Coenzyme Q10 - Review of Relevant Details

Following are notes from an interview with William V. Judy, PhD, on the topic on Coenzyme Q10 research hosted by Designs for Health in January 2005. Dr. Judy currently does most of the absorption studies in the world on Coenzyme Q10.

This review should serve to clarify questions regarding what forms to look for when purchasing CoQ10, absorption claims, dosing, blood levels and the safety issue of using it with Coumadin. I have many pages of notes but have attempted to post just the relevant clips. This year celebrates the 50th anniversary of the discovery of Coenzyme Q10 by Professor Fred Crane.

[Coenzyme Q10 will be referenced throughout as CoQ.]

Dr. Judy received his Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics from West Virginia University Medical Center in 1971. His training and work has been in the central and peripheral nervous systems and control mechanisms in bioenergetics, temperature regulation, and cardiovascular function. He was an aerospace scientist with NASA-MSC and conducted In-flight cardiovascular and thermal regulatory experiments. He has served as an Associate Professor in Physiology and Biophysics at Indiana University Medical Center for 15 years. His introduction to CoQ10 occurred in 1960 as a graduate student at University of Kentucky Medical School. In the early 1970's, Dr. Karl Folkers of the University of Texas at Austin asked him to become involved in CoQ10 research in patients with low energy syndrome. He has published many works on CoQ10, Congestive Heart Failure, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and bioenergetics. His involvement in mitochondrial energy synthesis started in 1973. Currently, Dr Judy, via SIBR, has started a CoQ10-PWS study. [sibrresearch.com] This effort was stimulated by the results and information gained during three years CoQ10 supplementation in one PWS child with a dual diagnosis that involves both chromosome 15 and mitochondria complex II and III. The new PWS CoQ10 program is the second step in Dr. Judy's efforts to investigate the probable connection between mitochondria, low energy, and CoQ10.

First, a brief review of the importance of and benefits of CoQ in the body. (We have covered CoQ extensively- see archives.)

COQ10: ESSENTIAL FOR ENERGY
CoQ is a nutrient that is essential for the body to turn food into energy.

SUPPORTING HEART HEALTH
CoQ10 is one of the most important nutrients for maintaining the health of the heart.

LOWERING BLOOD PRESSURE
One hundred milligrams of CoQ10 per day has been found to lower blood pressure while also raising protective HDL cholesterol and lowering total cholesterol.3

ENHANCING IMMUNE FUNCTION
Studies indicate CoQ10 may have dramatic immune-enhancing effects. Older adults as well as those with HIV in particular may benefit from CoQ10.4

Benefits of CoQ10
• Promotes Heart Health
• Lowers Blood Pressure
• Inhibits Cholesterol Oxidation
• Helps Periodontal Disease5
• Enhances Immune Function
• Parkinson’s Disease7


1. Q. Manufacturing method of CoQ?

A. There are only two. One is a very expensive version and is a partial synthesis from a plant that is CoQ9 and then converted to Q10. About 33% of the world’s supply is produced this way by a pharmaceutical company in Japan. The other is a fermentation method developed by the late Dr. Karl Folkers who found friendly bacteria fed sugar beets in a brewery-type fermentation allowed for the harvest of pure CoQ10.

2. What affects absorbability/bioavailability?

A. In the body CoQ made naturally (endogenous production) is single molecules produced in the mitochondria and is not like that from the Japanese producers. That from the Japanese is in dry, crystalline form like dry sugar or salt. That powder is stable, can be stored in a warehouse for years or shipped around the country and therefore, that form is not like the form we find in the body.

Unfortunately the physical chemistry of that crystal is such that it has a melting point at 10° above body temperature and the body can’t absorb crystals. So the bioavailability of a crystalline form of CoQ is quite poor compared to a non-crystalline form of single molecules.

