Choline

I have been prompted to inquire about a chemical called choline, the absence of enough of which before birth is suspected of being implicated in the development of schizophrenia twenty years later. Of which, more in due course.

My present point is that while Wikipedia is often my first port of call in such inquiries, in this case, as well as Wikipedia at reference 2, Bing also turned up the fact sheet at reference 1. A fact sheet produced by the grandly title Office of Dietary Supplements of the National Institutes of Health of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. For which last see reference 3.

A fact sheet which I thought was well presented and much better suited to my particular needs than the corresponding page in Wikipedia. The former perhaps the work of a civil servant and the latter perhaps the work of a medical student? Both conclude with about 50 references.

So while a sensible health service might be anathema to a powerful section of the population of the US, central government does do some health in a helpful way.

For the moment I am engrossed in reference 4 from the fact sheet, but perhaps if I am bored this afternoon, I will try and find out what our government has done. Or maybe even the French government. Or WHO. Or, on a different tack, to count up the number of references that turn up in both lists.

Reference 1: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Choline-HealthProfessional/.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choline.

Reference 3: https://www.hhs.gov/. All about health in the US, although without the responsibility or budget for the provision of actual health services. Nevertheless, for the financial year 2001, 3,901 full time equivalents and  $700,756,000. Less than the year before and with the organisation chart showing lots of vacancies on the senior management team, perhaps a product of trumpery. This last being a word of abuse, derived ultimately from the French word for a trumpet. See OED for the full story.

Reference 4: A.S.P.E.N. position paper: recommendations for changes in commercially available parenteral multivitamin and multi-trace element products - Vanek VW, Borum P, Buchman A, Fessler TA, Howard L, Jeejeebhoy K, et al. – 2012. A.S.P.E.N. being the American Society for Parenteral [intravenous] and Enteral [stomach and intestines] Nutrition.