Creating health with CoQ10: we all need CoQ10 for the energy it provides for even the tiniest tasks. But those suffering from health conditions, including weak hearts, breast cancer and migraines, may also benefit

Coenzyme Q10 is a vitamin-like substance your body needs to make energy--even the energy to move your eyes and turn this page. It helps people with weak hearts, including those with diseases such as cardiomyopathy and heart failure. Coenzyme Q10 may also reduce the frequency of migraine headaches and lower the recurrence of breast cancer.

Coenzyme Q10 is commonly referred to as CoQ10. Biochemists may refer to it as ubiquinone and ubiquinol. It could easily be considered the "energy nutrient."

HOW IT WORKS: Each of the 70 trillion cells in your body contains hundreds of mitochondria--the tiny structures that break down and burn glucose and fat for energy. Coenzyme Q10 is essential for some of the latter steps in this process, where it shuttles around energy-containing electrons.

HEALTH BENEFITS: Supplemental CoQ10 offers many important health benefits. Here's a brief overview:

* Weak hearts. Japanese researchers first recognized CoQ10's heart benefits in the 1960s and, later, some American and European physicians started using CoQ10 to treat diseases of the heart. In a recent study, Italian doctors noted impressive improvements after four weeks of giving CoQ10 (100mg three times daily) to 21 patients with severe heart failure. CoQ10 supplements, ranging from 60-300mg daily, can significantly improve the heart's ability to pump blood.

* Migraine headaches. Peter S. Sandor, MD, of University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland, treated 42 patients with a history of migraines, giving them either CoQ10 (100mg three times daily) or placebos. After three months, half the patients taking CoQ10 had fewer and shorter headaches and less headache-related nausea. Hardly anyone in the placebo group improved. Results of other studies have been similar.

* Tinnitus. German doctors used CoQ10 (100mg three times daily) to treat 20 patients who suffered from a chronic ringing or buzzing in the ears (tinnitus). By the end of the 12-week study, patients who previously had low levels of CoQ10 benefited from supplements, which reduced tinnitus by 36 percent.

* Breast cancer: Knud Lockwood, MD, who surgically removed breast cancers for 35 years, found that high doses of CoQ10 (almost 400mg daily) led to remissions in recurrent breast cancers. He wrote that CoQ10 does not have direct antitumor properties, but that it probably helps energize the body's anticancer cells.

* Parkinson's disease. A study involving 10 US hospitals showed that CoQ10 supplements reduced the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Eighty patients were given 300, 600 or 1200mg of CoQ10 or placebos daily for 16 weeks. All of the patients taking CoQ10 had less severe symptoms than those in the placebo group. The highest dose of CoQ10 provided the greatest benefits.

* Ataxia. Often inherited, ataxia affects a person's coordination and ability to use their arms and legs. Researchers reported that 300-3000mg of CoQ10 daily helped patients with a type of hereditary ataxia. The patients' strength and coordination improved, and they suffered fewer seizures. Another study of 77 patients with Friedreich's ataxia found benefits from a combination of 400mg of CoQ10 and 2100 IU of natural vitamin E.

BACKGROUND CHECK: The role of CoQ10 in energy production formed the basis of the 1978 Nobel Prize in chemistry, which was awarded to Peter Mitchell, PhD, of England.

GLEANINGS: Cholesterol-lowering statin drugs (such as Lipitor, Zocor and Crestor) inhibit an enzyme involved in making cholesterol, which is the same enzyme that makes CoQ10, thereby reducing the body's ability to make CoQ10. Some side effects of statins are related to CoQ10 depletion. CoQ10 supplements (240mg) may offset some drug-related side effects, such as liver problems and muscle pain, while also improving heart function.

HEADS LIP: CoQ10 is extraordinarily safe. However, its heart-strengthening benefits may decrease requirements for digitalis, ACE inhibitors, and other drugs prescribed for heart failure. Work with your physician when combining CoQ10 with heart-stimulating medicines. There's no problem taking CoQ10 with statin drugs.

WHAT YOU SHOULD TAKE: For general health maintenance, take 25-50mg of CoQ10 daily. Consider taking 100mg daily if you are past age 50. Nutritionally oriented physicians may recommend 300-400mg daily in the treatment of cardiomyopathy, heart failure, breast cancer and other serious diseases.

If you look at the fine print on CoQ10 labels, you'll notice several different types of supplements, including ubiquinone, ubiquinol, ubidecarenone, and hydrosolubilized CoQ10. Ubiquinol is the biologically active form, but the body converts more than 90 percent of the other forms to ubiquinol. Because CoQ10 is oil soluble, take it with food to aid absorption. Food sources of the nutrient include liver, heart, and other organ meats, which Americans now rarely consume.

QUICK TIP:

The Lowdown on High Blood Pressure

According to Michael Murray. ND. and Joseph Pizzorno, ND, authors of Encylopedia of Natural Medicine. CoQ10 appears to lower blood pressure by "lowering cholesterol and stabilizing the vascular system via its antioxidant properties."

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