Good news for heart patients. The latest research has found that those who suffer from heart disease, and took the supplement known as coenzyme Q10 alongside their normal medication, had lower levels of mortality than those who did not.
The scientists say that doctors should consider including the supplement ,which costs around 25p per tablet, as part of the treatment of heart disease patients.
The supplement, also known as CoQ10, occurs naturally in the body and plays a role in turning sugar into energy for the cells.
Heart muscle contains large amounts of CoQ10 but previous research has shown that it decreases in patients who have suffered from heart failure.
The study, which involved four hundred and twenty patients who had suffered heart failure, showed that those who took three 10mg tablets of CoQ10 a day had lower levels of heart failure as well as lower mortality levels two years later.
Professor Svend Mortensen, from the heart centre at Copenhagen University Hospital, who lead the study, said: ‘The CoQ10-treated patients had reduced hospital admission rates for worsening heart failure and lower cardiovascular deaths, both of which may reflect significant improvement in cardiac function. CoQ10 should be considered as a part of the maintenance therapy of patients with chronic heart failure.’
The results were presented at Heart Failure 2013, an annual meeting of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology, in Lisbon, Portugal.
The supplement is also found in foods including red meat and fish, but at very low levels that are deemed to be insufficient to affect heart failure.
The molecule is known to play an essential role in the mitochondria, the tiny ‘power stations’ found inside almost every cell of the body that convert sugar into energy.
The study followed patients in Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, India, Malaysia and Australia.
After two years, fourteen per cent of patients taking CoQ10 had suffered problems with their hearts compared with twenty-five per cent of those taking a placebo. Just nine per cent of the patients taking CoQ10 died compared with seventeen per cent taking the placebo. CoQ10 is sold over the counter at pharmacists as an energy booster.
Well, as far as I am aware I don’t suffer from any heart disease. But for the past few years I have been taking CoQ10 regularly as an energy-boosting supplement.
My level of energy has always been rather high, but whether this supplement had anything to do with maintaining it is another matter. My reason for taking it is simply because I believe, with age, every function of our body slows down and needs an extra push. I naturally eat much less now to avoid obesity as I do little exercise. So I reckon taking supplements within reason becomes a safety gadget.
Whether psychology plays an important role in all this is again a case for conjecture. In fact, better safe than sorry seems to keep me in good nick.