Benefits of CoQ10 Will Jump Start Your Life

Benefits of CoQ10 and Your Heart

The benefits of CoQ10 would literally fill a book ... a big book. CoQ10 along with Vitamin C have been called the most essential of the "essential nutrients". What does the term "essential nutrients" mean? The term "essential nutrients" refers to the nutrients without which your body could not support life.

What is CoQ10? Well, the Co is short for Coenzyme. What about the Q10 part? Q10 is a member of a family of CoQs starting at 1. The numbers refer to different size molecules with Q10 being one of the most important for us humans.

Since our bodies can make CoQ10 we can't classify it as a vitamin ( I know, I know - what about Vitamin D ... hey, we don't make the rules!).

CoQ10 is also called ubiquinone from the word "ubiquitous". We looked up "ubiquitous" in the American Heritage Dictionary and they told us that ubiquitous means " Being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time; omnipresent". CoQ10 or ubiquinone is found everywhere throughout your body.

All Right - Get to the Point ... What Are the Benefits of CoQ10

Remember the Webster's definition of ubiquitous? Well CoQ10 is required by every cell in your body. Every cell in your body has a little factory inside of it called the mitochondria. It is the job of the mitochondria to produce energy. And what do you think your cells use for fuel to produce that energy with? Ahhhhh, let me guess? ... CoQ10? Brilliant!

Benefits of CoQ10 : Give Me Energy (Liberty) or Give Me Health Problems (Death)

Your cells must have CoQ10 to convert fats and carbohydrates into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is your cell's primary energy source and is primarily responsible for muscle function ( HINT - Your Heart is a muscle ). As we mentioned above, your body produces CoQ10 but as we get older that production drops off. It is thought that after age 20, your body's production of CoQ10 begins to decline.

Also, if you are on statin drugs to lower cholesterol - heads up. Statin drugs not only inhibit your body's ability to produce cholesterol, it also keeps your body from producing CoQ10 as we will discuss later.

Benefits of CoQ10 and Heart Health

The heart is made up primarily of cardiac muscle tissue. Since the heart muscle has the highest energy requirements of all the muscles, it stands to reason that CoQ10 is most highly concentrated in your heart muscle cells. Remember, your heart beats 4000 times every minute or over 35 million times every year. Your heart is a pump. And a pump needs fuel. Without fuel your heart grows weak and is not able to operate at peak efficiency.

One of the benefits of CoQ10 is that it provides the energy to make your heart pump. As we mentioned above, CoQ10 is necessary for the production of the high energy phosphate called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). All your cellular functions depend on ATP. Especially your heart.

A significant link has been found to exist between low levels of CoQ10 and congestive heart failure. The lower the levels of CoQ10, the more severe the heart failure. Low levels of CoQ10 may be the primary factor for some types of heart failure and a secondary factor in others. However there is a growing body of evidence to support the benefits of CoQ10 in maintaining heart health and in treating folks suffering from heart failure.

An article appearing in the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE titled "Potential role of ubiquinone (coenzyme Q10) in pediatric cardiomyopathy" says "Coenzyme Q10 is a vitamin-like nutrient that has a fundamental role in mitochondrial function, especially as it relates to the production of energy (ATP) and also as an antioxidant. Based upon the biochemical rationale and a large body of data on patients with adult cardiomyopathy, heart failure, and mitochondrial diseases with heart involvement, a role for coenzyme Q10 therapy in PCM patients is indicated, and preliminary results are promising".

Benefits of CoQ10 and Its Powerful Antioxidant Capabilities

In addition to providing your cells with the energy they require to do their jobs, another of the benefits of CoQ10 is its powerful antioxidant capabilities. "Anti what" you say? Yeah I know. You can read more about what antioxidants do at our sites on Vitamin E or Vitamin C, but in a nutshell here is the very important role that antioxidants play in our health. Think of it this way ...

The cells of your body are under a lot of stress ... oxidative stress. Oxidative stress occurs when highly unstable molecules called free radicals roam freely throughout your body. Free radicals are a by-product of not only the normal metabolic (chemical) processes of your cells but also your environment - things such as toxins, air pollution, sun exposure, ozone, nitrous oxide (from auto exhaust), cigarette smoke, alcohol consumption and so on.

Free radicals damage cell membranes and can result in changes to your cells that cause chronic diseases down the road. These changes to your cells due to free radical damage have been implicated in a variety of diseases such as cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes mellitus, etc. When your cells are being damaged by these free radicals, we say your cells are experiencing oxidative stress ...

... and one of the benefits of CoQ10 is that it is a powerful antioxidant and can significantly neutralize the free radicals that cause oxidative stress.

CoQ10 is thought to be 50 times more powerful an antioxidant as Vitamin E but works in harmony with Vitamin E to provide even more protection!

Benefits of CoQ10 and Cardiovascular Diseases

An article appearing in the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE titled "Prevention of coronary atherosclerosis by the use of combination therapy with antioxidant coenzyme Q10 and statins" states that "The treatment with coenzyme Q10 demonstrated its potential independent role in positive modification of oxidative stress, antiatherogenic fraction of lipid profile, atherogenic ratio, platelet aggregability".

Remember the benefits of CoQ10 as an antioxidant that we talked about above? It is believed that oxidative stress and in particular, oxidation of low density lipoproteins or LDL (you know - "bad cholesterol") in your artery walls is one thing responsible for you developing atherosclerosis ( Vitamin C talks more about another factor responsible for atherosclerosis).

As you may well know, atherosclerosis is a build-up of plaques on the inside of your artery walls. Studies have shown that one of the benefits of CoQ10 is its ability to neutralize large amounts of free radicals that cause this oxidation of LDL that in turn results in this plaque build-up.