3. What is done to make it bioavailable?

A. We’ve known for over 30 years the CoQ crystal had difficulty being absorbed. The limited absorption when taken into the body is just maybe 1% and that’s not enough. What the industry has done over the last 25 years has gone from a two-piece hard gel or tablet to a soft-gel formulation and included a lipid as CoQ is a lipid soluble substance so its absorption is via lipid-facilitated. Some suppliers have now put it with a lipid and some have dissolved it completely in a lipid. When it is completely dissolved in a lipid and is free molecules, it has the greatest potential of being absorbed. That’s the new generation.
Terms – of marketing CoQ

4. What are the differences?

When a fat goes from the stomach into the duodenum, bile salts (emulsifiers) are mixed with it. It’s like having bacon fat in a skillet and you put water on it and the fat comes and lays on the top. Well, the fat does the same thing in the intestines. But a bile salt is like when you drop a bit of detergent on that fat in the pan, it makes it disperse. That’s what the body does so some manufacturers put emulsifiers in the CoQ to make it disperse in the chyme of the small intestine so it can be absorbed.

It is oil based in a softgel capsule because CoQ is only soluble in a lipid and the transport mechanism by which CoQ is absorbed is a simple facilitative diffusion and the facilitator is an oil that the body likes to absorb.

CoQ is not soluble in water; but you can make it disperse in water by adding wetting agents to it…like PEG which will make it disperse in water but if you look on those solutions, you will find crystals. Some preparations are lysosomal where they use lecithin in and there are types of sprays. Some of it is marketing hype but a lot is good science.

Agents used as emulsifiers are usually the lecithins. Emulsifiers put in dry CoQ powder can help to make them more dispersible with the molecules that do dissolve in the contents of the intestines.

Powdered CoQ, if heated, it probably will go into solution but everyone is trying to get a non-crystalline form of CoQ – you can easily produce a non crystalline form of CoQ by heating it in certain solvents but if you don’t have a lipid in the intestines, you can’t absorb it even if you put single molecules in there and exposed to the absorbing surfaces, if you don’t have a lipid carrier, then it will not be absorbed. I do not know which are the best lipid carriers – I would think they would be saturated fats rather than nonsaturated – there are all types of carriers being used…and some are better than others.

Designs for Health produces two products – Q avail and the CoQ powder. The powder form enables adding to something hot – tea or coffee with some cream (fat) as a carrier to assist with absorption. The soft gels have lecithin but it is more free molecules floating in a lipid base than crystals, therefore, it has it has a fairly good absorption up to 3–4%. With the dry powder, some will be dissolved in the intestines. 16 million Japanese people were treated with it for 21 years with success because they were taking fairly large doses – 99 mg. a day.

In 1972-74 in the US when we started heart failure studies with dry powder, we couldn’t raise the blood level of a heart failure patient from .65 up to about 1.3 – 1.4, but some of it did go in solution. We found that we could enhance that if we had the people take the dry CoQ with peanut butter or a fat in the meal. So with dry powder, you can put it in hot tea about 45-48° C – which is above body temperature – add a little cream to it and absorption will have a tremendous improvement. This is basically what is done in making a good soft-gel. It’s heated, melted to single molecules, added with a lipid carrier and encapsulated and a lot of companies pray it will remain as single molecules and not re-crystallize out. Good ones will not recrystallize and have much better absorption.

So with companies selling just the crystalline form in a capsule which is just swallowed, the chance of absorption is obviously fairly low…about 1% or a softgel which is nothing more than dry powder in a lipid base that is still a crystal inside the soft gel has about a 2 or 2.5% absorption rate.
A liposomal preparation maybe will be 2.5 – 3.5%. The better formulations are just now coming out (’05) and will be non-crystalline formations with absorptions up to almost 8.5%.

Since CoQ is so expensive, if we can get a formulation that is 8.5% absorption, that means we can use 30 – 40 mg. a day to meet the need of a normal person.

4. Influence of gut function – influencing factors?

A. Anytime an inflammatory condition of the gut is present, you are going to get fluid accumulation, the membranes become thicker. The thing that controls passage of molecules across the intestines is the size of the molecule…. CoQ is very large – it’s 864 Daltons - three times larger than sugar; the concentration gradient between inside the intestines and the inside of the cell – if the cell has a high CoQ the concentration gradient is low; you will have decreased diffusion; and another point is the thickness of the membrane. So if you’ve got an irritation, swelling, of the intestines you cannot expect very good absorption.

