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What is Coenzyme Q10 Used For?

Published by Isabella on November 22, 2021

What are the symptoms of low CoQ10?

CoQ10’s primary role is to help your mitochondria harvest energy-producing adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from food, which accounts for more than 75% of your body’s energy production. Therefore, when your CoQ10 levels are low, your ATP levels decrease, and when your ATP levels decrease, your energy levels will drop, resulting in various symptoms, including fatigue.

If you have any of the following symptoms, you may be suffering from low levels of Coenzyme Q10, though other factors may cause them, so consider seeing a doctor if you have:

Physical and Mental Fatigue

Because CoQ10 is essential for energy production, a deficiency can cause serious physical and mental fatigue. People with fatigue may feel exhausted after a few minutes of walking, have difficulty concentrating or experience mood changes, such as depression, increased irritability and loss of enthusiasm. However, fatigue can be caused by multiple factors, so you should ask a doctor for help treating your fatigue symptoms.

Chronic Pain

Low levels of ATP production have been linked to increased pain, and people with CoQ10 deficiencies often experience headaches, migraines and muscle or joint aches. Furthermore, low levels of Coenzyme Q10 increase your risk of developing fibromyalgia, a chronic condition defined by widespread pain, fatigue and sleep problems.

Weak Immune System

Without energy from CoQ10, your body cannot produce enough antibodies to protect you from diseases and infection, meaning that CoQ10 deficiencies are linked to weakened immune systems. People with this deficiency are more susceptible to flu viruses and often suffer from chronic gum infections, making CoQ essential for a healthy immune system.

Increased Obesity and Heart Disease Risk

Coenzyme Q10 deficiencies contribute to heart disease by reducing energy in cardiac cells and causing inflammation that leads to high blood pressure. Furthermore, some studies have found that CoQ10 levels are 52% lower in obese people, meaning that low levels may be a factor in weight gain and difficulty losing weight.

Neurological Disorders

In addition to contributing to mental fatigue and chronic pain, low levels of CoQ10 are linked to multiple neurological disorders, including myalgic encephalomyelitis, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease. If you belong to an at-risk group for any of these conditions, increasing your CoQ10 levels may help to lower your risk of these neurological disorders.

Benefits of CoQ10

Coenzyme Q10 plays several key roles in your body, generating energy from adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and protecting cells against oxidative damage. While maintaining healthy levels of CoQ10 is essential for regulating the functions of your cells and organs, taking additional CoQ10 in the form of supplements or natural food sources may have additional benefits, including:

Treating Heart Failure

Heart failure is often caused by other heart conditions – such as high blood pressure – leading to inflammation and oxidative damage that eventually causes your heart to give out. Fortunately, multiple studies show that CoQ10 treatments can improve the symptoms of heart failure and lower the risk of dying by restoring energy levels and reducing oxidative damage.

Increasing Fertility

Coenzyme Q10 – and fertility – tends to decrease as we age, both in females (due to declining quality and quantity of eggs) and males (due to oxidative damage affecting sperm count and quality). However, the antioxidant effects of CoQ10 help protect egg and sperm cells, improving fertility and maybe even reversing age-related declines.

Helping Keep Skin Looking Young

Your skin is the largest organ in (or should that be on?) your body and is exposed to damaging factors daily – from UV rays to hormonal imbalances – that can make it look tired or old. By applying CoQ10 directly to your skin, you can reduce oxidative damage and even decrease the depth of wrinkles. Additionally, people with low CoQ10 levels seem more likely to develop skin cancer, so make sure to keep your levels topped up for healthy skin.

Reducing Headaches

Although the exact cause of headaches and migraines is unknown, there is some evidence that defects in mitochondria (energy-producing structures in your cells) play a role. Fortunately for headache sufferers everywhere, Coenzyme Q10 effectively reduced migraines in several medical studies, likely because it helps improve mitochondrial function and reduces inflammation.

Helping Improve Exercise Performance

Oxidative stress and abnormal mitochondria function affect muscle function and energy, making it harder for your muscles to work efficiently and affecting exercise performance. However, supplementing with CoQ10 can tackle oxidative damage and abnormal mitochondria function, helping increase power and reduce fatigue during exercise.

Helping Manage Diabetes Symptoms

Without sufficient levels of antioxidants (like Coenzyme Q10), oxidative stress causes cell damage which can result in metabolic diseases like diabetes, though CoQ10 can help manage symptoms. Supplementing with CoQ10 helps manage diabetes symptoms by improving insulin sensitivity and regulating blood sugar levels and may even help prevent diabetes by reducing the build-up of fat cells.

