COENZYME Q10 (Ubiquinone)

General Description

Actions:

  • essential for virtually all energy production
  • works to help transfer electrons (in the mitochondria) in the energy cycle
  • intimately involved in maintaining immunity, and in the normal functioning of the heart
  • CoQ10 enhances macrophage activity
  • it is a potent antioxidant
  • antiviral activity, as well as increases ones resistance to viruses
  • body converts CoQ, as well as the amino acid methionine, into CoQ10
  • exercise produces millions of superoxide free radicals, hydroperoxides and hydroxyl free radicals, which is the major source of continued muscle soreness and weakness you feel for days after heavy exercise
  • the free radicals produced are a result of the use of oxygen
  • the first pathway, called the tetravalent reduction of oygen with cytochrome C oxidase, for oxygen use is pretty clean and it uses approximately 95% of the oxygen
  • the second pathway,called the univalent reduction pathway, which uses the remaining 5% of the oxygen, is a very dirty pathway, producing lots of free radicals
  • however, the sheer volume of oxygen used during exercise is not the only reason that exercise overwhelms muscles with free radicals
  • the vital chemical cytochrome C also gets used up
  • cytochrome C oxidase is the last catalyst in the chain that regenerates ATP, so that the muscles can continue working
  • when cytochrome C activity falls, CoQ comes to the rescue in completing the regeneration of ATP
  • however, CoQ may itself produce superoxide radicals
  • CoQ10, also known as a powerful antioxidant, neutralizes some free radicals as well as increases the efficiency of the energy cycle
  • overall the effect of elevated CoQ in the muscles is a net reduction in free radicals
  • in addition, the free radicals from exercise continue to damage tissue long after exercise has ceased
  • hydroxy radicals react with fats inside cell membranes to make them go rancid (lipid peroxidation)
  • rancid fats themselves become free radicals called peroxy radicals and the cascade of events continues
  • with every bout of intense exercise, free radicals lead to an inflammatory chain reaction that can last 20 hours after exercise has ceased
  • there are 3 endogenous enzymes that can fight free radicals. catalase neutralizes hydrogen peroxides, SOD neutralizes superoxide radicals, and glutathione peroxidase neutralizes peroxides
  • after exercise, muscle and liver glutathione levels continue to decline, thus indicating their use to destroy free radicals

Deficiency:

  • CoQ10 levels decline rapidly with age after 25

Interactions and Toxicity:

Sources:

  • occurs widely in foods, especially polyunsaturated vegetable oils

VITAMINS

MINERALS