Clinical Applications

5. What does CoQ do for the myocytes in the cardiac cell?

Frederick Kramer in 1957 isolated CoQ from the mammalian beef heart mitochondria, so coming from the heart and finding large quantities in the heart – it was felt that Co Q had to do something with cardiac function. It was the late Peter Mitchell who described the Q cycle for the conversion of ADP to ATP and therefore cardiac energy. He won a Nobel Prize for that in 1978. So the heart was an ideal place to start but Dr. Folkers couldn’t get anyone in the US to look at it so he took some samples to Japan and worked with a cardiologist there treating heart failure patients and brought them out of failure. The Japanese did a decade of clinical and basic work on CoQ before Co Q was approved as a controlled substance in Japan around 1972 or 73 for the management of heart failure. It was deregulated just in the last couple of years and it is no long a prescription drug in Japan.

The heart is an ideal organ to look at Co Q because it has so many different functions – the myocytes contract and relax; the conduction system has to conduct impulse into the heart muscle to make it work; the membranes have to be stabilized; so, Co Q primarily has three major functions in the heart – energy for muscle contraction and relaxation, pumps the calcium out and lets the muscle relax. Deficiency of CoQ gives a diastolic dysfunction because the muscle can’t relax right. Co Q is responsible for conduction of the impulse down that nerve into the AV node, the SA node and is important for membrane stabilization. Remember when the heart contracts, sodium rushes in, calcium rushes in – there is a long plateau of the action potential, then potassium rushes out and so forth, but that final stabilization where the membrane becomes stable – requires the sodium/potassium ATP pump which is energy driven and if you have CoQ deficiency in a small locus then you have instable membranes which lead to heart dysfunctions.

6. Q. The body makes CoQ. How large of an impact is endogenous CoQ?

A. We have looked for years for an endocrine mechanism- we know that thyroid controls metabolism – maybe some control over thyroxine over metabolism and there, over CoQ but we know the major stimulus for CoQ synthesis is the demand for energy and oxygen at the cellular level.
People who exercise produce more CoQ than those who are sedentary. Athletes produce a tremendous amount of CoQ production where non-athletes have maybe half that. So we really think that exercise is the promoter of CoQ synthesis. When people stop on a daily basis their CoQ levels decrease rapidly.

Co Q is peak in the body at age 21. They decrease gradually and at the age of 65 most people are 45-50% low. Fortunately there are people who are above that – maybe 12% of the population has high levels and they age very slowly, never sick and live well in their tenth decades. Then we have a group that has early deficiencies of CoQ in early 40’s and mid 50’s and have early aging and have early age –related degenerated diseases – have high medical bills

7. Q Dosing for exercisers vs non exercise…Age differences?

It is known that when the CoQ within the cell is reduced as much as 25% that the metabolic activity, itself, can be turned off as much as 50% so it becomes very sluggish. Generally, younger people who exercise do not need CoQ as they make a lot of it, although some babies that can’t make CoQ (which is a genetic disposition), but people in their late 40’s or early 50’s who are slowed down, or who work hard may need a CoQ supplementation. People in their late 50’s who have a clinical symptom of low energy syndrome, early onset hypertension, definitely need CoQ and the more severe the condition like heart failure, Parkinson’s need more than someone who has early onset problems. So the typical dosing by Drs. Sinatra and Langsjoen and others who use CoQ in their practice of medicine say the more the severe the heart failure the more used and the less severe, less is used.

8. Daily Requirements… How much CoQ does the average individual use? What is the turnover?

A. For just good health maintenance and good Pharma, you can get by with just 30-50 mg. With early onset congestive heart failure may need 100 mg a day. If there is a deficiency, you have to fill up the reserves because you aren’t absorbing 100% of that; remember if you get 3% absorption out of a 100 mg. you only get 3 mg. in the body and the body and in the normal person, the body needs 3.4 mg. a day as a turnover rate. So if you have a product that has 3.4 mg absorption, 100 mg a day just replaces what the body needs. If the person’s turnover rate is 5 or 6 like an athlete or someone who is very ill like stage IV congestive heart failure, you may have to give 250 mg. to get 5 – 6 mg. back into the body because of the high turnover rates.

9. Management of Tough Clinical Conditions

A. Chronic Fatigue is a difficult group of people. Whether this is a retro-virus or whatever, obviously they have a lack of energy, they have less exercise tolerance, they don’t recover well, have poor oxidative phosphorylation - this can be improved if they have good muscle development earlier in their lives – were athletes – women were very active. But with poor muscle development and poor numbers of mitochondria, they are hard to revive.

