Coenzyme Q10
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CoQ10 appears to help ignite the cellular power stations that are necessary to maintain healthy cells. In other words, CoQ10 works by enhancing energy at the cellualer level. CoQ10 is a natural substance that is produced by your body. It's highly concentrated in heart muscle cells, which need all the energy they can get to keep your heart pumping over one hundred thoudand times per day. CoQ10 is an immune system booster and antioxidant that helps you to avoid getting cancer, and may be helpful in treating it. It is available in any vitamin store.
CoEnzyme Q10 - The Other Vitamin
The startling fact is that CoEnzyme Q10 is a vitamin essential to our very lives, yet very few of us have ever heard about it until recently. Discovered in 1957 by Dr. Fred Crane at the University of Wisconsin, CoEnzyme Q10 is a nutrient necessary to the functioning of every cell in our bodies. Our bodies could not survive without CoEnzyme Q10. If body levels start dropping, so does our general health. Scientists have estimated that once body levels of CoQ10 drop below the 25% deficiency levels, many health problems begin to flourish, including high blood pressure, heart attacks, angina, immune system depression, periodontal problems, lack of energy, weight gain, and even early death! A 75% drop in CoQ10 levels is fatal.
Benefits
Coenzyme Q10™ is found in every cell in the human body and is key to the process that produces 95% of the energy consumed at the cellular level.
It participates in this important role by acting as part of another class of substances, known as enzymes. These important compounds are proteins found in plants, animals, humans - ALL living things. Their role is to facilitate, to act as a catalysts, in countless chemical reactions that take place in the human body. In essence, they make reactions happen without themselves being consumed in the reaction. When calcium is turned into bone, and enzyme makes the reaction possible, but the enzyme itself does not end up becoming part of the bone. When we digest our food, when we flex a muscle, when our heart beats, in some way an enzyme is playing a key role.
Enzymes consist of two parts, a protein portion made up of one of a variety of amino acids, and a cofactor portion that is either a mineral (like calcium, magnesium, or zinc) or a vitamin, the vitamin is called a coenzyme.
Coenzyme Q10 is a naturally occurring molecule that has a structure similar to vitamin K.
As part of an enzyme, it acts as a catalyst in the vital biochemical pathway that leads to cellular energy production.
Specifically, every cell must have a special substance known as ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which provides all the cell's energy. The energy obtained from the food we eat is used to make this fuel for the cells, and when a cell needs energy, it breaks the bonds that hold the ATP molecule together. When this chemical bond is broken, it releases energy equivalent to approx. 7,000 calories, more than twice the energy a person consumes in an entire day. However, the body, at any given time, only stores enough ATP to sustain vigorous activity for 5 - 8 minutes. Thus, ATP must be produced constantly, and for this ATP to be produced, there must be a ready supply of CoQ10.
This explains why, in particular, COQ10 is found in high concentrations in muscle cells and especially in the muscles that form the heart - because the heart is constantly in motion, it creates a great demand for energy, and at the same time, a need for the CoQ10 to create it.
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Preventative Value of CoEnzyme Q10 (CoQ10)
Numerous studies have shown that pre-treatment with CoQ10 helps heart patients come through open heart surgeries in better health and with shorter recovery times than those who have not been so treated. This is because CoQ10 possesses the ability to protect the heart during periods of aschemia, or oxygen deprivation. Miraculously, CoQ10 has helped cardiomyopathy patients to live well beyond their usual life expectancies! Perhaps more importantly, supplementation with CoQ10 has a preventative effect--preventative against lack of oxygen, poor Vitamin and mineral supplementation, and against certain heart medications. Yes, heart medications. Strange as it may seem, certain heart medications that are prescribed to reduce cholesterol levels actually block the production of CoQ10!
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How Does CoQ10 Work?
CoEnzyme Q10 is also known as ubiquinone, a member of the quinone cyclic compounds such as Vitamins E and K. CoQ10 can supply or remove oxygen from biologically active molecules. Every cell in your body contains many intercellular components called mitochondria, which produce 95% of the total energy of the body. CoQ10 is an integral part of the membranes of the mitochondria where it is involved in the production of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the basic energy molecules of the cell. Supplementing CoQ10 aids in the body's cellular respiration and energy production; it's that simple.
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Why Haven't I Heard Of CoQ10?
The answer to this question should probably be posted front and center on our home page. The answer is there's no money to be made from unpatentable substances. No money, no promotion.
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The institute for Biomedical Research, University of Texas at Austin gave mice pretreatment of Coenzyme Q10 before Adriamycin. The control groups had only a 36 and 42 percent survival rate. The Coenzyme Q10 groups had an 80 and 86 percent survival rate.
A Dr. Carl Folkers is quoted as discussing a 49-year old lung cancer patient who at that time had been taking CoQ10 supplements for five years and was able to avoid the heart problems associated with long-term Adriamycin use. After careful manipulation, it was discovered that maximum efficiency in heart output came with 60 mg of CoQ10, so he was given 100 mg to be on the safe side. At the time of the report the man was well and still in remission. Bliznakow, Emile, and Hunt, Gerald, "The Miracle Nutrient Coenzyme Q10, pages 132-139, Banam Books, New York.
Thirty-two women with metastatic Breast Cancer received 90 mg of CoQ10, along with Vitamin C, E, betacarotene, and essential fatty acids, daily. In six cases the tumor became smaller. During the 18 month treatment period, none of the patients died (the expected number of deaths was four), and none showed signs of further distant metastases.
In another report, two women with metastatic Breast Cancer received 390 mg per day of CoQ10. One of the patients was a 44-year-old woman with numerous liver metastases. After treatment for 11 months with CoQ10, all of the liver metastases had disappeared and the patient was reported to be in good health
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