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Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 5/29/13.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Getting to Know Our Microbial Roommates - NYTimes.com, 5/27/13 - "In a study published in February in the journal Environmental Microbiology, Dr. Fierer’s lab examined 82 surfaces in four Boulder kitchens. Predictable patterns emerged. Bacterial species associated with human skin, like Staphylococcaceae or Corynebacteriaceae, predominated. Evidence of soil showed up on the floor, and species associated with raw produce (Enterobacteriaceae, for example) appeared on countertops. Microbes common in moist areas — including sphingomonads, some strains infamous for their ability to survive in the most toxic sites — splashed in a kind of jungle above the faucet ... A hot spot of unrivaled biodiversity was discovered on the stove exhaust vent ... The microbes living on your pillowcase are not all that different from those living on your toilet seat"

Scientists find mechanism that causes noise-induced tinnitus and drug that can prevent it - Science Daily, 5/27/13 - "An epilepsy drug shows promise in an animal model at preventing tinnitus from developing after exposure to loud noise ... mice that were treated with retigabine immediately after noise exposure did not develop tinnitus"

First drug to significantly improve heart failure mortality in over a decade - Science Daily, 5/25/13 - "Coenzyme Q10 decreases all cause mortality by half ... is the first drug to improve heart failure mortality in over a decade and should be added to standard treatment ... Double blind controlled trials have shown that CoQ10 improves symptoms, functional capacity and quality of life in patients with heart failure with no side effects ... Other heart failure medications block rather than enhance cellular processes and may have side effects. Supplementation with CoQ10, which is a natural and safe substance, corrects a deficiency in the body and blocks the vicious metabolic cycle in chronic heart failure called the energy starved heart" - See Jarrow Formulas, Ubiquinol, QH-Absorb, 100 mg, 120 Softgels.

Sunscreens Not Created Equal: Consumer Reports - WebMD, 5/24/13 - "Six got recommended ratings: ... Target's Up & Up Sport, at the top spot, costs $1.16 an ounce ... Walmart's Equate Ultra Protection SPF 50, is just 47 cents an ounce. It won the CR Best Buy award of the dozen ... Coppertone Water Babies SPF 50, at $1.38 an ounce ... Walgreens Continuous Spray Sport SPF 50, at $1.33 an ounce ... Hawaiian Tropic Sheer Touch SPF 30, at $1.38 an ounce ... Coppertone Sport High Performance SPF 30, at $1.67 an ounce ... The six that didn't get recommended ratings include: .. California Baby SPF 30+, at $6.90 an ounce (discontinued, but may still be available) ... No-Ad with Avobenzone, Aloe, and Vitamin E SPF 45, at 63 cents an ounce ... Neutrogena Wet Skin SPF 45+, at $3.67 an ounce ... Kiss My Face with Hydresia SPF 40, at $5.33 an ounce ... Badger Unscented SPF 34, at $5.52 an ounce (discontinued, but may still be available) ... All Terrain AquaSport SPF 30, at $4.33 an ounce"

Biological and Therapeutic Effects of Ortho-Silicic Acid - Medscape, 5/23/13 - "In conclusion, we believe that ortho-silicic acid (H4SiO4) might be a prominent therapeutic agent in humans. Some potential therapeutic and biological effects on bone formation and bone density, Alzheimer disease, immunodeficiency, skin, hair, and nails condition, as well as on tumour growth, have already been documented and are critically discussed in the presented paper" - See Jarrow BioSil at Amazon.com, which is another one that I add a few drops to my coffee everyday the other being iodine.