Q. A lot of COQ is used in the US for treatment of CFS, Immune Deficiency Syndrome patient (CFIDS; aka CFS)] Doses?

A. 1) Mild case 100 mg.
2) Severe, incapacitated case for 2 3 years, like gets ready to do to work, comes down stairs, has breakfast and has to go back up stairs again and lie down then that requires 300 mg. a day as it take that to build up blood levels and repair the mitochondria that are nonfunctional. That takes time. In the CFIDS., the skeletal mitochondria become deconditioned, just like we find in the heart of heart failure patients.

10. Dosing - Is it best to take as one single bolus or in divided doses throughout the day?

Since the concentration gradient across the intestines is the driving force for passing diffusion it is best to take it at one big dose. You get better absorption that way than if take 100 mg. in morning, noon and night. This is purely passive transport; there is no known active transport for CoQ10.

11. Congestive heart failure, other cardiac disorders

A. There are no major clinical trials in the US besides the work of Dr. Langsjoen in Texas. There are large studies now in Europe. Basically, CoQ10 in early onset congestive heart failure can reverse to no heart failure at all.

In Class II III and IV, you can improve the heart pumping function and its contractual function, but I never have seen a class IV heart patient be made a ‘new heart.’ We can move him back to Class II failure or a II back to Class I but the thing about that is COQ can increase the energetics and revive the mitochondria in failing hearts; however, it is not a cure. If you take the Q away from these people as shown by Dr. Mortensen’s work (Denmark), and my work, these people will have a clinical relapse if you take them off CoQ. That’s what we used to convince the FDA to leave it on the shelves in the United States back in the 80’s because if you take it away from them, they are going to go into failure.

12. CoQ10 and Genetic disorders Prater Willi Syndrome

A. A six month old baby that hadn’t moved, been able to suckle or swallow and had an NG tube in place in the hospital for six months. We took blood and tissue samples and found a deficiency of NADH CoQ reductase in the muscle – she had a CoQ deficiency from the blood. We gave her CoQ in the NG tube and within 6 hours, she was trying to move and she had never moved anything except open her eyes. 28.25
She is now 9 years old in a public school system and she is normal.

We now have 800 of these babies –children who are taking CoQ in treatment for this low energy syndrome, failure to thrive called Prater Willi Syndrome. They are also treated with Growth Hormone which took us 13 years to get approved. We don’t know how long it will take to get CoQ approved or if we ever will. The money for the clinical trials will have to come from the NIH because drug companies are not going to put out $12-14 million a year – for clinical studies for only 50 of these babies born in the US.

Dr. Judy’s personal comment: It’s a beautiful game; I love the research; It has been my last hurrah in research and in medicine – to see a child possibly that couldn’t walk before it was 4 years old or 3 and a half, walking at 15 months – smiling and happy who can run and play like any other child, it’s a real thrill.

13. Pharmaceutical Issues

We know about the CoQ10 and statin drugs; any other interactions that interfere with pharmaceutical. The book by Ross Pelton “Pharmaceuticals that Interfere with Energy Synthesis” – we know of a hundred pharmaceuticals, especially the beta blockers, the diabetic drugs, antidepressants, cardiac drugs, statins, that interfere either with CoQ synthesis or the CoQ in the electron transport system to produce energy. This is why the most common clinical symptom complaint among people who are on a lot of drugs is, “Doctor where is my energy? I have no energy.” Often it is the drugs and the amount of drugs interfering with nutrition. And CoQ – by all means is nutrition

On the other hand, we know very little interaction between CoQ and drugs except for one thing. CoQ raises metabolism and therefore may increase metabolism of certain drugs in the body.

14. Does it have impact on detoxification pathways per se or just metabolism in general?

A. Metabolism in general…although, the liver is tremendously endowed with CoQ, when you give CoQ, the first organ in the body that uptakes it just like a sponge is the liver…the highest CoQ concentration in the body is the kidney because the kidney has a lot of mitochondria and all kidney function acts as active transport as with the heart, spleen skeletal muscles.