Plaque build-up in your artery walls is thought to be a factor in such diseases as coronary artery disease (and eventually heart attack), stroke and high blood pressure.

Benefits of CoQ10 and Neurodegenerative diseases

An article appearing in the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE titled "Mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative damage in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and coenzyme Q10 as a potential treatment" says "There is substantial evidence that mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative damage may play a key role in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disease. Evidence supporting this in both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases is continuing to accumulate".

Neurodegenerative diseases are diseases of the brain and can be put in two categories: 1) diseases that result in mobility problems like Parkinson's for instance. 2) diseases that affect memory and/or cause dementia like Alzheimer's for instance. Again, with these diseases, oxidative stress is thought to play a role. And again, we go back to the benefits of CoQ10 and its powerful, protective antioxidant capabilities.

Another article appearing in the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE titled "Role of mitochondria in neuronal cell death induced by oxidative stress; neuroprotection by Coenzyme Q10" says that "Coenzyme Q10 is a component of the mitochondrial respiratory chain and a potent anti-oxidant". The same article goes on to say "Coenzyme Q10 has the potential to be used as a therapeutic intervention for neurodegenerative diseases".

Another study again appearing in the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE observed how the benefits of CoQ10 could help guard you against the oxidative stress caused by environmental toxins. This study was done in a laboratory and studied how cells of the nervous system (neuronal cells) fared after exposure to paraquat. Paraquat is a nonselective herbicide that was once used throughout the United States and is still used in Taiwan. There has been a known link between paraquat exposure and neurodegenerative diseases.

It is also known that the death of these neuronal cells caused by oxidative stress are linked with many neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and stroke.

In this study, cells that were and were not pretreated with CoQ10 were exposed to paraquat. The cells that were not pretreated with CoQ10 experienced significant damage including DNA fragmentation due to the paraquat induced oxidative stress. The cells that were pretreated with CoQ10 before exposure to paraquat experienced significantly reduced damage.

These observations led the researchers to concur: "... CoQ10 can prevent oxidative stress and neuronal damage induced by paraquat and therefore, can be used for the prevention and therapy of neurodegenerative diseases caused by environmental toxins".

Benefits of CoQ10 and High Blood Pressure

A study published in the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE looked at the treatment of high blood pressure using dietary supplements that are commonly available. These supplements are defined to have a positive benefit if they are shown to drop the systolic (higher) number down by 9 or more and the diastolic (lower) number down by 5 or more. It was found that the supplements that tended to provide this benefit were CoQ10 , fish oil, garlic, vitamin C, and L-arginine.

How Do I Get My Benefits of CoQ10 ?

You can get your CoQ10 through foods you eat such as meat, poultry and fish in that order. 3 ounces of beef for instance will get you about 2.6 mg. of CoQ10. 3 ounces of oily fish such as herring will get you 2.3 mg and 3 ounces of chicken will get you 1.4 mg (nuts, seeds and whole grains also contain CoQ10 to a lesser degree). It is estimated that most folks don't get more than 10 mg from foods. Also remember that your body produces CoQ10.

However there are a number of factors that will deplete your body's supply of CoQ10. Remember that as we get older our body's production of CoQ10 slows down. After age 20 our production begins to drop off and with it our benefits of CoQ10. Also, if you exercise strenuously you are using your body's supply.

Cholesterol lowering statin drugs have also been shown to inhibit your body's production of CoQ10. In Canada (but not in the United States) drug companies are required to include in their statin drug advertisements the fact that these statin drugs cause significant decreases in CoQ10 levels.

In the Canadian edition of the NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE a popular statin drugs' advertisement reads, "Significant decreases in circulating ubiquinone (CoQ10) levels in patients treated with ( POPULAR STATIN DRUG ) and other statins have been observed". It goes on to say "It has been reported that a decrease in myocardial ubiquinone levels could lead to impaired cardiac function in patients with borderline congestive heart failure".

Although there has been no RDA yet established for CoQ10, normal supplement dosages for adults range from 30 - 60 mg per day. For specific conditions being treated under medical care, dosages have ranged up to 1,200 mg.

In Trying To Get My Benefits of CoQ10, Could I take Too Much?

In a study appearing in the ARCHIVES OF NEUROLOGY, the benefits of CoQ10 in the treatment of Parkinson's disease was measured. It was reported that "CoQ10 was safe and well tolerated at dosages of up to 1200 mg per day". This study appeared in the "ARCHIVES OF NEUROLOGY".

However, if you do decide to use CoQ10 supplements to get your benefits of CoQ10, the normal supplemental dosages should do for healthy adults. For treatment of any conditions mentioned above or for therapeutic dosages, be sure to consult you health practitioner.

Also since your body's production of CoQ10 does not start to decline until about age 20, it is not thought that children need CoQ10. In addition, because studies have not been done with women who are pregnant or breast feeding, these ladies might not want to use CoQ10 supplements at this time - or of course check with your health care provider.

What Do We Recommend?

Most research seems to point to the benefits of getting a healthy dose of CoQ10 in your multivitamin. This insures that the benefits of CoQ10 and the other nutrients you are getting are working together synergistically.

None other than Harvard School of Public Health weighed in by stating that the, "... intake of several vitamins above the minimum daily requirement may prevent heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and other chronic diseases."

Also, an article apperaing in the Journal of the American Medical Association had this to say... "suboptimal intake of some vitamins, above levels causing classic vitamin deficiency, is a risk factor for chronic diseases and common in the general population..."

In addition, the JAMA went on to say, "Most people do not consume an optimal amount of all vitamins by diet alone. Pending strong evidence of effectiveness from randomized trials, it appears prudent for all adults to take vitamin supplements."

We've seen lots of products out there and we recommend not wasting your time or money on the mass produced, mass marketed thrift store variety multivitamins.