Today I will be talking about Lecithin, a product which can be found on our website under the brand Jamieson. It is a general term to denote a number of very similar compounds, the most important of which is Phosphatidylcholine. The reason why I decided to bring this topic up is because of the utmost important role the choline part of lecithin plays in multiple biochemical processes in our bodies. Another reason is that the vast majority of our society has an inadequate choline intake from diet.
The molecular structure of Phosphatidylcholine is simply a choline molecule connected by a phosphate group to a glycerol molecule which in turn is connected to two fatty acids. It is an amphipathic molecule which means that it interacts positively with both water and with lipids. This unique property allows it to play the very important role of being the main building block of lipid membranes. All the cells in our body have walls made of lipid membranes. Without them, they would not be able to hold their structure and we would essentially not exist! Lipid membranes are composed of lipid molecules that have affinity for each other, a property which helps them stay together and form the lipid membrane. They must also have side groups which interact well with water, as water surrounds the lipid membrane both on the inside and the outside of the membrane. Without an adequate level of Lecithin the cell membranes are not structurally coherent. This affects the functionality of the cell membrane, especially the functionality of the receptors that are on or in the cell membrane, which in turn affects the functionality of the entire cell in a negative way….Read more…
Dr.Karol, MD 