New York, NY—A raw material traditionally associated with cognitive health now has some research backing for appetite suppression.

Researchers gave citicoline (500 mg/day or 2,000 mg/day of Cognizin citicoline from Kyowa Hakko USA) to 16 individuals and asked them to fill out questionnaires about their hunger. The group took the survey at baseline and after six weeks of supplementation. Also, the researchers looked at physical indicators in the brain using MRI scans. All individuals were shown pictures of high-calorie foods during the scans to see whether there were any changes in the areas of the brain that tend to show increased activity in response to appetite control.

Overall, individuals taking 2,000 mg of citicoline exhibited the strongest feelings of fullness, and their brains also showed the strongest changes in activity when shown the picture prompts. No significant weight loss was found in either group.

“We are able to visualize the differences between baseline and after 6-weeks of citicoline supplementation. Scans from the high-dose group illustrate the shift in how their brains interpreted the food images,” explains researcher Deborah Yurgelun-Todd, Ph.D., director of the Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory and The Brain Institute at the University of Utah. The findings were attributed to citicoline’s effect on dopamine neurons, Kyowa stated in a press release. The data were published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, March 2010