High CRP Linked to Late-Onset Schizophrenia - Medscape, 5/22/13 - "CRP has previously been linked to increased risk for cardiovascular disease, and more recently, in a study by these same researchers, with risk for depression ... We had up to 19 years of follow-up, and after adjusting for all the other factors that would also increase CRP ... we still saw significantly increased risk of schizophrenia; for those who had even very small elevations of CRP, they still have a 6-times increased risk for schizophrenia"

Fish Oil Supplements May Help Fight Against Type 2 Diabetes - Science Daily, 5/22/13 - "Fish oil supplements, also called omega 3 fatty acid capsules, raise levels of adiponectin in the bloodstream. Adiponectin is an important hormone that has beneficial effects on metabolic processes like glucose regulation and the modulation of inflammation. In long-term human studies, higher levels of adiponectin are associated with lower risks of type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease ... The meta-analysis reviewed and analyzed results from 14 randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

Calcium Supplements Linked to Longer Lifespans in Women - Science Daily, 5/22/13 - "Researchers analyzing data from the large-scale Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study (CaMos) sought to clarify this issue and found moderate doses of calcium supplements had a beneficial effect in women ... The benefit was seen for women who took doses of up to 1,000 mg per day, regardless of whether the supplement contained vitamin D ... there was no statistical benefit for men ... the same benefits were seen when the calcium came from dairy foods, non-dairy foods or supplements"

Fish oil may help the heart beat mental stress - Science Daily, 5/22/13 - "volunteers who took fish oil supplements for several weeks had a blunted response to mental stress in several measurements of cardiovascular health, including heart rate and muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA), part of the "fight or flight" response, compared to volunteers who took olive oil instead. The results may explain why taking fish oil could be beneficial to the heart and might eventually help doctors prevent heart disease in select populations" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

Vitamin C can kill drug-resistant TB, researchers find - Science Daily, 5/21/13 - "vitamin C kills drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) bacteria in laboratory culture. The finding suggests that vitamin C added to existing TB drugs could shorten TB therapy"

Mediterranean Diet Good for Chronic Kidney Disease - Medscape, 5/21/13 - "followed 1110 Swedish men (mean age, 70 years), 506 of whom had a glomerular filtration rate below 60 mL/min per 1.73 m 2 ... Median follow-up was 9.9 years ... High adherents were 42% less likely to have kidney disease than low adherents ... high adherence was independently associated with a mortality risk that was 18% lower for every 2-point increase in Mediterranean Diet Score. For subjects with adequate dietary intake, the associations were stronger"

Melatonin for Migraine? - Medscape, 5/21/13 - "Participants were randomly assigned to 3 mg of melatonin, 25 mg of amitriptyline, or placebo for 3 months ... The mean reduction in headache frequency was 2.7 in the melatonin group, 2.18 in the amitriptyline group, and 1.18 in the placebo group. The proportion of responders was greatest in the melatonin group at 54% vs 39% for amitriptyline and 20% for placebo ... Patients gained weight in both the amitriptyline and placebo groups, but melatonin was associated with weight loss" - See melatonin at Amazon.com.

Common food supplement fights degenerative brain disorders, study suggests - Science Daily, 5/21/13 - "Widely available in pharmacies and health stores, phosphatidylserine is a natural food supplement ... the same supplement improves the functioning of genes involved in degenerative brain disorders, including Parkinson's disease and Familial Dysautonomia (FD) ...Not only did phosphatidylserine impact the gene associated with FD, but it also altered the level of a total of 2400 other genes -- hundreds of which have been connected to Parkinson's disease in previous studies ... The researchers believe that the supplement may have a beneficial impact on a number of degenerative diseases of the brain" - See phosphatidyl Serine products at iHerb.

Iodine Deficiency Still a Concern, Despite Vast Improvements - Medscape, 5/21/13 - "In the United States, median UIC levels among individuals aged 6 years and older remained in the normal range, at 144 µg/L, from 2007 to 2010, but median UIC among adults has been on the decline, with a drop of more than 50% between the 1970s and 1990s, say the authors ... And the prevalence of UIC below 50 µg/L among women of childbearing age has increased nearly 4-fold during the same period, from 4% to 15%, while the median UIC among pregnant US women has declined to less than 150 µg/L, suggestive of mild iodine deficiency ... The cause of the decline among pregnant women is unknown but may have to do with reductions in dairy intake ... only about 70% of salt is iodized, and about 85% of salt ingested in the United States is from commercially processed foods that do not contain iodized salt" - See iodine at Amazon.com.  I put a couple drops in my coffee every day.

