Is your body making enough Coenzyme 10? When you’re young, your body naturally produces enough CoQ10 benefits to protect your health. Many of your biological systems put this critical antioxidant to work handling cellular maintenance, growth, and energy.
However, as you age, your production begins to slow. Those with heart disease, dementia, diabetes, and even cancer have been shown to be deficient in CoQ10. This deficiency could be a side effect of the diseases or an underlying cause. Researchers are uncertain but the connection between deficiency and disease is well proven.
Why You Need CoQ10 Benefits
Ubiquinone (CoQ10) was first isolated in 1957. Over the ensuing decades, scientists have discovered many incredible properties about this antioxidant. Here are a few benefits of CoQ10 benefits for common diseases and conditions as outlined by the Mayo Clinic.
- Heart health: CoQ10 has been shown to improve symptoms of congestive heart failure. Before a heart event, the enzyme can be effective in reducing high blood pressure. In fact, CoQ10 earned a “B” rating from the Mayo Clinic for its ability to lower blood pressure. Such a rating means that there is solid scientific evidence that a drug or supplement is effective. Following a heart event, this antioxidant can aid recovery in patients who’ve had bypass and heart valve surgeries.
- Parkinson’s disease: High doses of CoQ10 might be beneficial for patients in the early stages of this progressive disorder of the nervous system that impacts movement. It has also shown great promise in the treatment of dementia.
- Statin-induced myopathy: Some research suggests that CoQ10 might help ease muscle weakness associated with taking statins. [Side note: If you haven’t done your research on the dangers of statins…you simply must!]
- Migraines: CoQ10 might decrease the frequency and severity of these headaches.
- Physical performance: Because of its’ role in energy production, CoQ10 has been linked to improved physical performance. However, know that too much high-impact exercise does result in increased oxidation over time. This state raises your risk of systemic inflammation.
Other potential benefits including enhancing immune system function, improving chronic fatigue, lessening the side effects of conventional cancer therapies, and improving sperm health.
A powerful antioxidant, one of the most important benefits of CoQ10 is that it destroys free radicals in your body. This goes a long way to keeping your cells healthy and cancer free.
Our Fear of Aging is Highly Profitable
The multi-billion-dollar anti-aging industry has no end of products (from cheap to outrageous) to slow or reverse the signs of getting older. There’s a pill or cream for everything from liver spots to wrinkles to baldness to libido.
The common theme with these aging “solutions” is that in order to achieve the benefits, you have to swallow a pill designed by a pharmaceutical company (with a list of side effects as long as your arm) or rub a cream on your body (giving it instant access to your blood stream) that contains ingredients most people can’t even pronounce.
Unfortunately, the products sell in record numbers because just about everyone is afraid to age. Fear of aging (to most) is really rooted in mankind’s fear of death.
The good news is that you don’t always have to fall back on the latest “miracle cure” garbage peddled by slick marketing campaigns. Sometimes, the solution is in your kitchen! Inexpensive, effective, with zero side effects.
That’s right…you can get all the “supplemental” CoQ10 you need through your diet. Simply choose some of the foods on the list below (that you tolerate well – consuming a food that irritates your system defeats the purpose).
You’ll find the highest concentrations in foods like beef and pork hearts. Not very appetizing? If this doesn’t make your mouth water and have you running for the dinner table – you’re in luck. Meat, poultry, and fish are also rich in CoQ10. Don’t fry them (never a good idea anyway) or you’ll lose as much as 30% of the CoQ10 content.
Nuts, fruits, vegetables, eggs, and dairy products contain CoQ10 in lesser quantities.
Get More CoQ10 in Your Diet
- Organ meats such as heart, liver and kidney
- Pork, beef, and chicken
- Trout, herring, mackerel, and sardines
- Spinach, cauliflower, and broccoli
- Oranges and strawberries
- Lentils and peanuts
- Sesame seeds and pistachios
You want to keep your body in balance and regain its normal rhythms. CoQ10 is a natural substance created by the body itself.
You can opt for supplements rather than getting what you need through food, but you should be warned that many of them have been shown to be ineffective. Your body cannot utilize what it cannot absorb!
The crucial thing to keep in mind is that there is no miracle cure. You can consume CoQ10-rich foods or take CoQ10 supplements…but if you smoke, drink too much alcohol, or abuse drugs, your body won’t be able to undo the continuing damage.
As is ALWAYS the case, your nutrition and lifestyle choices are the key to longevity. Combining CoQ10 benefits with a healthy diet, regular exercise, quality sleep, good hydration, and less stress is going to slow down those signs of aging, lower your risk of disease, and help you live a longer, healthier life!