Can you get boundless energy by taking a single supplement?
Of course not! You need to be doing all the things I've talked about in Never Be Sick Again or Never Be Fat Again. A good diet, eliminating or greatly reducing toxins, a comprehensive supplement program, exercise, good sleep, good attitude, etc.
But if you're already proactive about your health and still don't have the energy you'd like, try including CoQ10 in your supplement program. Or if it's already a part of your program, try taking more.
CoQ10 is a vitamin-like molecule made by the body and used by each one of our trillions of cells to create energy. In fact, energy cannot be made without it. As we age, we make less and less, so that by age 80, most of us make about half of what we made at age 20. And factors like extreme physical exertion, stress, toxicity, hormone imbalances, certain drugs, and lack of nutrients can deplete it further.
People with specific health challenges like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, allergic asthma, migraines, neurological diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, periodontal disease and tinnitus are all apt to be low on CoQ10. Whether this is a cause or a result of these diseases, restoring optimal levels of CoQ10 has helped to alleviate symptoms and even cure them.
Just as an experiment, I have tried doing without my CoQ10 several times. This experiment doesn't last very long! I rapidly discover that CoQ10 makes a clear and obvious difference in my energy levels, and I need high energy to put in the 16-hour plus days I generally work. I could not keep up my usual pace without CoQ10.
So I strongly suggest you give it a try, and even if CoQ10 is already in your supplement program, if you're lacking in energy, try taking more. I've suggested doubling CoQ10 intake to a number of people who were already taking anywhere from 100 to 180 mg per day but still feeling fatigued. Most of the time, this has made a significant improvement in their energy levels.
I talk a lot about cells -- about how the one cause of disease is malfunctioning cells, and how we can cure any disease by restoring healthy function to our cells
Every one of our cells contains energy factories called mitochondria. If we're going to be healthy, all our mitochondria have to be operating at peak efficiency, feeding us a constant supply of energy. CoQ10 helps them do just that.
The mitochondria are like the cylinders in a car, where gasoline and oxygen combine to create combustion, the force that moves the pistons. CoQ10 is like the spark plug that provides the spark for the engine's ignition.
If CoQ10 levels drop 25% below normal, cells begin to die. This means muscles weaken, and nowhere is this more dangerous than in our heart muscle.
Deficiencies of CoQ10 have been found in all kinds of cardiovascular diseases, and supplementation with CoQ10 has often led to dramatic improvements . . . a patient told he would die without a pacemaker began taking CoQ10 and didn't need the pacemaker anymore . . . CoQ10 supplementation has led to reductions in blood pressure, triglycerides, angina, and arrhythmias. It has improved exercise tolerance, and has been especially successful in treating congestive heart failure.
Anyone dealing with heart disease should be taking a good amount of CoQ10 -- 200 to 300 mg a day is not uncommon, and sometimes more.
It is especially important for anyone taking statin drugs (for cholesterol) to supplement with CoQ10 because these drugs interfere with an enzyme that's needed to produce both cholesterol and CoQ10.
At very high doses, CoQ10 may have anti-coagulant effects, so if you are taking Coumadin, it is important to have your physician monitor this.
CoQ10 is also an Antioxidant . . . preventing cancer and aging
As the mitochondria oxidize food to create energy, free radicals are produced that can damage DNA (leading to cancer), as well as damage body fat and proteins, leading to aging and all kinds of disease.
Fortunately, CoQ10 is a very powerful antioxidant. It sits in cell and mitochondrial membranes along with Vitamin E. Together, they form an effective partnership to prevent free radical oxidation.
Some remarkable research has been done using CoQ10 to treat breast cancer. In additional to conventional treatment and surgery, a group of women was given 90 mg of CoQ10 a day, along with other nutrients, and in about 20% of them there was partial tumor regression.
But the really interesting results began when one woman took it upon herself to increase her dosage to 390 mg a day. In two months her tumor had disappeared. After her success, another woman decided to increase her daily dose to 300 mg. Her tumor also disappeared as well as distant metastases.
What accounts for these results? Increasing antioxidant status, no doubt, was a factor. However it is also known that CoQ10 boosts immunity, probably by increasing cellular energy.
CoQ10 Confusion
. . . which form is really the best?
As news of CoQ10's potential to treat and reverse disease has gotten around,
everyone seems to be hopping on the bandwagon to manufacture an enormous array of CoQ10 products.
Most of the manufacturers claim that their CoQ10 is anywhere from 2 to 4 times more effective/absorbable "than regular CoQ10." Here is an example. I just got an email advertising a form of CoQ10 called "ubiquinol." The ad said the their ubiquinol CoQ10 absorbs up to 8 times better than conventional CoQ10. This is a true statement, but it is still not what you want to buy. This claim is bogus and misleading because the comparison is being made against forms of CoQ10 that we know don't work! Of course theirs is better by comparison! The problem is it is possible to make something far better, so their's is not so good after all.
Some CoQ10 products are in powder form. These are not well absorbed. Others are dissolved in oil. This is a better approach. Other products have been micellized (emulsified). This approach is still better, but then there are different ways to micellize, some better than others.
Here is the bottom line. You need to start out with a very pure CoQ10. It needs to be mixed with the right oil for maximum absorption, micellized in the right way and energized with co-factors that help it get absorbed not only into the bloodstream, but by the cells and by the mitochondria within the cells.
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sources of high quality CoQ10 - BeyondHealth and Perque
