Live Longer and Healthier With Coenzyme Q10

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Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is a fat-soluble, vitamin-like substance naturally found in the body, particularly in the heart, liver, kidneys, and pancreas. It primarily functions in the conversion of food to energy and as an antioxidant.

CoQ10 typically decreases with aging, but its decline may be hastened by certain genetic conditions, illness and chronic diseases, and the use of statin drugs (more on this later).

It has been a popular supplement for some time, as it appears to be helpful in a variety of conditions ranging from heart failure, to female fertility, to headaches, to enhanced exercise performance.

But in addition to specific health issues, CoQ10 appears to also be beneficial for general longevity and healthy aging.

A study published in the November 2015 edition of the Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging of elderly subjects followed for a period of 48 months found that CoQ10 supplementation resulted in significantly reduced incidence of hospitalization as well as improved vitality and quality of life.

This probably should come as no surprise, as coenzyme Q10 is well-known to improve the body’s overall efficiency in converting food to energy, as well as for reducing oxidative stress and damage.

CoQ10 supplements come in two forms, ubiquinol and ubiquinone and there’s some debate as to which one is better. The body actually converts back and forth between the two depending on its needs, but in terms of supplementation, the more expensive ubiquinol may be better absorbed and has a stronger antioxidant effect, whereas ubiquinone functions more in the energy production role. For most generally healthy people with at least reasonably decent diets, the less-expensive ubiquinone is probably adequate to get good benefits from supplementation.

My advice is if you don’t notice much difference taking ubiquinone, you might want to give a ubiquinol supplement a try and see if it works better for you.

Dosage recommendations vary considerably, depending on specific needs, but for most people a dosage of 100 to 400 mg per day (preferably broken up into 2 or more doses taken with food for best absorption) is suggested.

In addition to genetic conditions and certain diseases, the use of statin (cholesterol-lowering) drugs can create an increased need for CoQ10. The depletion of the body’s CoQ10 levels by statin drugs tends to result in intense muscle aches and pains all over the body. This is a pretty common occurrence in my experience, so much so that any time a patient reports that they hurt all over, I ask them about statin use. More often than not, the “hurt all over” symptoms are associated with starting on statins or increasing their dosage.

I think it’s preferable for such patients to get off of the statins - not just because of the pain, but because if it’s affecting muscles that way, it’s probably not doing the heart any favors either (the heart is highly dependent on CoQ10 for normal functioning). If getting off of statins is not possible, high-dose CoQ10 supplementation will usually reduce the pain substantially (check with your doctor of pharmacist first to be sure that CoQ10 is unlikely to interact with any other drugs you may be taking).

There are food sources of Coenzyme Q10. Organ meats (heart, liver, kidney, etc.) tend to have the highest amount, with meats, fish, nuts, and seeds having lesser amounts. For most people, supplementation is probably going to give the best results though, as it is simpler than tracking the amounts in one’s diet and it allows for more or less consistent blood and tissue levels and CoQ10 function.

Until next time…

George F. Best, D.C.