15. Moderator poses a philosophical question…The Statin Controversy.

Coenzyme Q10 is a vitamin-like substance that regulates and stimulates reactions in the body – essential for life and Co Q quantity for life throughout life is essential for quality. Demyelinating diseases, ataxias all have CoQ deficiencies. I’d like your opinion on the whole issue of statins and CoQ. It just blows my mind that there are so many physicians across the US so quick to prescribe a statin – and you can argue the merits and the problems with doing so – but it just seems like such basic biochemistry but they don’t realize the fact that the statins will suppress the production of CoQ10. In your opinion, why do you think it is such an issue with physicians refusing to give CoQ10 when they prescribe a statin drug? Why is this not standard of care? Is it just that they can’t get over the idea that it’s not a prescription – that it’s a vitamin-like substance – available over the counter but even if so, with all the evidence out there why isn’t there more pressure from the government and from people who construct clinical guidelines and standard of care to get physicians to realize they have to give CoQ10 when they give a statin.

A. Well I think you have to realize they are not educated that way. And there are position papers by the AMA and the International CoQ Association Julian Whitaker, MD, and a lot of physicians who have presented the FDA with position papers saying labels should be placed stating that patients with side effects related to energy with statin drugs should take CoQ. Even though Dr. Folkers brought this to the attention of Merck in the development of the statin, - back in 1991, they just won’t do it.

Merck holds two patents on statin drugs with CoQ in them but they have not released them because no one has pushed them to the fence that statin drugs put many elderly people at bad risk – we have maybe 20 million people taking statin drugs now. With the American Diabetes Assn. and other associations falling behind them for the prevention of heart attacks and stroke by the use of statin drugs, we may go to 60 million people. If we do that, we will go from 1 million cases of heart failure a year to 5 million. There goes the real cost of medicine. And it’s all due to statin drugs. Right now they are telling people it is not just for cholesterol it is for preventing the clot which gives stroke and heart attack. And it does that but I think in the long run, it will cause more problems in the elderly population.

Remember cholesterol is needed for membrane synthesis and steroid synthesis. CoQis needed for energy and is an antioxidant. Protein synthesis is neded especially in the brain. Statins inhibit HMG coA reductase and this synthesis. Therefore, we have problems when some people take statin drugs and have low energy, muscle cramps, muscle wasting, dementia, cataracts....you can see when it all comes into play.


16. Labs for CoQ levels?

A. His lab does 5-6000 labs a year in clinical research. He says it is hard to find a very good lab that you can afford to have it done. It’s expensive. Only two good methods to do it that are quite sensitive and reliable. I think it has its place in medicine but not until clinical labs and hospitals and communities have the equipment and people to do it properly. You can learn a lot from knowing CoQ levels in blood because tissue levels do parallel blood levels.

Labs say normals are in the range of .25 up to 1.4
(but .25 is what I see in a very sick individual)

He says, anything below .50 – .55 mcg/ml should be questioned as low CoQ. Except in an athlete.

Athletes have low blood levels and high tissue levels. They may have levels of .66 mcg in blood but and tissue levels of .6 where a normal individual may have .89 mcg. in blood and tissue level of heart and muscle of .34. So in the general population if the blood CoQ levels goes below .55, I would be considering some type of metabolic deficiency and disease process.

Questions from the audience:

17. What about topical in creams?

A. My personal opinion is that it still has to be single molecules – the skin is rather impermeable – if you get an abrasion, and it goes down into a pore it can be absorbed across the columnar epithelials in hair follicles and sweat glands etc so it can be absorbed through the skin if you have an opening for it but it still will have to be in a single molecule configuration. Because the cells in the pore tubules are just as selective as the gut cells are.

18 Taking statin at night – when take the CoQ10?.

A. We like to keep blood levels up – I tell patients to take in morning with breakfast - once you take it in a soft gel form, it takes 6 hours to peak in blood so if you take statins at night they are going to peak in the blood in two hours as they are water soluble and I would expect if you take Co Q every day you will have blood levels - take 100 mg. of a good formulation, your blood level will be running about 2.6 or 2.8 micrograms/ml which should be plenty to protect you from statin inhibition of HMGCoA reductase. It is the elderly person who has a CoQ blood level of .55, doesn’t take CoQ, and then with the statin, the blood level goes down to .25 or .35 and they are incapacitated. If we can get blood levels up to 1.5 pr to 2.0 we can ward off the statin effect of depression of CoQ synthesis.

