Two new studies have shown how the energy-enhancing nutrient, coenzyme Q10, can make the human heart much stronger - even in patients with heart failure.

It can hardly come as a surprise that coenzyme Q10, a widely used energy-enhancing supplement, makes you feel more alert. What is amazing is that two new studies show that it can also give the heart muscle significantly more power. One study was carried out on a normal healthy group of elderly people, while the other study was conducted on heart failure patients. In both studies the heart muscles of the Q10-treated participants obtained significantly more contractile strength - that it its ability to contract - and the number of people who died of cardiovascular complications was reduced by over 50%.

Researchers in central Sweden carried out a most interesting four-year study that involved healthy elderly people. The researchers tested the effects of a daily supplementation of the diet with a combination of a Coenzyme Q10 preparation and a selenium preparation.

Great reduction in cardiovascular deaths

The results of the study were published in 2012 in the International Journal of Cardiology by Professor Urban Alehagen and his team of researchers from the University Hospital in Linköping. The researchers reported, first of all, that there had been a 53% relative reduction in cardiovascular deaths in the treatment group.

Better echocardiograms

Secondly, they reported that the elderly people receiving the active ingredients instead of placebo had had statistically significantly better echocardiograms (meaning better heart function) and statistically significantly lower levels of a peptide in their blood plasma that is a marker for worsening heart failure.

More and more doctors are prescribing more and more statins. Statins do their work by blocking the activity in the liver of the enzyme HMG-CoA, an enzyme that facilitates the synthesis of cholesterol.

Statins and Q10 - same biological pathway

Now we know, from several human and animal studies, that taking statins also inhibits an important step in the body's production of Coenzyme Q10. Dr. Richard Deichmann has summarized the studies that show that CoQ10 deficiency states can result from taking statins.

Taking statins has been associated with reduced levels of CoQ10 in blood serum and in muscle tissue. For example, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology has shown that treatment with a statin preparation in a moderate dosage resulted in significantly reduced plasma levels of CoQ10.

Yes, statins are effective at lowering cholesterol levels. There is little doubt about that. But, in common with most prescription medications, statins do have side effects.

The Q-SYMBIO Study

Researchers in nine countries led by the , enrolled 420 patients in a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind clinical trial in which half of the patients were given a 100 mg capsule of Myoqinon Q10, three times daily, and half of the patients were given a placebo capsule, also three times daily.

The patients were all chronic heart failure patients classified as level III (with a marked limitation of physical activity) or level IV (with an inability to carry on any physical activity) in the New York Heart Association's classification scheme.

The age of the patients in years ranged from 50 to 74 years. Nearly all of the of the patients in the study were receiving and continued to receive the standard heart failure medications: angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers and beta-blockers.