Ubiquinol vs CoQ10
Ubiquinol is the form your body actually uses to achieve its benefits. Substantial research shows that if you are over 25, this reduced form is superior for your health in a number of ways. You should take ubiquinol every day for its superior bioavailability and far-ranging health benefits.
If you’re under 25 years old, your body is capable of converting CoQ10 to the reduced form fairly well and the additional expense of purchasing the reduced form is unnecessary. However, if you’re older, your body becomes increasingly challenged to convert the oxidized CoQ10 to ubiquinol.
It occurred to me in the interview that the age was really similar to the decrease in growth hormone and Dr. Barry agreed that its reduction most likely follows a similar age related graph, so I’ve included the age reduction graph for growth hormone below.
Aside from aging, numerous other factors can also impact this conversion process, including:
- Increased metabolic demand
- Oxidative stress
- Insufficient dietary CoQ10 intake
- Deficiency of factors required for biosynthesis and ubiquinol conversion
- Potential effects from illness and disease
- Age-related changes in your genes
If you’re over 40, I would strongly recommend taking ubiquinol instead of CoQ10 as it’s far more effectively absorbed by your body. In every study conducted so far, ubiquinol has been shown to be far more bioavailable than the non-reduced form (CoQ10).
How Ubiquinol Can Help Prevent Statin-Induced Myalgia
Ubiquinol has only been commercially available for about six years, but already there are well over 100 studies demonstrating its many health benefits. One area of intense research is ubiquinol’s effect on statin-induced myalgia. When you take a statin drug, it’s important to understand that you:
- Deplete your body of the primary energy source for your heart – namely CoQ10
- Diminish the antioxidant protection for the various lipids in your blood, which are required for normal metabolism
Ubiquinol is a critical component of cellular respiration and production of ATP. When you consider that your heart is the most energy-demanding organ in your body, you can surmise how potentially devastating it can be to deplete your body’s main source of cellular energy! So while one of statins’ claims to fame is to ward off heart disease, you’re actually increasing your risk when you deplete your body of CoQ10.
Hence, if you’re on a statin, you MUST take supplemental CoQ10 – ideally in the form of ubiquinol – to counteract the damage being inflicted by the drug itself.
The other part most people don’t realize is that CoQ10 and ubiquinol are lipid-soluble materials biosynthesized in your blood. The carrier is the blood lipid cholesterol. The ubiquinol actually keeps your LDL (often referred to as the “bad” cholesterol) reduced, as it’s an exceptionally potent antioxidant.
Reduced LDL cholesterol isn’t bad cholesterol at all. Only the oxidized version will cause a problem. So by reducing CoQ10 production in your body, you’re also removing the mechanism that keeps your LDL cholesterol from doing harm in your body.
There’s reason to believe ubiquinol could actually be a superior alternative to statins to control cholesterol and protect against heart disease. Unfortunately, it may take a while before anyone will admit its therapeutic powers.
This is because it would have to be proven in formal clinical trials, and then you could be assured of a fight by the pharmaceutical companies.
Lipitor alone is responsible for nearly one-fifth of Pfizer’s annual revenue! Ubiquinol could not produce such profits, and Big Pharma would surely not surrender a cash cow as statins to a simple supplement without making a huge fuss. Still, there’s highly compelling evidence to consider ubiquinol, whether you’re taking a statin drug or not – and perhaps even in lieu of one.
The ‘Anti-Aging’ Benefits of Ubiquinol
Again, ubiquinol is a critical component for the production of energy in every aerobic cellular system, and if you take that away, you considerably compromise mitochondrial function. This affects more than just your heart. In addition to cardiovascular disease, mitochondrial dysfunction has become increasingly recognized as being directly associated with the aging process itself, including many age-related diseases
Many anti-aging experts believe optimizing your mitochondria is one of the most powerful strategies you can have to extend your life, and there is certainly overwhelming animal studies that support this view.
Ubiquinol is also important for cellular protection. As mentioned earlier, ubiquinol is one of the strongest lipid-soluble antioxidants known that is produced within your own body. A number of studies published over the past decade have shown that our oxidative state significantly rises with age, even in healthy individuals. Metabolism is a complex affair, and there are few if any magic bullets to address the degeneration that comes with aging. That said, one very important component of that is ubiquinol, as it’s required for the production of cellular energy, and serves an important role in cellular protection.
Ubiquinol for Other Chronic Diseases
Ubiquinol is also being studied for a number of other chronic and even genetic diseases such as Down Syndrome. A hallmark of Down Syndrome is a high oxidative state. Studies conducted at a children’s hospital in Cincinnati found that ubiquinol was able to bring 80 percent of children with Down’s back to normal oxidative levels within a month or so. This did not occur with conventional CoQ10, nor any other therapeutic antioxidant supplements.
Other studies have shown ubiquinol has a positive effect on:
- Inflammatory processes
- Septic shock (which is also associated with mitochondrial dysfunction)
- Cardiac arrest recovery
- Stroke recovery
- Periodontal disease (including gingivitis and dry mouth)
Source: Mercola.com