Co EnzymeQ10 - CoQ10

Co EnzymeQ10 - CoQ10

The benefits of CoQ10 are well documented in the medical journals. It's one of the most frequently prescribed heart "drugs" in Japan and widely used in Europe-and one company even owns the patent for the CoQ10 treatment of AIDS. Ask your doctor about CoQ10, though, and he'll probably say he's never heard of it. This a a major problem, because Medical Doctors are prescribing statin drugs like candies these days to help lower patients' cholesterol levels, and statin drugs inhibit Co Enzyme Q10 production in the body. A deficiency of CoEnzyme Q10 has been linked to an increased risk of congestive heart failure and cardiomyopathy !

CoEnzyme Q10 is important for every cell in your body to make energy. Co Enzyme Q10 is most concentrated in the heart muscle, and when statin drugs block production of cholesterol in the liver, they also block production of Co Enzyme Q10. An FDA paper clearly states the detrimental effects of statins on Co Enzyme Q10. Click here to read more

"Scientific evidence confirms the existence of detrimental cardiac consequences from statin-induced CoQlO deficiencies in man and animals."

or to read about Dr Julian Whittaker's petition to the FDA for labelling on statins click here

CoQ10 is a little easier to appreciate when you remember that vitamins function as co-enzymes in the body, furthering thousands of essential biochemical reactions. CoQ10's key role is in producing adenosine triphosphate (ATP), needed for energy production in every cell of the body. Secondary to that, CoQ10 functions as a powerful antioxidant.

This vitamin-like nutrient occurs widely in the food supply, though usually in small amounts. In addition, each cell in the body manufactures CoQ10, though not always very efficiently. That means you may not be getting enough for optimal health.

Japanese researchers recognized that CoQ10 is most concentrated in the heart muscle. Its role in the heart makes sense: the heart, one of the body's most energetic organs, beats about 100,000 times a day and depends on CoQ10 for making energy (ATP).

In the early 1980s, Folkers, director of the Institute for Biochemical Research at the University of Texas, and the late Per H. Langsjoen, M.D. (Peter's father), conducted the first study of CoQ10 in the treatment of cardiomyopathy, a form of progressive heart failure. The findings were astounding. In a well-controlled study, 19 patients who were expected to die from heart failure rebounded with an "extraordinary clinical improvement," according to their report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (June 1985;82:4240-4).

Case studies demonstrate the dramatic effect of CoQ10. In Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications (Jan 15, 1993;182:247-53), Folkers described a 43-year-old man suffering from cardiomyopathy. After being given CoQ10, his enlarged heart became smaller (indicating it was working more efficiently), and he was able to resume an "extremely active athletic lifestyle." The heart function of another patient, a 50-year-old man with very severe cardiomyopathy, returned after he took CoQ10, and he has since had "no limitations of activity."

Numerous other studies have confirmed the role of CoQ10 in treating heart failure, which is otherwise treated with drugs (such as beta blockers and ACE inhibitors)-or with a heart transplant.

 

Articles about Co EnzymeQ10 - CoQ10

Linus Pauling Institute - Oregon State University

Mayo Clinic

Possible Health Benefits of Coenzyme Q10 - by Roland Stocker, Ph.D.

 

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