19. Recommended dosages for early stage and late stage Parkinson’s.

A. A good formulation needs to raise the blood level in Parkinson patients above 3.2 – 3.4 mcg./ml – that means we take these people from .45 up to 3.5 which means we have to have good product. In the National Parkinson trials with CoQ, they used Co Q wafer by Vitaline –( I think Enzymatic Therapy owns it now.) but they were having to give 1200 mg in a dry powder CoQ just to raise the blood levels to be effective and that efficacy blood level was 3.2 – 3.4 micrograms/ml.

There are many good products in the marketplace right now where 200 mg. raise the blood level to 3.4 – 3.5 so if I have an advanced Parkinson’s patient – I blast them – 300 mg. a day for two weeks and back off to 100 mg. a day and we see fairly good response.
Early onset Parkinson’s and younger people, I can get away with 100 mg instead of 1200 mg.

20. What about the analog of Q called idebenone?

A. –I was introduced to it by people in Japan in 1982. Used mostly in central nervous dysfunction – like mitochondrial – Fredrick’s ataxia. People in the US are trying to put this into CoQ formulations – it is not really a true analog of CoQ because there are some hydroxyl rings on the benzene in the head of the CoQ molecule.

I wrote Dr. Littaru and received a reply (he’s the head of the International CoQ Association and the man I consider to be the world’s expert) … he basically said over a period of years, idebenone has not held up to CoQ – does not stimulate mitochondrial energy synthesis, oxidative phosphorlation as would real CoQ10. Recent studies coming out of Scandinavia shows that patients being treated with CoQ10 for some time for heart failure or for CNS dementia or Fredrick’s ataxia, when they switch them to the idebenone, the idebenone cannot hold them – they have a clinical relapse and go back and have a worsening of symptoms. So right now, I do not know whether it is a true analog as a replacement but what I have learned over the years is that it cannot replace the natural

21. There seems to be some concern that the CoQ is more of a pro-oxidant at lower levels

A. Well yes the late Dr. Richard Meyer at Michigan State in Lansing is responsible for that thought but later disproved that CoQ has a true antioxidant effect in its reduced form and does not have an oxidant effect in its oxidized form. We take CoQ in and we take in the oxidized form. Just as soon as it is absorbed, across the gut into the lymphatic system there seems to be reducing agents that provide the antioxidant form. In the blood, we will find that 95% of CoQ is in the reduced form and bound to the bad cholesterol LDL – it protects the LDL from oxidation and therefore prevents forming atherosclerotic plaque.

22. Patients with kidney failure?

A. The late Dr. Robert Pitts – at Columbia or Cornell - the famous renal physiologist did dog studies with CoQ way back in 1958 just one year after it was isolated because Dr. Crane sent him the samples. Kidney is highly endowed with mitochondria. The first thing we see in heart failure patients treated with CoQ even though they are maxed out on Lasix - we give them CoQ and the kidneys open up and start making urine again . You have to realize that the reabsorption of the kidney is not passive, it’s mostly all active transport; therefore, if there is a CoQ deficiency in the body it’s not going to be generalized in just one organ. Huge deficiency in the kidney will lead to renal failure. Give the kidney that is in failure CoQ and it will improve its function because it has energy to work with.

Another example Dr. Littaru in Italy has done a lot of work in kidney transplants. If we transplant a kidney from a donor that has CoQ deficiency, it has a hard time making urine and will be rejected. If we take kidney from a donor with normal CoQ level it functions beautifully. Same thing in heart transplants. They have now shown that hearts harvested from people with CoQ deficiency because they have been on a ventilator too long and so forth have a hard time cranking up.

If CoQ levels get very low in heart transplant patients, they start to have rejection. This work is done by Dr. Mortensen in Copenhagen- head of heart transplant program in that country. He uses CoQ as a bridge to transplant. Every patient that comes in to the University Hospital in Copenhagen for a transplant gets Co Q – if they can’t find a heart within three – 6 months, the CoQ has salvaged the heart and they don’t need a transplant.

23. Product Recommendations?

A. He doesn't typiclly recommend brands but says that Designs for Health soft gel product is a good one. He uses theirs and one from Cyto-med for 7 years – has high absorption [www.cyto-med.com]

He says the product he uses has high absorption that will allows him to raise the blood levels as close as he can to 3.0 – 3.5 mcg. without high dosage.

