Tier 4 — mechanistic

Dietary betaine intake is associated with skeletal muscle mass change over 3 years in middle-aged adults: the Guangzhou Nutrition and Health Study

Jing-An Long, Rong-Huan Zhong, Si Chen, Fan Wang, Yun Luo, Xiao-Ting Lu, Dinuerguli Yishake, Yu-Ming Chen, Ai-Ping Fang, Hui-Lian Zhu
The British journal of nutrition 2021 125(4):440-447

Bibliography

PubMed
PMID 32616104
DOI
10.1017/S0007114520002433
Funding
Funding was not specified in the indexed record or accessible funding metadata.
Competing interests
A competing-interest declaration was not available in the indexed record or accessible disclosure metadata.

Study snapshot

DesignProspective cohort
ModelHuman participants
Sample1242 middle-aged adults
InterventionHabitual dietary choline and/or betaine intake; no randomized TMG treatment
Duration3 years
EndpointsSkeletal-muscle change

What the study showed, in plain terms

Published in 2021, this source examined human observational and biomarker research. Design: Prospective cohort. Sample/model: 1242 middle-aged adults. The exposure or intervention was Habitual dietary choline and/or betaine intake; no randomized TMG treatment. Follow-up or treatment period: 3 years.

Higher dietary betaine was associated with less loss of selected limb-muscle measurements.

Observational exposure analysis: residual confounding and reverse causation remain possible. Associations do not establish that betaine supplementation causes the same outcome.

Continue with TMG Data Center

Continue with Betaine Anhydrous Pre-Workout: Performance, Dose and Evidence

Key findings

  • Higher dietary betaine was associated with less loss of selected limb-muscle measurements.
  • The recorded outcome domains were Skeletal-muscle change.
  • The exposure was observed rather than assigned as an isolated supplement treatment.

What this study can and cannot tell us

  • Observational exposure analysis: residual confounding and reverse causation remain possible. Associations do not establish that betaine supplementation causes the same outcome.
  • Confounding, dietary patterns, illness, medication use and reverse causation can influence an association. Blood or dietary concentrations do not identify the effect of starting a capsule.
  • Source basis: Indexed abstract and bibliographic data. Missing method details, funding information or participant denominators are not inferred.

Related papers in the corpus

Tier 4
Dietary Choline and Betaine and Risk of CVD: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies
Katie A Meyer et al. · Nutrients · 2017
Tier 4
Dietary Choline and Betaine Are Not Associated With the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies
Elham Sharifi-Zahabi et al. · Journal of diabetes research · 2026
Tier 4
Association of choline and betaine with the risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality: Meta-analysis
Qinglin Yang et al. · European journal of clinical investigation · 2023
Tier 4
Association of choline and betaine levels with cancer incidence and survival: A meta-analysis
Jiyoung Youn et al. · Clinical nutrition (Edinburgh, Scotland) · 2019

Editorial review

Reviewed by the Biohack Blueprint research team

Last verified

Dr. Khaled Mahmoud, MBBChCritical Care Medicine, Longevity Science & Editorial Direction Dr. Amr Yasser, PhDCardiometabolic, Musculoskeletal, Gut & Bioavailability Dr. Abdulla Mostafa, PhDCellular Senescence, Neurological, Mitochondrial & Brain-Ageing Biology