For optimum heart and brain health, a nutrient produced in your liver called coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is responsible for the energy production in all the trillions of cells in your body. CoQ10 also aids in repairing damaged cells throughout your body and restoring healthy new ones. Essentially, it rejuvenates your aging brain, liver, lungs, heart and other organs as an antioxidant, as well as a cellular energy producer, especially in your heart.
Unfortunately, research shows that there is a decrease in the bodys natural production of CoQ10 around age 20. By age 80 CoQ10 production drops by a whopping 65 percent. CoQ10 deficiencies can also occur due to nutrient-poor food consumption, environmental stress and many prescription medications. This can lead to heart disease, stroke, poor blood pressure levels, blood sugar imbalance, memory loss and decreased circulation, just to name a few.
CoQ10 acts like a vitamin in almost every way and it is also found in minute amounts in a wide variety of foods and made naturally in all tissues. This powerhouse enzyme has a chemical structure very similar to vitamins E and K. CoQ10 added to vitamin E produces a stronger health-boosting effect. For example, vitamin E alone has been demonstrated to oxidize bad low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and therefore make it sticky, promoting atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. However, CoQ10 blocks the effect of vitamin E on LDL cholesterol, and strongly inhibits LDL oxidation.
According to researchers, without CoQ10 we would not have enough energy to even survive. When CoQ10 levels fall by just 25 percent it causes illness, and when levels fall by 75 percent, it may lead to death. In fact, a 1993 study reported in Clinical Investigation demonstrates that low CoQ10 levels predicted death within six months in 94 consecutive patients they studied.
For example, in the International Journal of Tissue Reactions, researchers reported the extraordinary results of CoQ10 supplementation for three months with heart-failure patients. Using conventional medications alone, only 25 percent of these patients would be expected to live for 36 months. Amazingly, of the 137 patients who also supplemented with CoQ10, 75 percent of them lived for 46 months.
Equally impressive is that those with the weakest heart functionwith an average ejection fraction (a measure of heart pump strength) of 25 percentimproved their ejection fraction up to between 43 and 49 percent throughout the CoQ10 supplementation period of 36 months.