Abstracts from this week's Doctor's Guide Nutrition/Dietetics plus abstracts from my RSS feeds (Click here for the journals, the PubMed ones at the top):

Treatment with Metformin is Associated with Higher Remission Rate in Diabetic Patients with Thyroid Cancer - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013 May 24 - "complete response (CR) ... progression free survival (PFS) ... Tumor size is smaller in patients treated with metformin suggesting inhibition of tumor growth by the drug. Among diabetics, absence of metformin therapy is an independent factor for decreased likelihood of CR and increased risk of shorter PFS" - See metformin at The Antiaging Store.

Ubiquinol supplementation enhances peak power production in trained athletes: a double-blind, placebo controlled study - J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2013 Apr 29;10(1):24 - "In this double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 100 young German well trained athletes (53 male, 47 female, age 19.9 +/- 2.3 years) received either 300 mg Ubiquinol or placebo for 6 weeks ... This study demonstrates that daily supplementation of 300 mg Ubiquinol for 6 weeks significantly enhanced physical performance measured as maximum power output by +0.08 W/kg bw (+2.5%) versus placebo in young healthy trained German Olympic athletes" - See Jarrow Formulas, Ubiquinol, QH-Absorb, 100 mg, 120 Softgels.

Chemopreventive and anti-cancer efficacy of silibinin against growth and progression of lung cancer - Nutr Cancer. 2013;65 Suppl 1:3-11 - "Successful studies conducted so far, have established that silibinin is effective both alone and in combination with other agents (e.g., chemotherapeutic and epigenetic agents) in significantly inhibiting the growth of lung cancer cells" - See silymarin at Amazon.com.

Differential Effect of Grape Seed Extract against Human Non-small-Cell Lung Cancer Cells: The Role of Reactive Oxygen Species and Apoptosis Induction - Nutr Cancer. 2013;65 Suppl 1:44-53 - "GSE suppressed growth and induced apoptotic death in NSCLC cells irrespective of their k-Ras status" - See Jarrow Formulas, OPCs + 95 at Amazon.com.

Prevention of Familial Adenomatous Polyp Development in APC(min) Mice and Azoxymethane-Induced Colon Carcinogenesis in F344 Rats by ω-3 Fatty Acid Rich Perilla Oil - Nutr Cancer. 2013;65 Suppl 1:54-60 - "The present study explored the preventive effects of perilla oil, rich in α-linolenic acid, in rodent models of colon tumorigenesis. Six-week-old male F344 rats were fed diets containing 5% corn oil or 10 or 20% perilla oil ... Dietary perilla oil produced a dose-dependent inhibition of AOM-induced colonic ACF formation (by 35-53%, P < 0.01-0.005) and reduced the number of foci with ≥4 crypts/focus (by 38-50%, P < 0.01-0.001) in F344 rats. Dietary perilla oil significantly inhibited development of small intestinal (>69%, P < 0.0001) and colon tumors (>52%, P < 0.03) in APC(min) mice. Administration of perilla oil produced lower levels of type-2 prostaglandins (38-53%) from COX-activities in polyps of APC(min) mice. These observations demonstrate that dietary perilla oil rich in ω-3 fatty acids possesses preventive activity against intestinal neoplastic lesions, both in FAP in genetically-predisposed tissues, as well as against chemically induced preneoplastic lesions in the colon" - See perilla oil products at iHerb.

Low Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate is Associated With Increased Risk of Ischemic Stroke Among Women - Stroke. 2013 May 23 - "Between 1989 and 1990, 32 826 women without prior stroke in the Nurses' Health Study, an observational cohort, provided blood samples and were followed up for cardiovascular events ... Conditional on matching factors, the lowest DHEAS quartile exhibited a relative risk of 1.30 for ischemic stroke (95% confidence interval, 0.88-1.94), compared with the highest quartile and marginally unchanged when adjusted for confounders (relative risk=1.33; 95% confidence interval, 0.87-2.02). When modeled as a binary variable dichotomized at the lowest quartile, women with low DHEAS (≤the lowest quartile) had a significantly increased multivariable adjusted risk of ischemic stroke compared with those with higher levels (relative risk=1.41; 95% confidence interval, 1.03-1.92)" - See DHEA at Amazon.com.

