In human beings, coenzyme Q10 is the most common occurring
form of coenzyme Q, needed by and found in every cell in
the body. Perhaps its primary function is to ensure the
production of adequate energy within the cell mitochondria,
but coenzyme Q10 is also a powerful anti-oxidant, and is
particularly important because it is the only fat-soluble
anti-oxidant which can be manufactured within the body.
Like other fat-soluble anti-oxidants, such as vitamin E,
coenxyme Q10 is vital for the protection of fatty
structures within cells from the damage and degeneration
which may be caused by oxidative reactions and free radical
activity.
But the anti-oxidant role of coenzyme Q10 doesn't end
there. It's also important in stimulating the anti-oxidant
activity of vitamin E, and the two nutrients are together
vital for preventing the oxidation of Low Density Lipids
(LDLs), the blood fats better known as "bad cholesterol",
widely recognised as one of the key risk factors for heart
disease, still the major cause of premature death in the
Western world.
Blood levels of coenzyme Q10 are lower than those of the
other vital anti-oxidants, vitamins C and E, but the
nutrient is found in greater concentrations both in muscles
and the major organs of the body; the liver, kidneys, brain
and especially the heart. But the extent to which levels
of coenzyme Q10 within this organ are correlated with
disease remains a matter of dispute. Orthodox medicine is
predictably cautious and maintains that more research is
required before any definitive statement of coenzyme Q10's
benefits can be made.
Nutritional therapists, however, argue that patients with
heart disease have consistently been shown to have
substantially lower levels of coenzyme Q10 in their hearts
than their healthy counterparts. It is also clear that
supplementation with coenzyme Q10 has been effective in
increasing tissue concentrations of the nutrients in such
patients. Logically enough, conclude the nutritional
practitioners, it follows that supplementation should
improve outcomes for heart patients, and some reported
research with daily doses of 100mg does indeed suggest
significant benefits, particularly where problems seem to
lie in the heart muscle itself.
It is particularly important to note that levels of
coenzyme Q10 in the hearts of older individual are
significantly lower than those of younger people, as the
body's production of the nutrient declines markedly from
around the age of forty. Experiments on older rats have
shown that supplementation with coenzyme Q10 can
significantly increase concentrations, with improved heart
protection in consequence, but conventional medicine still
declines to accept the obvious analogy with regard to human
health.
Likewise, there is controversy surrounding the potential
benefits of the anti-oxidant activity of coenzyme Q10 in
preventing atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, a
major precursor of deadly heart disease. What is clear,
however, is that coenzyme Q10 is effective in reducing the
oxidation of dangerous LDL cholesterol, which is a known
risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis.
It should perhaps be no surprise, therefore, that coenzyme
Q10 supplements have been shown to retard the development
of this condition in small animal experiments. But whilst
admitting that these results are encouraging and exciting,
orthodox medical opinion continues to insist that more
research is necessary before a definitive statement of the
benefits of coenzyme Q10 for human health can be made. To
the interested layman, however, there seems little reason
to suppose that the results of the animal experiments would
not also be reflected in humans. And certainly this is the
conclusion which many nutritional practitioners have
reached; regularly recommending doses of anything up to 400
mg of coenzyme Q10 a day.
The case for supplementation with coenzyme Q10 for
sufferers from atherosclerosis and other heart conditions
has been strengthened by recent research showing that one
of the side effects of the popular statin drugs commonly
prescribed in these circumstances is to reduce blood levels
of coenzyme Q10. Conventional medicine does not accept
that this reduction will necessarily have adverse
consequences, but if it is accepted that coenzyme Q10 has
the benefits detailed above, the conclusion seems clear
enough. This is not of course to suggest that statin drugs
should not be taken, but that it may well be wise to
supplement with coenzyme Q10 at the same time.
As noted above, the other major factor reducing
concentrations of coenzyme Q10 in blood and tissue is
simply the ageing of the organism itself, as the body's
ability to synthesise coenzyme Q10 declines dramatically in
the later years of life. Given the importance of the
nutrient as an anti-oxidant, this is of particular concern
in the context of the onset of degenerative diseases. It
seems that coenzyme Q10's fundamental role in the
production of energy may make it important as a fat burner,
thereby helping in the battle against obesity and related
conditions such as diabetes.
Nutritional practitioners even claim that the anti-oxidant
and energy producing qualities of coenzyme Q10 make
supplementation with the nutrient an important weapon in
the fight against cancer, perhaps the ultimate degenerative
disease.
But like all the body's nutrients, coenzyme Q10 functions
best in the presence of adequate amounts of all the others;
and it is particularly important to ensure, through
supplementation if necessary an abundant supply of the
other vital anti-oxidants, vitamins C and E.
----------------------------------------------------
Steve Smith is a freelance copywriter specialising in
direct marketing and with a particular interest in health
products. Find out more at
http://www.sisyphuspublicationsonline.com/LiquidNutrition/In
formation.htm
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