24. Let’s Discuss Water-Solubility regarding absorption

A. There is a company out there that claims they have a water-soluble CoQ - I don’t think they are pressing that as much as they used to and I know it is not water soluble because when you look in it you see crystals – crystals everywhere. It is a true colloidal suspension because of the chemical wetting agents they’ve added to it. It is a good CoQ. It has a fairly good absorption but CoQ is to big to be absorbed rapidly through a hydrophilic pore into a capillary across the gastric mucosa. If it did, we would see it in the blood in two hours peak, and we don’t normally see that. There is one product out there claiming that now but I’ve not seen that tested. In order for CoQ to be absorbed, it has to be tagged to a lipid. It is a non- polar compound. It is not water soluble as it is much too big to go through a hydrophilic pore.

When people say they have reduced the size of the CoQ molecule – it is impossible. If they reduce the size of CoQ molecule, they make coQ10 to CoQ9 to CoQ 8 to CoQ 7 etc and man cannot use any other product besides CoQ 10. On the other hand, the mouse that has CoQ9 cannot use any except CoQ 9.

I do most of the absorption studies in the world right now on CoQ 10.

Co Q10 is a slow lipid transport system absorbed through the lymphatics; we have actually measured it in lymphatics - abdominal lymphatic, thoracic lymphatic and we see it appear in abdominal lymphatics very quickly after it’s given, but it remains a slow transport system to make it to the subclavian vein and it takes 4 – 5 hours unless you exercise the individuals.

23. Toxicity and Contraindications to using CoQ10.

A. I used to be afraid that this vitamin-like substance would build up in the membrane. . The Japanese had an IV form many years ago they were using to salvage hearts after heart attacks. They drove the blood levels from .5 -.6 to up to 35 and 50 micrograms /ml of blood without any adverse side effects. I’ve used it for 27 years; my mother’s been on it for 30 years – 100 mg. a day – no adverse side effects. I’ve seen people take 1200 mg a day of a dry powder without any side effects and 600 mg. of the late Dr. Karl Folkers’ CoQ in soybean oil for two years without any side effects so right now I don’t see any adverse side effects not even within those people who take Coumadin.

What about use like liver failure?

A. We have not seen any because the liver utilizes tremendous amounts of CoQ. The work by people out of Italy shows that the cell will not uptake CoQ if it is full. Otherwise, it turns off the gate and CoQ will not enter the cell if the cell is full. What determines if the cell is full? – he said..” the number of mitochondria.” I reminded him you find it in the plasmic reticulum; in the golgi apparatus – you find it everywhere but only in the mitochondria is it found as an oxidizer – the body protects itself. What it doesn’t need is going to go out in fecal matter. Toxicity is not a problem for me any more – that’s why I give it to the babies.
CoQ's heart connection may go even farther. It is known to be a powerful antioxidant. This makes it a prime candidate for the prevention of heart attacks, because scientists now think oxidized LDL's ("bad" low-density lipoproteins) begin the process of plaque buildup that narrows arteries.
"CoQ 10 protects vitamin E, which protects LDL's from becoming oxidized. In a study published in 1997, researchers at the University of Maryland Medical Center suggest that CoQ may hamper the ability of blood platelets to clot. That would also reduce the risk of developing clogged arteries.

The End.

References:
Interview – Courtesy of Designs for Health, Inc.
2 North Road, East Windsor CT 06088

References
1. Folkers, K., P. Langsjoen, and P.H. Langsjoen, Therapy with coenzyme Q10 of patients in heart failure who are eligible or ineligible for a transplant. Biochem Biophys Res Commun,
1992. 182(1): p. 247-53.
2. Folkers, K., et al., Lovastatin decreases coenzyme Q levels in humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 1990. 87(22): p. 8931-4.
3. Digiesi, V., et al., Coenzyme Q10 in essential hypertension. Mol Aspects Med, 1994. 15(Suppl): p. s257-63.
4. Folkers, K., et al., Coenzyme Q10 increases T4/T8 ratios of lymphocytes in ordinary subjects and relevance to patients having the AIDS related complex. Biochem Biophys Res
Commun, 1991. 176(2): p. 786-91.
5. Hanioka, T., et al., Effect of topical application of coenzyme Q10 on adult periodontitis. Mol Aspects Med, 1994. 15(Suppl): p. s241-8.
6. Lockwood, K., et al., Progress on therapy of breast cancer with vitamin Q10 and the regression of metastases. Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 1995. 212(1): p. 172-7.
7. Shults CW, Oakes D, Kieburtz K, et al. Effects of coenzyme Q10 in early Parkinson disease: evidence of slowing of the functional decline. Arch Neurol. 2002 Oct;59(10):1541-50.

