Power up your cells

and an elderly person is the varied levels of CoQ10 in their bodies – ageing depletes natural CoQ10 levels and produces more free radicals.

Ageing is not the only factor that causes the body to be short of CoQ10. Stress and exercise as well as drug interactions also deplete this energy nutrient.

Do you know that commonly prescribed medications deplete CoQ10? Blood-pressure lowering drugs (beta-blockers) and cholesterol-lowering drugs (statins) block the production of CoQ10.

In fact, statins can reduce blood levels of CoQ10 by up to 40%.

Other drugs that reduce CoQ10 levels in the body include hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and oral contraceptives. Patients on these types of drugs may find themselves tired, irritable, unable to handle stress well and aggressive.

Since it is difficult to obtain adequate CoQ10 levels from the diet, supplementation can be useful. With so many CoQ10 formulations out there, it is not unusual for consumers to be confused over which to choose.

CoQ10 comes in two forms – ubiquinone and ubiquinol. Ubiquinone is more common and widely known because it is the form most commonly sold commercially.

Ubiquinol has only been commercially available for about seven years, but there are already more than a hundred studies demonstrating its health benefits.

People have been taking CoQ10 supplements to improve their heart health for decades, but most probably do not realise that Ubiquinol is a better form of CoQ10.

Ubiquinol is the active, antioxidant form of CoQ10 that is ready for immediate use by the body. Conventional CoQ10 supplements, however, use the inactive form of Coenzyme Q10 called ubiquinone.

Both ubiquinol and CoQ10 are essential nutrients found in every cell of your body. Ubiquinol is the fully reduced state or the un-oxidised form of coenzyme Q10, which the human body can easily use for energy.

Ubiquinol in its readily available state also provides greater antioxidant levels protecting cells from free radical damage. Your body must first convert CoQ10 into ubiquinol to use its full antioxidant properties, which, as we age, becomes more difficult for our bodies to do.

When compared to conventional CoQ10, ubiquinol is easier to absorb into our systems, fully utilising its antioxidant protection. In a healthy adult, 95% or more of the total CoQ10 in the body is in the ubiquinol form.

How does ubiquinol works?

There are molecules in your system with unpaired electrons called free radicals. These free radicals are unstable and search out cells in your body to steal an electron.

This causes damage to the cell and is called oxidation. Antioxidants have extra electrons that they donate to free radicals to neutralise them. Ubiquinol is an antioxidant that helps protect against oxidative stress and free radical damage.

After ubiquinol donates an electron, it turns into CoQ10. Your body has a process to recycle CoQ10 back into ubiquinol, making it ready to go back out and donate an electron to another free radical.

This process happens in our body 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, preliminary studies have shown that ubiquinol levels are significantly diminished with ageing.

Your body has CoQ10 in your system but it is not in a form that can go out and donate electrons. Taking ubiquinol supplements help to maintain healthy levels of ubiquinol in your body.

This article is courtesy of Vitamode Sdn Bhd.