Anxiety is a feeling in which an individual believes their brain is betraying them.
Researchers are now wondering if part of this betrayal could be due to the absence of an ingredient or nutrient in a regular diet.
A new analysis from UC Davis Health suggests that people with certain anxiety disorders tend to have lower levels of choline, an essential nutrient that helps the brain regulate mood, memory and cellular health.
Foods like eggs, fish, chicken, beef and soy are all rich sources of choline.
The research brought together data from 25 previous brain imaging studies, comparing 370 people with anxiety disorders to 342 people without them.
Using a non-invasive MRI technique that measures brain chemicals, researchers found that anxious participants had about an 8% drop in choline levels in brain regions responsible for emotional regulation and cognitive control.
Talk to Fox News Digital, Dr. Richard Maddock, lead author of the study and research professor at the University of California, Davis, said: “8% less doesn’t sound like that much, but in the brain it’s significant. »
The problem with choline is that your brain uses a lot of it just to function normally and your body only produces a small amount of it on its own, which means most of it has to come from food, and research suggests that many Americans don’t get this, whether they’re anxious or not.
Maddock and his team suspect the link also involves chronic stress rather than just a nutritional deficit.
Anxiety disorders are linked to prolonged stress responses that increase the brain’s metabolic workload, which over time can reduce choline levels in areas that regulate threat and emotion.
Researchers are careful not to openly discuss this finding, because the research does not show that low choline causes anxiety and does not suggest that people should start taking supplements.
