In human beings, Coenzyme Q10 is the most common occurring form
of coenzyme Q, needed by and found in every cell in the body.
Perhaps its primary function is to ensure the production of
adequate energy within the cell mitochondria, but coenzyme Q10
is also a powerful anti-oxidant, and is particularly important
because it is the only fat-soluble anti-oxidant which can be
manufactured within the body. Like other fat-soluble
anti-oxidants, such as vitamin E, coenxyme Q10 is vital for the
protection of fatty structures within cells from the damage and
degeneration which may be caused by oxidative reactions and free
radical activity.

But the anti-oxidant role of coenzyme Q10 doesn't end there.
It's also important in stimulating the anti-oxidant activity of
vitamin E, and the two nutrients are together vital for
preventing the oxidation of Low Density Lipids (LDLs), the blood
fats better known as "bad cholesterol" , widely recognised as one
of the key risk factors for heart disease, still the major cause
of premature death in the Western world.

Blood levels of coenzyme Q10 are lower than those of the other
vital anti-oxidants, vitamins C and E, but the nutrient is found
in greater concentrations both in muscles and the major organs
of the body; the liver, kidneys, brain and especially the heart.
But the extent to which levels of coenzyme Q10 within this organ
are correlated with disease remains a matter of dispute.
Orthodox medicine is predictably cautious and maintains that
more research is required before any definitive statement of
coenzyme Q10's benefits can be made.

Nutritional therapists, however, argue that patients with heart
disease have consistently been shown to have substantially lower
levels of coenzyme Q10 in their hearts than their healthy
counterparts. It is also clear that supplementation with
coenzyme Q10 has been effective in increasing tissue
concentrations of the nutrients in such patients. Logically
enough, conclude the nutritional practitioners, it follows that
supplementation should improve outcomes for heart patients, and
some reported research with daily doses of 100mg does indeed
suggest significant benefits, particularly where problems seem
to lie in the heart muscle itself.

It is particularly important to note that levels of coenzyme
Q10 in the hearts of older individual are significantly lower
than those of younger people, as the body's production of the
nutrient declines markedly from around the age of forty.
Experiments on older rats have shown that supplementation with
coenzyme Q10 can significantly increase concentrations, with
improved heart protection in consequence, but conventional
medicine still declines to accept the obvious analogy with
regard to human health.

Likewise, there is controversy surrounding the potential
benefits of the anti-oxidant activity of coenzyme Q10 in
preventing atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, a
major precursor of deadly heart disease. What is clear, however,
is that coenzyme Q10 is effective in reducing the oxidation of
dangerous LDL cholesterol, which is a known risk factor for the
development of atherosclerosis. It should perhaps be no
surprise, therefore, that coenzyme Q10 supplements have been
shown to retard the development of this condition in small
animal experiments. But whilst admitting that these results are
encouraging and exciting, orthodox medical opinion continues to
insist that more research is necessary before a definitive
statement of the benefits of coenzyme Q10 for human health can
be made. To the interested layman, however, there seems little
reason to suppose that the results of the animal experiments
would not also be reflected in humans. And certainly this is the
conclusion which many nutritional practitioners have reached;
regularly recommending doses of anything up to 400 mg of
coenzyme Q10 a day.

The case for supplementation with coenzyme Q10 for sufferers
from atherosclerosis and other heart conditions has been
strengthened by recent research showing that one of the side
effects of the popular statin drugs commonly prescribed in these
circumstances is to reduce blood levels of coenzyme Q10.
Conventional medicine does not accept that this reduction will
necessarily have adverse consequences, but if it is accepted
that coenzyme Q10 has the benefits detailed above, the
conclusion seems clear enough. This is not of course to suggest
that statin drugs should not be taken, but that it may well be
wise to supplement with coenzyme Q10 at the same time.

As noted above, the other major factor reducing concentrations
of coenzyme Q10 in blood and tissue is simply the ageing of the
organism itself, as the body's ability to synthesize coenzyme
Q10 declines dramatically in the later years of life. Given the
importance of the nutrient as an anti-oxidant, this is of
particular concern in the context of the onset of degenerative
diseases. It seems that coenzyme Q10's fundamental role in the
production of energy may make it important as a fat burner,
thereby helping in the battle against obesity and related
conditions such as diabetes.

Nutritional practitioners even claim that the anti-oxidant and
energy producing qualities of coenzyme Q10 make supplementation
with the nutrient an important weapon in the fight against
cancer, perhaps the ultimate degenerative disease.

But like all the body's nutrients, coenzyme Q10 functions best
in the presence of adequate amounts of all the others; and it is
particularly important to ensure, through supplementation if
necessary an abundant supply of the other vital anti-oxidants,
vitamins C and E.