I’m Curious about Co-Q10

Many people now take supplements of CoQ10 on the advice of their doctors or nutritionists to improve heart function, slow down the progression of Parkinson Disease or just to stay healthy. Recently the skin care industry started getting in on the act by adding it to anti-wrinkle products and eye creams. Yet is this necessary when we make it ourselves in the body?

Co-Q10 is a naturally occurring chemical compound attached to enzymes (Co stands for coenzyme). It helps convert glucose into energy for healthy cell growth and acts as a powerful antioxidant to protect cells from free radical damage.  Confusingly Co-Q10 is also called Coenzyme Q10, CoQ10, CoQ, Q10, or simply Q. (see How To Prevent Free Radical Damage Blog May 12th).

So why are people taking CoQ10 as a supplement?

Levels of this coenzyme decrease as we get older and were found to be particularly low in people with heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Clinical studies have shown that taking supplements of CoQ10 may help some people and more research on Parkinson Disease is currently taking place. However I can’t find results for many skin care tests on humans.

In theory Co-Q10 looks promising as an active ingredient to prevent wrinkles and other signs of aging. If we have less than optimal amounts in our skin it affects our ability to produce elastin which is needed to keep the skin flexible and looking young. Co-Q10 is small enough to penetrate the skin so it could be easy to replace it as we get older. I’m going to test it on myself.

I’ve added some powdered Co-Q10 to one bottle of sun cream to use on the left side of my body and I’ll use an identical bottle of cream without the Co-Q10 on the right side.

Summer has arrived and this experiment will make me much more conscientious about applying lotion before I go out in the sun. I’ll report back if there is any visible difference.

Do remember that it’s advisable to check with a doctor before taking supplements.

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Adding salt to my diet miraculously improved my life and a friend of mine improved her health just by eating more fat.

Conventional wisdom says fat bad for us, so my friend avoided it wherever possible until her doctor told her she was making herself ill.

She was right to avoid saturated fats, such as butter and cheese, but she needed to eat foods rich in essential fatty acids, such as olive oil.

They are called essential fatty acids because we can’t make them ourselves and it’s vital to consume adequate amounts to maintain good health. Every cell in our body is surrounded by a double layer of fat molecules and as we are always making new cells we need good quality of oils and fats to produce good quality cell structures.

There are two types of essential fatty acids, the omega-6 group and the omega-3 group, and we need both in the right proportions. JL Wilson MD suggests a ratio of 4:1 for optimum health.

Omega-6 fatty acids are found in seeds such as sesame, sunflower, safflower and corn whilst foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids include salmon, sardines, soya beans and flax seeds (also called linseed).

Unfortunately, my friend’s doctor forgot to tell her not to cook with olive oil so she didn’t get the health benefits immediately. Essential fatty acids breakdown when heated to form harmful free radicals. She eventually switched to sunflower oil which has a higher boiling point and fries the food without burning the oil.

JL Wilson also suggests we should, “Avoid all nuts and seeds that have been commercially roasted or deep fried. The high heat and poor quality oils used in this process usually make them go rancid quickly. Rancid oils are poisons and need to be avoided. They interrupt the normal metabolism of oils in the body and contribute to free radical damage in the cell walls.”

By adding nuts, seeds and oils to her diet, my friend’s health problems cleared up, the condition of her skin improved and she even started to look younger.

Catherine