Q10 promotes heart health by helping to provide the cellular energy needed to keep the heart pumping well.
What is the Q10 heart health science?
Q10 science on strengthening the Heart muscle
Q10 is vital for the heart, as your heart needs to produce huge amounts of energy to support its pumping action. Not surprisingly, people with chronic heart failure (or “energy-starved hearts”, as cardiologists call it ) respond extremely well to Q10 supplementation. Q10 is well-documented and is authorized in half a dozen European countries as a therapy in the treatment of chronic heart failure.
Coenzyme Q10 and ubiquinol as adjunctive therapy for heart failure (Lambrechts 2013)
The largest and longest clinical study to date found that taking 100mg three times daily of Q10 for 2 years significantly reduced the chance of an adverse cardiovascular event (e.g. hospitalization, worsening heart failure, or death) by almost 50% compared to placebo in people with moderate-to-severe heart failure and significantly improved measures of quality of life such as activity levels, fatigue, and shortness of breath. Q10 was used in addition to prescription heart failure treatment, not in place of it (Mortensen 2014).
An Italian multicenter study on Q10 adjunctive therapy in heart failure (n=2664) Patients in NYHA class II showed a better outcome with a significant improvement rate that approximates 90% (Baggio 1994).
A myocardial deficiency of Q10, which is higher with increased severity of the disease, is reduced by Q10 therapy (Folkers 1985).
Plasma Q10 concentration is an independent predictor of mortality in Chronic Heart Failure. The Q10 deficiency might be detrimental to the long-term prognosis of CHF, and there is a rationale for controlled intervention studies with Q10 (Molyneux 2008).
Critical Review: Coenzyme Q10, endothelial function, and cardiovascular disease (Littarru 2011)
A meta-analysis of Q10 for hypertension was performed in 12 clinical trials (362 patients) comprising three randomized controlled trials, one crossover study, and eight open-label studies. Q10 amounts were 34 mg/day up to 225 mg/day. The research group concluded that, in hypertensive patients, coenzyme Q10 has the potential to lower systolic blood pressure by up to 17 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure by up to 10 mm Hg without significant side effects (Rosenfeldt 2007).
Preoperative Q10 therapy in cardiac surgery patients increases levels of Q10 in cardiac mitochondria, improves cardiac mitochondrial efficiency, improves cardiac pump function (Rosenfeldt 2005).
Long-term supplementation of selenium/coenzyme Q10 reduces cardiovascular mortality. The positive effects could also be seen in NT-proBNP levels and on echocardiography (Alehagen 2013).
The beneficial effects of Q10 supplementation in HF prevention and treatment have been consistently observed in many trials suggesting that CoQ10 may be considered as an adjunct to conventional treatment (Di Lorenzo 2020).
Q10 supplementation reduces oxidative stress and mortality from cardiovascular causes and improves clinical outcome in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery, prevents the accumulation of oxLDL in arteries, decreases vascular stiffness and hypertension, improves endothelial dysfunction by reducing the source of ROS in the vascular system and increases the NO levels for vasodilation (Rabanal-Ruiz 2021).
Heart Failure—Do We Need New Drugs or Have Them Already? A Case of Coenzyme Q10 (Filipiak 2022).
Q10 science on Statin related muscle pain
Statins work by essentially reducing an enzyme in the liver, known as HMG-CoA reductase, which decreases not only cholesterol production but also decreases the production of Q10. Taking statin drugs can deplete our body’s reserves and production of Q10, so supplementing with this nutrient can synergistically support the effects of statin drugs if you happen to be taking them. Q10 supplementation can help to restore and support natural levels of this crucial nutrient, helping to counter the effects of statins.
A team of researchers from Columbia University discovered in 2004 that their patients on cholesterol-lowering medicine (atorvastatin) displayed significant reductions in their levels of Q10. They drew the conclusion that the observed Q10 reduction with statin use may explain commonly reported side effects like fatigue, exercise intolerance, muscle pain as well as muscle degeneration.
In a study among people reporting muscle pain associated with taking statins, a dose of 50 mg Q10 twice daily for 30 days reduced the intensity of mild to moderate muscle pain by 33,1% and the interference with daily activities by 40,3%, while no improvement occurred among people treated with placebo. Symptoms improved among seventy-five percent of those treated with Q10 (Skarlovnik 2014).
A meta-analysis published in the European Journal of Medical Research concludes that statin treatment decreases circulating CoQ10, regardless of statin solution, intensity, or treatment time (Qu, Meng 2018).
A meta-analysis published in the American Heart Association concludes that compared with placebo, Q10 supplementation ameliorates SAMS (Statin-Associated Muscle Symptoms), such as muscle pain, muscle weakness, and muscle tiredness (Qu Guo 2018).
In patients receiving long-term statin therapy, statin-associated cardiomyopathy may develop. Dr. Langsjoen and his team found that this myopathy responds safely to statin treatment discontinuation and Q10 (Langsjoen 2019).
What experts say on Q10 heart health science
Oral supplementation with Q10, even for a few days, makes LDL more resistant to oxidation.
Q10 is more powerful than ACE-inhibitors and beta-blockers. It should be considered.
In HF (Heart Failure), the heart (myocyte) is energy starving and needs Q10! Q10 evidence base in HFrEF (Reduced Ejection Fraction) is broad and well confirmed. Statin myopathy CoQ10 benefit in 2-4 weeks. Blood pressure-lowering benefits in 2-3 months. HF-therapeutic effects in 6-24 months. Q10 is on the market in a couple of EU countries as medicine for HF! And there is Q-Symbio; The most important Q10 study in 50 years of CoQ10 research: published in JACC Heart Fail. 2014; n=420; 300mg Q10 for 2 years in HF. A 42% relative reduction in all-cause mortality.