What do we know about the absorbation rate of the C0Q10 from iherb on this web site?

jb,

The coenzyme Q10 that I recommend in my online vitamin shop is Jarrow's Q-absorb. It is one of the "new generation" of Q10 formulations where the Q10 is completely dissolved in a lipid. Here is Jarrow's description of the product.

"Jarrow Formulas® Q-absorb™ employs a completely natural proliposome lipid soluble delivery system clinically shown to increase Co-Q10 levels 150% over baseline within two weeks and to achieve results that are at least 28% higher than are realized with dry Co-Q10 capsules. Results within 30 days are more than 200% over baseline. Q-absorb™ reduces the amount of supplemental Co-Q10 required to raise blood levels and it reduces the time required to see effects."

Even though dry powder formulations are substantially less expensive I personally believe that they are largely a waste of money.

Hans

Jackie,

I seem to remember a post by you that said COQ10 is good for Lupus. Can you verify if I am remembering correctly, I am unable to find this when I do a search. Also, if I am reading this post correctly, it is safe to take COQ10 with Coumadin. Is that true? Thanks for your feedback.

Thanks,
Jean

Jackie, fantastic job as usual! I have saved this to a file, (I don't read large documents well on line), will print it on my high speed printer at work and digest it slowly as I read. I have a friend who has some heart issues and never heard of CoQ10 and because of me talking with her, she is now taking it. I want to share this with her also. Thanks again for your hard work! Sharon

Thanks Hans - I seem to recall reading that the really good powders are fairly costly but the side benefit, cost-wise, they work out to be more economical than the encapsulations because of less handling. This was reported a few years back so perhaps the costs have come down since that time. Once again, it all depends on who is supplying the product and the quality that goes into the basic material. I've never used the powder so I have no experience with efficacy one way or the other.

Jackie

Jeanne - I recently reported that people who eliminate gluten proteins have relief from lupus. I don't recall commenting on lupus and CoQ.

And yes, Dr. Judy says he see no problems with CoQ and coumadin.

I took it when I was on Coumadin and because the post ablation protocol at the time was to also take a statin, I was taking high doses to compensate for the muscle pain and weakness I had from the statins.

Jackie

Thanks to all!

Wow - great job, Jackie! Thanks for this treasure trove of information - like Sharon I've downloaded this for ease of reading and portability.
I found it both fascinating and educational to read how we absorb this nutrient. You have furthered my appreciation of this amazing human body and it's Creator yet again!
much appreciated,
Emmie

Jackie,

I still can't find the post I am looking for when you reported that people who eliminate gluten proteins have received relief from lupus. Would you explain that again if it is not too lengthy or direct me to the correct post?

I meant to download and print the information when I read it. This just proves that we shouldn't procastrinate too long, especially on this borad because the information gets pushed further and furthery away. I've had Lupus several years, and AFIB for a few months and the folks on this board are helping me learn that I can approadh a remedy for both problems just by listening to and applying the comments made by this boad.

Thanks again Jackie, if you can locate the information I am looking for.

Jean

Jean, let me show you how i found the post where Jackie was talking about gluten and lupus.

Click on Search in the green strip at the top of the posts

Scroll down a little to see the search box, and type lupus into it, and click Search

A page of links to posts will appear. In it, the first few will be part of this thread we are reading right now, but after that you will see one called " Re: Jury Is Still Out on Gluten, the Latest Dietary Villain". That one and the next are the posts you want to read, i think.

PeggyM

Thanks PeggyM,

I have an appointment and don't have time to look for it right now, but will sure look again when I get home.

Everyone,

Please excuse all the typos in my previous post. It was early in the morning and guess I wasn't awake enough to type.

Love this board!
Jean

Peggy - thanks....how did you get those lines to show up in your post?

Jackie

Does anybody know how come my post above appears to have a line drawn thru all the words after "post"? I do not have a clue how come they are there.
PeggyM

Gremlins, Peggy.

Gremlins, agreed. This computer is infested.
PeggyM