CoQ10 & Healthy Aging
Mitochondrial decline · Supplementation · Peer-reviewed
For different organs a decrease of Q10 has been found with age.
What does Q10 active seniors science stand for? What is the evidence for fatigue, muscle pain, anti-aging, sarcopenia?
How to get an energy boost as you age?
Q10 science on Fatigue and Muscle Pain
Q10 treatment showed a remarkable improvement in clinical symptoms and headache in fibromyalgia patients (Cordero 2012).
Q10 confers potential therapeutic benefits on fatigue and biochemical parameters in CFS (Castro-Marrero 2015).
A study in Spain among middle-aged adults with fibromyalgia (chronic, wide-spread muscular pain and fatigue) found that 100 mg Q10 taken three times daily for 40 days significantly improved measures of interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, and symptoms of somatization and obsessive-compulsion compared to placebo (Alcocer-Gomez 2017).
A meta-analysis shows that 200 – 300 mg Q10 supplementation per day can lower fatigue in statin-associated myopathy and fibromyalgia patients (Mehrabania 2019).
This 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials concludes that CoQ10 is an effective and safe supplement for reducing fatigue symptoms. (Tsai 2022).
Q10 science on Anti-aging
The concentration of coenzyme Q10 in the body decreases year by year, indicating that it has a close relationship with aging (Kalen 1989).
Recent advances in Q10 treatment of human diseases and the slowing down of the aging process (Hernández-Camacho 2018)
Q10 and its role in dietary therapy against aging (Varela-López 2016)
In a Swedish study, elderly individuals (>70 years) who received a combination of selenium and Q10 for four years reported an improvement in vitality, physical performance, and quality of life (Johansson 2015).
Q10 functions as a major skeletal muscle gene regulator and modulates cellular metabolism. In addition, skeletal muscle fiber types were shown to change as a result of CoQ10 administration to human subjects towards the muscle fiber profile of younger subjects (Linnane 2002).
Q10 science on Sarcopenia
The data from two independent cohorts suggest that a low Q10/cholesterol level could be an indicator of an increased risk of sarcopenia in humans due to their negative associations to upper body muscle strength, peak flow and muscle mass (Fisher 2016).
What experts say on Q10 active seniors science
“Aging is associated with a tissue decrease in Q10 and training is capable of minimizing this effect.”
— Prof GP Littarru
“The ability of Q10 to protect against the release of proinflammatory markers provides an attractive anti-inflammatory therapeutic for the treatment of some human diseases and in aging.”
— Prof Plácido Navas
“It is practically impossible to make up for the loss in endogenous Q10 by eating more food or by eating wisely.”
— Dr. William Judy
Mitochondrial Basis of Age-Related Decline
Mitochondrial function declines progressively with age. This is attributed to accumulation of mitochondrial DNA mutations, reduced electron transport chain efficiency, and increased reactive oxygen species production. CoQ10 occupies a central role in this process: it is the mobile electron carrier between complexes I/II and complex III of the inner mitochondrial membrane, and simultaneously protects mitochondrial membranes from lipid peroxidation in its reduced ubiquinol form.
CoQ10 biosynthesis declines with age — plasma concentrations fall by approximately 40–50% between the second and eighth decade of life (Kalen 1989). This decline is compounded in elderly individuals taking statins, which block the shared mevalonate pathway. The ability to convert ubiquinone to ubiquinol also decreases with age, making direct supplementation with ubiquinol particularly relevant in older populations.
Key References
Kalen A et al. Age-related changes in the lipid compositions of rat and human tissues. Lipids. 1989;24(7):579–84. PMID: 2549453
Cordero MD et al. Coenzyme Q10: a novel therapeutic approach for fibromyalgia. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2012;420(1):69–73. PMID: 23022046
Johansson P et al. Coenzyme Q10 supplementation lowers fatigue and exertional dyspnoea in chronic heart failure. Int J Cardiol. 2015;(Q-SYMBIO substudy). PMID: 26236322
Mehrabani S et al. The effect of coenzyme Q10 supplementation on fatigue: a systematic review. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2019;20(2):228.e3–228.e9. PMID: 30595682
Tsai IC et al. Effectiveness of CoQ10 supplementation for reducing fatigue: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Front Pharmacol. 2022;13:883251. PMID: 35600869