Effect of Fish Oil on Circulating Adiponectin: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013 May 23 - "In placebo-controlled RCTs, fish oil moderately increases circulating adiponectin" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

Low-dose vitamin K2 (MK-4) supplementation for 12 months improves bone metabolism and prevents forearm bone loss in postmenopausal Japanese women - J Bone Miner Metab. 2013 May 24 - "The participants (aged 50-65 years) were randomly assigned to one of two groups according to the MK-4 dose received: the placebo-control group (n = 24) and the 1.5-mg MK-4 group (n = 24). The baseline concentrations of undercarboxylated osteocalcin (ucOC) were high in both groups (>5.1 ng/ml). After 6 and 12 months, the serum ucOC concentrations were significantly lower in the MK-4 group than in the control group. In the control group, there was no significant change in serum pentosidine concentrations. However, in the MK-4 group, the concentration of pentosidine at 6 and 12 months was significantly lower than that at baseline. The forearm BMD was significantly lower after 12 months than at 6 months in the control group. However, there was no significant decrease in BMD in the MK-4 group during the study period. These results suggest that low-dose MK-4 supplementation for 6-12 months improved bone quality in the postmenopausal Japanese women by decreasing the serum ucOC and pentosidine concentrations, without any substantial adverse effects" - See vitamin K at Amazon.com and vitamin K at Amazon.com.  See the section in this article "MK4 versus MK7 for Bone Health".

Coffee and risk of prostate cancer incidence and mortality in the Cancer of the Prostate in Sweden Study - Cancer Causes Control. 2013 May 24 - "Mean coffee intake was 3.1 cups per day among both cases and controls. Coffee intake was not associated with overall prostate cancer risk. Risk of fatal prostate cancer was inversely, but not statistically significantly, associated with coffee intake, with an odds ratio of 0.64 [95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.34-1.19, p value for linear trend = 0.81] for men consuming greater than 5 cups per day compared to men drinking less than 1 cup per day. The highest intake of coffee was associated non-significantly with lower risk of advanced disease (OR = 0.73, 95 % CI 0.41-1.30, p trend = 0.98) and associated significantly with lower risk of high-grade cancer (Gleason 8-10; OR = 0.50, 95 % CI 0.26-0.98, p trend = 0.13). Risk of localized, grade 7, and low-grade cancers was not associated with coffee intake"

Serum folate and prostate-specific antigen in the United States - Cancer Causes Control. 2013 May 24 - "Using data from the 2007 to 2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a total of 3,293 men aged 40 years and older with serum PSA and folate measures were studied ... OR associated with fifth to first quintile of folate level = 0.42 ... Results of this study suggest that higher folate status may be protective against elevated PSA levels among men without diagnosed prostate cancer" - See folic acid products at Amazon.com.

Male breast cancer and 5-alpha reductase inhibitors, finasteride and dutasteride - J Urol. 2013 May 9 - "No statistically significant associations were observed between 5ARIs and breast cancer, regardless of exposure assessment prior to index date"

Lower vitamin E serum levels are associated with osteoporosis in early postmenopausal women: a cross-sectional study - J Bone Miner Metab. 2013 Mar 28 - "BMD of the lumbar spine was significantly higher in the highest tertile of the vitamin E:lipid ratio than in the lowest tertile. The mean vitamin E:lipid ratio was significantly lower in osteoporotic postmenopausal women (T score ≤-2.5) (3.0 +/- 0.6 μmol/mmol) than normal (neither osteoporotic nor osteopenic) postmenopausal women (T score >-1) (3.5 +/- 0.7 μmol/mmol) using multivariable-adjusted BMD. These findings highlight that vitamin E may increase BMD in healthy postmenopausal women" - See Jarrow FamilE (contains all eight members of the vitamin E family, includes Tocomin) at Amazon.com.

