Women’s Health and the Benefits of CoQ10

10/26/2005 - Historically, heart disease was thought of as a predominantly male disease. Today, heart disease has become an equal opportunity killer, affecting women’s health no differently than men. Eating habits and lifestyles are affecting women’s health just like that of their less-healthy husbands, bringing on heart diseases virtually at the same rate as men. In fact, heart disease is the number one women’s health issue for women over 65 living in developed countries.

Heart disease was considered to be a “man’s health disease” because stress and heart disease seemed to be linked, and because men were considered the primary breadwinners, they were thought to have more stress in their lives. In recent years however, women’s health issues have started catching up with the men’s in rates of heart disease.

Cardio-Protective Oestrogen for Women’s Health

Before menopause, the most prevalent cause of mortality in women is cancer, while for the same age group of men, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the most prevalent. However, after menopause the prevalence of CVD and mortality increase sharply in women and the figures for men and women begin to converge by the age of 60. And in general, women have poorer survival rates after a myocardial infarct.

This resistance to CVD in women prior to menopause has been attributed to the cardio-protective actions of oestrogen. Oestrogen is protective of a women’s heart by providing an excellent cholesterol profile, keeping the HDL (beneficial) cholesterol up and reducing the LDL cholesterol (harmful) cholesterol. However, if a woman’s LDL is high and HDL is low, her health risk of developing a cardiac event is greater.

Blood cholesterol in healthy women tends to rise sharply after the age of 40 and continues until age 60, which ties in with the menopausal and post-menopausal periods. Today, one in four women has blood cholesterol levels that pose a risk for heart disease. Diabetic women are at greater risk for coronary artery disease (CAD) than diabetic men.

Nutrient for Women’s Heart Health

A woman’s heart is the hardest working organ as it beats approximately 100,000 times a day. None of these beats could happen without energy. Therefore, the heart requires a tremendous amount of continuous energy. At the cell level, energy is produced in the mitochondria and the heart being the hardest working organ is very rich in energy-producing mitochondria (up to 5,000 per cell), more than what is found in any other tissue. The more mitochondria the cell contains, the more energy it can produce.

Since CoQ10 is vital for a healthy woman’s energy production in the mitochondria, it is not surprising that the heart contains many times more CoQ10 than any other organ in the body. There has been a great deal of research performed on CoQ10, but the most dramatic results have been achieved in the field of cardiology.

In 1972, Dr Karl Folkers and Dr Gian Paolo Littarru demonstrated that people with heart disease are often deficient in CoQ10. The deficient levels of CoQ10 have been established most clearly in congestive heart failure and cardiomyopathy, which are diseases that involve the heart muscle itself.

When the heart muscle becomes weak, it is not able to pump all the blood it receives from the body. Also, when the heart muscle weakens, it places an increased demand in the amount of nutrients the heart cells need to create energy. One of the most important nutrients is CoQ10. With CoQ10 supplementation, the weakened heart muscle is simply able to replenish its stores of CoQ10. This allows the heart muscle to generate more energy and compensate for its weakened state.

The health benefits of CoQ10 for the heart are already now well accepted among physicians today. Many beneficial studies show a consistent improvement of heart function in patients taking CoQ10. It is important to note that CoQ10 is used in support of conventional treatments and is not a replacement for therapy.

CoQ10, A Powerful Antioxidant

Our cells use oxygen to produce energy. Without oxygen, we cannot make energy. Yet, in the process of making energy, free radicals are created as by-products. Free radicals are also formed in the body when you inhale smog, cigarette smoke, consume polluted water and drugs. Exercise, exposure to sunlight, illnesses, and high blood sugar can also contribute to the production of free radicals.

However, we are not totally defenseless against free radicals. We have our own “army” to defend against free radicals and they are called antioxidants. Antioxidants are nutrients that neutralize free radicals and render them harmless. The antioxidants most of us are familiar with are vitamins A, C, E.

There are however, many more antioxidants that exist. According to studies, CoQ10 is a powerful antioxidant. In fact, we now know that CoQ10 has an amazing free radical quenching ability (50 times greater than vitamin E).

Researchers have found that not all cholesterols are bad. Cholesterol can be divided generally into HDL-high density lipoprotein (good cholesterol) and LDL-low density lipoprotein (bad cholesterol). The higher the HDL levels in the blood, the better. Native LDL is not really bad but becomes a problem only when it is oxidized by free radicals. It is the oxidized LDL that builds up in our arteries and helps to develop the plaque which is characteristic of hardening of arteries.

In the blood stream, CoQ10 is transported by LDL. CoQ10 protects LDL from being oxidized by free radicals. Studies have found that when more CoQ10 is contained in LDL-cholesterol, the less susceptible it is to oxidation and the less likely it is to form artery-clogging plague.
The traditional form of CoQ10 supplements is not easily absorbed by the body. The problem is that the particle size of CoQ10 is very large, insoluble in water and poorly soluble in lipids, which make it hard for the body to absorb. What is not absorbed into the blood stream cannot be utilized by the body.

However, there’s a technology that can reduce the particle size of CoQ10 from 25-70 microns to less than 0.3 microns. As a general rule, the smaller the particle size, the better the absorption. The particle size of CoQ10 at 0.3 microns is even smaller than bacteria and hence makes it easily absorbed into the bloodstream. In a study published in 1998, it was found that the bioavailability of this form of CoQ10 was more than three times that of any other form.

The latest women’s health study published in the New Zealand Medical Journal (Oct 2004) once again confirmed that this form of CoQ10 was found to have more than three times better absorption compared to some other types of CoQ10.

Women’s Health References:

Littarru GP: Energy and Defense. Roma, Casa Editrice Scientifica Internazionale. 1995; 91. ISBN 88-86062-24-9.

Chopra RK, Goldman R, et al. Relative bioavailability of coenzyme Q10 formulations in human subjects. Int J Vit Nutr Res 1998;68:109-113

http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/117-1203/1108/content.pdf

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