Improving Brain Function

Mitochondria are the main energy source for your brain cells, and since CoQ10 supports healthy mitochondrial function, it may support brain health. Furthermore, preliminary studies show that CoQ10 supplements help to reduce the production of harmful compounds in your brain, possibly slowing the progression of neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

Protecting Your Lungs

Your lungs have more contact with oxygen than any other organ and are highly susceptible to oxidative damage, resulting in lung diseases like asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). However, Coenzyme Q10 supplements can reduce inflammation, decrease reliance on steroid medications in asthmatics, and boost exercise performance in people with COPD.

Overall, CoQ10 is an incredibly beneficial compound that supports a wide range of biological functions and overall health, though it isn’t as well-known as other types of supplements. For example, many people are concerned that CoQ10 may have some unforeseen effects on their liver, despite no clear reason for these doubts…

Is Coenzyme Q10 good for your liver?

According to the National Centre for Complementary and Integrative Health (NIH), CoQ10 supplements may have mild side effects, including higher levels of liver enzymes, in rare cases. Fortunately, many people with elevated liver enzymes don’t have any symptoms or health complications, so they might not be anything to worry about.

Additionally, Coenzyme Q10 supplements may help to treat liver disorders such as Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NFALD), a chronic liver disorder that affects an estimated 20-30% of the general population. Several studies have shown that CoQ10 reduces inflammation and can prevent or even reduce liver damage from toxic agents.

What is the best form of coenzyme Q10?

As you may be aware, CoQ10 comes in two forms – Ubiquinone and Ubiquinol – which are highly similar but distinct in chemical terms. Ubiquinone is the oxidised form of CoQ10, while ubiquinol is the reduced form, meaning that ubiquinone has more electrons than ubiquinol. While this is a small (literally microscopic) difference, does it affect how CoQ10 works in your body?

Some researchers have theorised that the ubiquinol form of Coenzyme Q10 is more bioavailable (meaning your body can absorb and use it more effectively). However, there isn’t much evidence to support this theory, as your body is capable of converting Coenzyme Q10 into its most effective form, regardless of which form you take.

RELATED: If you’d like to know more about CoQ10 and its alternate forms (like ubiquinol), read our explanatory article on the Differences Between Coq10 and Ubiquinol now.

Can you take CoQ10 coenzyme with other vitamins?

Taking CoQ10 with other vitamin supplements isn’t necessarily recommended (because you may not need vitamin supplements as well as CoQ10), but there is no evidence to suggest that it’s dangerous. Although Coenzyme Q10 supplements may interact with blood-thinning drugs such as warfarin (Jantoven), they are generally safe and don’t seem to interfere with other vitamins or minerals.

Furthermore, taking CoQ10 with certain supplements may improve absorption, as combining CoQ10 (a fat-soluble compound) with oil-based supplements or fatty foods enhances bioavailability. However, we recommend asking your doctor before taking CoQ10 with other vitamin supplements, so you can be certain that it won’t cause any adverse reactions, rare though they might be.

How does CoQ10 coenzyme make you feel?

Coenzyme Q10 is generally well tolerated – even at doses as high as 1,000mg per day – and reported side effects are quite rare, making it one of the safer types of supplements. However, some people are sensitive to the compound and report mild side effects, including diarrhea, headaches and tiredness, though these reports are rare.

Most people who use CoQ10 supplements claim that they feel invigorated after taking them, able to think more clearly and exercise for longer, though this might be a bit of the placebo effect. The consensus is that CoQ10 supplements help increase energy levels, and side effects like nausea are rare, so they should make you feel refreshed and full of energy.

Best CoQ10 Coenzyme Supplements

When searching for the best coenzyme Q10 supplements, it’s important to do your research and choose a product that is high in active ingredients and ideally certified by a trustworthy 3^rd party organisation. Because ‘dietary supplements’ aren’t strictly regulated in America, the quality and contents of these products can vary wildly, and there are lots of unscrupulous manufacturers making sub-par products that won’t give you the levels of Coenzyme Q10 you paid for.

To get the best CoQ10 supplements for your needs, you should look for brands that 3rd-party certifying authorities have approved as safe and/or effective, based on active ingredients and manufacturing processes. Brands approved by third party authorities – such as NSF International or US Pharmacopeia – should contain the stated amounts of active ingredients with very few fillers or impurities, so you can be sure that you’re getting what you pay for.

Isabella

Isabella is an experienced content and copywriter. She specializes in writing about health and nutrition-related topics. Driven by her passion, she takes pride in providing the best health tips possible. As a health blogger, she aspires to enhance nutrition-based content quality.