European scientists have shown that CoQ10 could halve the rates of death from heart failure, reports food-e-news.
Research carried out by Professor Svend Aage Mortensen and his team report that CoQ10, an antioxidant that humans synthesise in the body, is involved in cellular-energy production. CoQ10 levels are decreased in the heart muscle of patients with heart failure, with the deficiency becoming more pronounced as heart failure severity worsens. When statins are given to patients with heart failure the effect is to block production of vital CoQ10.
Mortensen and his team gave 420 patients with severe heart failure, either CoQ10 or a placebo and monitored them over two years. They found that within the two years 29 (14%) patients receiving CoQ10 experienced a major adverse cardiovascular event compared to 55 (25 percent) of the patients who were given the placebo. CoQ10 also lowered the risk of dying from all causes in half; in the CoQ10 group, 18 (9 percent) patients died compared to 36 (17 percent) in the placebo group.
The research team concluded: “Supplementation with CoQ10, which is a natural and safe substance, corrects a deficiency in the body and blocks the vicious metabolic cycle in chronic heart failure called the energy starved heart.”