Erectile dysfunction may be the first clinical sign of insulin resistance and endothelial dysfunction in young men - Clin Res Cardiol. 2013 May 17 - "192 patients and 33 normal controls were enrolled. ED was evaluated by using the International Index of Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5) questionnaire ... Patients with ED had significantly higher levels of systolic blood pressure (SBP), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (Hs-CRP), high Insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR) and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), compared with controls"

Role of HDL cholesterol and estimates of HDL particle composition in future development of type 2 diabetes in the general population: The PREVEND Study - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013 May 20 - "High density lipoproteins (HDL) may directly stimulate β-cell function and glucose metabolism ... Higher HDL cholesterol, as well as higher HDL-cholesterol/apoA-I and HDL-cholesterol/apoA-II ratios are strongly and independently related to lower risk of future type 2 diabetes"

Preventing Alzheimer's disease-related gray matter atrophy by B-vitamin treatment - Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 May 20 - "Is it possible to prevent atrophy of key brain regions related to cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease (AD)? One approach is to modify nongenetic risk factors, for instance by lowering elevated plasma homocysteine using B vitamins. In an initial, randomized controlled study on elderly subjects with increased dementia risk (mild cognitive impairment according to 2004 Petersen criteria), we showed that high-dose B-vitamin treatment (folic acid 0.8 mg, vitamin B6 20 mg, vitamin B12 0.5 mg) slowed shrinkage of the whole brain volume over 2 y. Here, we go further by demonstrating that B-vitamin treatment reduces, by as much as seven fold, the cerebral atrophy in those gray matter (GM) regions specifically vulnerable to the AD process, including the medial temporal lobe ... B vitamins lower homocysteine, which directly leads to a decrease in GM atrophy, thereby slowing cognitive decline" - See folic acid products at Amazon.com and vitamin B12 at Amazon.com.

Neat Tech Stuff / "How To's":

Health Focus (Co-enzyme Q10):

Specific Recommendations:

News & Research:

