements, and we do so as a last resort. As we mentioned above, there's really no solid evidence that choline helps with modafinil headaches, except for the small link between choline levels in red blood cells and cluster headaches.

The use of choline has arisen from several anecdotal reports of Modafinil users who have had success with choline supplementation to help control their headache with Modafinil.

One Reddit user says:

“Eating foods with choline (like eggs with yolk) really helps, some people take supplements but honestly, I found that adding them to the diet keeps headaches at bay. Modafinil and Armodafinil are famous for this, and many people swear by choline.”

According another Reddit user:

“Your brain uses more choline to increase energy production. You need to supplement with this to prevent headaches.”

However, if you decide to supplement with choline, it is imperative to purchase the right supplement. There are several different types of choline supplements available and generally only two are recommended for Modafinil users: alpha-glycerylphosphorylcholine (Alpha-GPC) and Citicoline.

Here's a quick summary of the different types of choline [18]:

• Alpha-GPC: Alpha-GPC is a form of choline that is found naturally in the brain and may help increase blood flow to the brain, promoting better neurological function. It is 40% choline by weight and, for this reason, appears to be the most popular supplemental form of choline among nootropic users.
• Citicoline: Citicoline, also known as cytidine diphosphate-choline or CDP-choline, is a nootropic in its own right. It contains 18% choline by weight and is a precursor to uridine, a fundamental DNA nucleotide that offers many cognitive benefits.
• Choline bitartrate: This form is the most common and cheapest form of choline supplements. It works, but Alpha-GPC and Citicoline have a greater effect.
• Phosphatidylcholine: This is choline in its phospholipid form and is usually the form of choline found naturally in foods.
• Choline chloride: This form of choline is mainly used in animal feed. Although you can buy it on Amazon, it is not recommended for obvious reasons.

For best results, anecdotal reports recommend taking at least 300 mg of Alpha-GPC per day. However, there seems to be a wide variation in what people find useful. Here's what some users said:

“Alpha GPC is the best. 300 mg or 600 if you have 50% powder.”

“Most often I use pure choline at a dose of 700 mg. However, try adding or subtracting 100 mg to find your personal sweet spot. For each person this is a little different, so it's a good idea to order choline powder and then weigh it on an accurate scale in slightly different amounts to find what dose works best for you.”

"Vitamin B with choline usually works well at 50 mg."

Please note that choline has few side effects and has no known interactions with Modafinil.However, it is possible to take too much choline and that can be associated with some extremely unpleasant side effects. Side effects of going overboard with choline include:

• Vomiting
• Excessive sweating
• Excessive saliva production.
• Low blood pressure
• Liver toxicity
• fish smell

In the long term, high doses of choline may lead to an increased risk of heart disease.

Most adults need between 425 and 550 mg of choline per day, and to avoid potentially harmful side effects, users should not take doses higher than 3,500 mg/day. In fact, it is best to avoid doses even this high to be safe [13].

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Benefits

Of course, the only reason many people add choline to their Modafinil routine is to eliminate Modafinil headaches.

If it works for you, then this could be the biggest benefit of using choline.

Unfortunately, some people experience headaches from modafinil that are so severe that they completely outweigh any benefits derived from the nootropic. The headaches make them unable to work or study, which eliminates any point in taking Modafinil in the first place.

However, if a relatively inexpensive choline supplement (or even getting more choline through diet, as one Redditor suggested) can help users get rid of these headaches, then they can take advantage of the many benefits of modafinil that we described previously.

Fortunately, there appear to be no downsides to choline supplementation at the doses most Modafinil users take. Extra choline may even be beneficial, since most people don't get enough.

However, once again, there is no true evidence to support the use of choline to prevent headache with Modafinil, only anecdotal reports from users.Hopefully this will change soon and we can learn more about how modafinil and choline interact with each other.

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Choline and Modafinil | Verdict

The verdict is out:

Choline could be just what you need if you suffer from modafinil headaches but want to continue using the nootropic to reap all the benefits it provides.

At standard supplement doses, choline is perfectly safe for the vast majority of people. (Alternatively, eating a few extra eggs can work just as well!)

Although research is lacking, there appears to be at least a small link between insufficient choline levels and headaches, and many Modafinil users report great success after adding choline to their routine.

If choline works for you, you'll still be able to benefit from all the cognitive improvement that Modafinil provides, and that's a win in our book.

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