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Health & Fitness

Are you losing precious CoQ10? Are you taking Statin drugs?

Statin Drugs and CoQ10

The anti-oxidant CoQ10 plays an important role in the body's energy-producing process and in protecting cardiovascular health. In fact, CoQ10 is vital to sustaining life. While it is a conditionally essential nutrient with properties similar to vitamins, it isn't classified as such due to its natural production in the body. This production slows down after age 21, however, and your CoQ10 level could be reduced by up to 50% by age 80. Oh-oh...

Further decreases can be caused by a poor diet (which slows production) and CoQ10-depleting drugs such as:

  • Statins prescribed for lowering cholesterol (e.g., lovastatin, simvastatin)
  • Diabetes drugs 
  • Antidepressant drugs
  • Beta-blocker drugs 
  • Diuretic drugs

Although CoQ10 is found in many foods, the estimated dietary intake for adults is less than 5 mg to 10 mg per day, which is well below most recommendations in a diagnosed deficiency. Additionally, CoQ10's molecular weight and other properties make absorption of dietary CoQ10 slow and limited. Correction of a deficiency, therefore, requires supplementation with higher levels than are available in the diet.

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Scientific studies have shown that CoQ10 may be recommended as preventive therapy or as a safe and effective complement to conventional therapy for cardiovascular disease. In fact, many researchers now believe that patients on statin therapy should also take supplemental CoQ10. CoQ10 supplementation has also been shown to positively influence physical activity, energy, and quality of life.

Even in supplement form, the absorption of CoQ10 may be limited. Quality is also a concern for this difficult-to-formulate supplement due to its sensitivities to changes in light, moisture, and acidity. Some over-the-counter supplements may offer lower quality materials or fail to meet label claims. In other words, when you are buying a supplement as important to your health as CoQ10, don't be cheap and buy the Stop & Shop brand...remember, you get what you pay for.

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New technology and delivery methods may help improve the absorption potential of CoQ10 supplements. An advanced CoQ10 processing technology called "nanomicellization" delivers a better solution for CoQ10 supplementation that one preliminary study suggests may increase absorption by 54% over the industry standard manufacturing process for CoQ10 supplements. That means it takes less to do more. Forgive me for not getting into the Ubiquinol v. Ubiquinone debate at this time, if you're interested, feel free to Google the two terms for futher clarification. Needless to say, Ubiquinol, with the nol suffix, is considered the most bio-available and readily absorbable form of CoQ10.

CoQ10 may be the most important supplement you ever take, especially if you are using statin drugs for a heart related issue.

Please visit us at: Innovative Nutrition, 206 Rt. 25A, East Setauket, NY or, on the web at: www.vibranthealthcompany.net

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