  • Insulin Resistance - Dr. Weil - "Supplements: ... Coenzyme Q10 ... Alpha-lipoic acid ... Magnesium ... Chromium"
  • CoQ10 and L-carnitine for Statin Myalgia? - Medscape, 1/4/13 - "In summary, it has been proposed that CoQ10 can help to treat statin myalgia. While this is not conclusive, there are two randomized controlled trials showing significant improvements in the severity of muscle pain with the use of CoQ10 in patients treated with statins. Thus, it is not unreasonable to supplement a patient who is experiencing muscle pains on a statin with CoQ10. While there are no clinical trials showing improvements in muscle pain with the use of l-carnitine, patients who experience statin myalgia frequently have carnitine abnormalities. It is too soon to recommend l-carnitine for statin myalgia, but future trials should test this supplement to see if it has any place for this adverse effect. Other common alternatives for treating statin myalgias are supplementation with vitamin D or vitamin B12, especially in the setting of suboptimal serum levels" - See ubiquinol products at Amazon.com, Jarrow Formulas, GPLC, Glyco Carn, 500 mg, 60 Veggie Caps at iHerb and acetyl l-carnitine products at Amazon.com.
  • Cholesterol medicine affects energy production in muscles - Science Daily, 1/3/13 - "A well-known side effect of statin therapy is muscle pain. Up to 75 per cent of the physically active patients undergoing treatment for high cholesterol experience pain. This may keep people away from either taking their medicine or from taking exercise -- both of which are bad choices ... Scientists also showed that the patients examined who were being treated with statins had low levels of the key protein Q10. Q10 depletion and ensuing lower energy production in the muscles could be the biological cause of the muscle pain that is a problem for many patients"
  • Antioxidant has potential in the Alzheimer's fight - Science Daily, 12/14/11 - "When you cut an apple and leave it out, it turns brown. Squeeze the apple with lemon juice, an antioxidant, and the process slows down ... Simply put, that same "browning" process-known as oxidative stress-happens in the brain as Alzheimer's disease sets in ... an antioxidant can delay the onset of all the indicators of Alzheimer's disease, including cognitive decline. The researchers administered an antioxidant compound called MitoQ to mice genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer's. The results of their study were published in the Nov. 2 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience ... Oxidative stress is believed to cause neurons in the brain to die, resulting in Alzheimer's ... The brain consumes 20 percent of the oxygen in the body even though it only makes up 5 percent of the volume, so it's particularly susceptible to oxidative stress ... MitoQ selectively accumulates in the mitochondria" - Note:  I couldn't find the ingredients but it sounds like a form of co-enzyme Q10.  Here's the form I take: ubiquinol products at Amazon.com
  • CoQ10 may boost antioxidant defenses in people with atherosclerosis - Nutra USA, 10/28/11 - "A daily CoQ10 dose of 150 mg was associated with 29% lower levels of malondialdehyde (MDA - a reactive carbonyl compound and a well-established marker of oxidative stress) after eight weeks, compared with the placebo group ... In addition, after 12 weeks of supplementation, the CoQ10 supplement appeared to stimulate the body’s antioxidant defenses and levels of the antioxidant enzymes catalase and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were 230% and 78% higher than the placebo group, respectively ... blood levels increased of CoQ10 increased in the high dose group by 189% after 12 weeks, but no significant increases were observed in the 60 mg group" - [Abstract]
  • CoQ10 may reduce muscle damage during intensive exercise - Nutra USA, 10/27/11 - "Twenty ultra-runners participated in the study and were divided into two equal groups. One group received one 30 mg capsule of CoQ10 two days before the test, three 30 mg capsules the day before the test, and one capsule one hour before the test. The other group received placebo at the same time. The test involved a 50 km distance run across Europe’s highest road in the Sierra Nevada ... Results showed that the placebo group displayed a 100% increase in levels of 8-OHdG, which <i>“a sensitive indicator of DNA damage as a result of oxidative stress”,</i> said the researchers, compared with an increase of 37.5% in the runners taking the CoQ10 supplements ... The data also indicated that CoQ10 countered the over-expression of certain pro-inflammatory compounds after exercise ... a reduction in levels of creatinine in the urine was observed in the CoQ10 group, compared with the placebo group. Creatinine is produced from creatine and high levels are a marker of muscle break down (or kidney damage) ... CoQ10 supplementation reduces creatinine excretion and therefore decrease muscle damage during physical performance" - [Abstract]
