Mainstream media publications, in this case Harper’s Bazaar and Reader’s Digest, are finally beginning to acknowledge the benefits of supplements such as CoQ10. Of course, regular readers of AFP have long been clued in to the advantages—and necessity, given the current state of un-health-care in America—of supporting our own wellness, naturally.
By James Spounias
Mainstream media outlets have historically had a bias against anything not made by Big Pharma, but in a refreshingly candid article in the March issue of Harper’s Bazaar, a women’s fashion and style magazine, coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) was promoted, as one of five noteworthy supplements.
CoQ10 is present in food, including red meat, plants, and fish, but in levels insufficient to help treat chronic and deadly health conditions.
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Harper’s cited research by Michale Barber, M.D., chief medical officer of Better Life Carolinas in Charleston, S.C., who pointed out CoQ10’s unique ability to support mitochondria, basically the battery pack in your body’s cells.
“CoQ10 is a potent antioxidant that helps mitochondria . . . stay charged, giving you energy and fueling your daily functions,” reported Harper’s Bazaar. “CoQ10 also aids in repairing telomeres and helps your heart—which is loaded with mitochondria—function at optimal levels. Your skin will also likely benefit; expect an improvement in wrinkles and firmness. Pop 200 milligrams per day, Barber says.”
Reader’s Digest also promoted CoQ10 on its website:
Coenzyme Q10 has two main roles in the body, first as an important player in the creation of energy within mitochondria, the energy powerhouse of cells. The second role of coenzyme Q10 is as an antioxidant, protecting all cell membranes, including those of the mitochondria, from being damaged by free radicals. Deficiency signs may include fatigue, muscle ache and pain, and gum disease.
Coenzyme Q10 has been thoroughly researched since the 1970s, particularly with respect to its role in protecting against heart disease. One study showed that patients taking coenzyme Q10 prior to heart surgery had a shorter hospital stay and faster recovery time. Other heart-related conditions where coenzyme Q10 has been shown to be useful include high blood pressure, ischemic heart disease, mitral valve prolapse, and congestive heart failure. If you are taking statins, ask your doctor if it might be worth taking coenzyme Q10. Statins are often prescribed to lower cholesterol levels, because they inhibit an enzyme involved in the synthesis of cholesterol. Unfortunately, this same enzyme is involved in the synthesis of coenzyme Q10 in the body. This explains why muscle pain, muscle soreness, and fatigue, which are commonly caused by statins, can be relieved by coenzyme Q10.
Coenzyme Q10 is also recommended for gum disease, with improvement noticed in as short a time as one week. In one small study a supplement of coenzyme Q10 was found to alleviate symptoms of tinnitus in patients who initially had low levels of coenzyme Q10 in their blood.
The mainstream media isn’t alone.
Studies published in medical journals, which can be accessed on “PubMed.gov,” have found CoQ10 offers impressive benefits. A recent look showed that after taking CoQ10 “inflammatory markers” were reduced and fertility was improved. In animal models, dangerous toxins were blunted.
Of course, these studies are by no means definitive, and more, larger-scale studies must be conducted to validate the findings before any true “causation” can be established.
While “antioxidants” get much attention, the most important aspect of CoQ10’s ability to help so many different health situations rests in its ability to help create energy within the mitochondria.
So noteworthy is recent research, one study, in the Oct. 2016 Annals of Translational Medicine journal, bears an unusually blunt headline: “Statins barely touch the heart but bite the kidneys after cardiac surgery. Coenzyme Q10 deficiency in the dock?”
In the article, lead author Patrick M. Honore, M.D., Ph.D., with the intensive care unit at Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel in Belgium, wrote: “A recent systematic review and meta- analysis showed that prophylactic CoQ10 therapy in patients undergoing cardiac surgery . . . was safe and associated with less need for inotropic support and a lower incidence of ventricular but not atrial arrhythmias.
Interestingly, patients with heart failure developed less atrial fibrillation when given continuous CoQ10 treatment.”
Honore praised statins (even though other researchers don’t), but nonetheless pointed out that in some cases statin therapy is quite dangerous, and preventable harms could perhaps be achieved by taking coenzyme Q10: “The main culprit behind this failure might be statin-induced depletion of CoQ10 stores perturbing bio-energetic kidney homeostasis.”
Kidney homeostasis refers to the balance your kidneys provide in maintaining blood volume, among other things.
Honore called for “high quality” studies to verify whether CoQ10 has a place in helping prevent organ damage by statins.
That is not all of the good news about CoQ10.
According to the results of a multi-center, randomized, double-blind trial presented at the European Society of Cardiology’s Heart Failure 2013 Congress, CoQ10 decreases all-cause mortality by half. It is the first proven treatment to improve heart failure mortality in over a decade and should be added to standard care, according to lead author, Professor Svend Aage Mortensen from Copenhagen, Denmark.
Mortensen added: “Other heart failure medications block rather than enhance cellular processes and may have side effects. Supplementation with CoQ10, which is a natural and safe substance, corrects a deficiency in the body and blocks the vicious metabolic cycle in chronic heart failure called the energy starved heart.”
Patients with ischaemic heart disease that use statins could also benefit from CoQ10 supplementation. Ischaemic heart disease results when arteries to the heart narrow and restrict blood flow, which often leads to heart attacks.
“We have no controlled trials demonstrating that statin therapy plus CoQ10 improves mortality more than statins alone,” said Mortensen. “But statins reduce CoQ10, and circulating CoQ10 prevents the oxidation of LDL effectively, so I think ischaemic patients should supplement statin therapy with CoQ10.”
It’s not easy to know if the truth about CoQ10 is breaking through the matrix, or whether this promotion is a warmup to have it made into a costly prescription “drug.” If it is the latter, we could expect Big Pharma to use the lowest quality Chinese manufacturer, unlike CocoQ-10™, which not only uses Japanese manufactured CoQ10 but also organic coconut oil and medium chain triglycerides in a soft-gel.
Either way, though, CoQ10’s role as a valuable supplement is becoming mainstream.
FULL DISCLOSURE: In the interest of disclosure, this writer is associated with Carotec Inc., a company which sells CocoQ-10™, a Coenzyme Q10 nutritional supplement advertised in American Free Press. Nonetheless, even I am pleasantly surprised at the mainstream promotion of CoQ10, as well as the sharply worded studies from establishment science researchers highlighting its benefits.
James Spounias is the president of Carotec Inc., originally founded by renowned radio show host and alternative health expert Tom Valentine.
