Living Life With Diabetes

Coenzyme Q10

Coenzyme Q10
CoQ10 is a naturally-occuring compound found in every cell in the body. CoQ10 levels are reported to decrease with age and to be low in patients with some chronic diseases such as heart conditions, muscular dystrophies, Parkinsons disease, cancer, diabetes, and HIV/AIDS.

Heart
People with heart failure have been found to have lower levels of CoQ10 in heart muscle cells. Heart attacks and strokes produce a burst of free radicals (ischemia-reperfusion) that can result in extensive tissue damage. Patients who took the CoQ10 experienced a significant improvement in functional status, clinical symptoms, and quality of life, however there were no changes in echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) or in objective markers. Heart function, as indicated by the fraction of blood pumped out of the heart with each beat (the ejection fraction), showed a gradual and sustained improvement in tempo with a gradual and sustained improvement in patient symptoms of fatigue, dyspnea, chest pain, and palpitations. Double-blind research suggests that CoQ10 may reduce symptoms related to heart failure, such as shortness of breath, difficulty sleeping, and swelling.

Diabetes
CoQ10 supplements may improve heart health and blood sugar and help manage high cholesterol and high blood pressure in individuals with diabetes. Diabetes mellitus is a condition of increased oxidative stress and impaired energy metabolism. Despite some concern that CoQ10 may cause a sudden and dramatic drop in blood sugar (called hypoglycemia), two recent studies of people with diabetes given CoQ10 twice per day showed no hypoglycemic response.

Age
CoQ10 synthesis decreases progressively in humans above age 21. Most people make approximately 500 mg of Coq10 daily in the body, at least up until age 21. At age 20, the heart has a higher CoQ10 level than other major organ. At age 80 this is no longer true, with the heart levels cut by more than half. This causes the degeneration of cells, which may contribute to age-related diseases and conditions such as high blood pressure, arthritis, heart disease and the breakdown of skin tissue. Furthermore, the average ubiquinone content of the western diet is less than 5 mg/day. Failure to supplement by the aged, ill or stressed can have serious consequences in the form of irreversible damage in the brain, other organs and mitochondria everywhere.

Doses
A typical CoQ10 dosage is 30 to 90 mg per day, taken in divided doses, but the recommended amount can be as high as 200 mg per day. Initially, doses as small as 30 to 45 mg per day were associated with measurable clinical responses in patients with heart failure. More recent studies have used higher doses with improved clinical response, again in patients with heart failure. There have been no reports of significant adverse side effects of oral coenzyme Q10 supplementation at doses as high as 1200 mg/d for up to 16 months and 600 mg/d for up to 30 months.

Clinical Evidence
At least six clinical trials have shown a blood pressure–lowering effect of CoQ10. The majority of the clinical studies concerned the treatment of heart disease and were ermarkably consistent in their conclusions: that treatment with CoQ10 significantly improved heart muscle function while producing no adverse effects or drug interactions. Results of the first placebo–controlled, multicentre clinical of CoQ10 suggest that it can slow disease progression in patients with early–stage Parkinsons disease.

We have only scratched the surface of the biomedical and clinical applications of CoQ10 and the associated fields of bioenergetics and free radical chemistry. The clinical experience with coQ10 in heart failure is nothing short of dramatic, and it is reasonable to believe that the entire field of medicine should be re–evaluated in light of this growing knowledge.

Conclusion
Although there is some evidence that Coenzyme Q10 supplementation may be of benefit, large, well–designed intervention trials are needed to determine whether coQ10 supplementation has value as an adjunct to conventional medical therapy.

A regular contributor to this website, Max Health is the founder and owner of Earthrise Foods. For more details visit:
http://www.earthrise-foods.co.uk

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Article Source: http://www.article-buzz.com
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