  • Natural therapies: Cardiologists examine alternatives to halt high blood pressure - Science Daily, 8/30/11 - "The shining star among supplements is coenzyme Q10, an enzyme involved in energy production that also acts as an antioxidant. Patients with hypertension tend to have lower levels of the enzyme, and a meta-analysis -- an overarching analysis of past studies -- found that treatment with coenzyme Q10 supplements significantly reduced blood pressure ... Coenzyme Q10 has a pretty profound effect on blood pressure, but whenever research is based on a collection of other data you have to have some skepticism ... potassium helps lower blood pressure, and there is evidence that increasing the amount of potassium we get through the foods we eat could carry some of the same mild benefits as taking supplements" - See ubiquinol products at Amazon.com and potassium citrate at Amazon.com.
  • Pine bark extract plus CoQ10 shows benefits for heart failure patients - Nutra USA, 6/23/11 - "12 weeks of daily supplementation with 350 milligrams of CoQ10 (Kaneka) and 105 milligrams of the branded pine bark extract Pycnogenol ... recruited 53 heart failure patients aged between 54 and 68 were randomly assigned to receive either the PycnoQ10 supplement or placebo for 12 weeks ... systolic and diastolic blood pressure decreased following the CoQ10-pine bark combination, from 139.2 to 133.2 mmHg and 82.3 to 77.3 mmHg, respectively. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure decreased from 140.3 to 139.5 mmHg and 83.4 to 81.2 mmHg, respectively, in the placebo group ... In addition to increases in the amount of blood pumped by the heart, the researchers also reported improvements in heart rate were also observed in the PycnoQ10 supplement group from 78.4 to 74.2 beats per minute, compared with a decrease from 79.1 to 78.4 in the placebo group" - [Abstract] - See Pycnogenol at Amazon.com and ubiquinol products at Amazon.com.
  • CoQ10 may protect against obesity problems: Study - Nutra USA, 10/15/09 - "We propose, in view of our study, that CoQ10, when given orally, is able to target the liver tissue, and to lessen inflammatory stress associated with obesity in mice in this tissue, independent on any action on lipid peroxidation" - [Abstract]
  • CoQ10 may boost sperm quality: Study - Nutra USA, 6/16/09 - "randomly assigned them to receive a daily CoQ10 supplement (300 mg, Kaneka, Japan) or placebo for 26 weeks. This was followed by 30 weeks with no intervention ... The Tehran-based researchers reported a significant improvement in both sperm density and motility following supplements of the coenzyme. A positive association was also found with regards to sperm count. Further analysis showed an increase in the percent of normal forms of sperm" - [Abstract]
  • CoQ10 Improves Endothelial Dysfunction in Statin-Treated Type 2 Diabetics - Medscape, 5/29/09 - "Study subjects were randomized to receive either 200 mg/day of oral CoQ10 or placebo for 12 weeks ... Our absolute improvement in FMD of 1% with CoQ10 supplementation may potentially translate to a 10-25% reduction in residual cardiovascular risk in these patients"
  • Taking Statins? Five Ways to Boost Your Energy - ABC News, 4/14/09 - "It's a cruel irony that if statins make patients more lethargic, it could impair their ability to exercise or make dietary changes that would help them address their high cholesterol ... some studies have found that patients' energy levels increased while using CoQ10 and statins together ... Try pomegranate juice or a small chunk of dark chocolate, both of which have beneficial antioxidants ... Skimping on sleep has been found to increase calcium deposit build-up in your arteries"
  • Statin study: Lower cholesterol, diminished joy of sex linked - USA Today, 3/5/09 - "In the study, sexual pleasure sank along with LDL levels ... Some studies have found that statins improve sexual function, probably because the pills can improve blood flow to the genital area, Golomb says. But she says the drugs also may reduce Coenzyme Q10, a nutrient that helps cells convert oxygen, blood and glucose into energy. "Orgasm is a high-energy activity," so losing the nutrient could weaken sexual pleasure, she says" - See ubiquinol products at Amazon.com.
  • Statins' Adverse Effects Documented - Science Daily, 1/29/09 - "Coenzyme Q10 ("Q10") is a compound central to the process of making energy within mitochondria and quenching free radicals. However, statins lower Q10 levels because they work by blocking the pathway involved in cholesterol production – the same pathway by which Q10 is produced. Statins also reduce the blood cholesterol that transports Q10 and other fat-soluble antioxidants ... "The loss of Q10 leads to loss of cell energy and increased free radicals which, in turn, can further damage mitochondrial DNA," said Golomb, who explained that loss of Q10 may lead to a greater likelihood of symptoms arising from statins in patients with existing mitochondrial damage – since these people especially rely on ample Q10 to help bypass this damage" - My favorite is QH-Absorb by Jarrow.
  • Wrinkle creams: Your guide to younger looking skin - CNN - "Coenzyme Q10 is a nutrient that helps regulate energy production in cells. Some studies have shown reduction in fine wrinkles around the eyes with no side effects"
  • CoQ10 bioavailability boost from soft gels: Study - Nutra USA, 1/12/09 - "Researchers from Canada’s KGK Synergize compared CoQ10 formulations from hard and soft gel capsules, and found the reduced form from the latter resulted in a 3.3-fold higher blood level of CoQ10 than the former ... formulated by Soft Gel Technologies" - See iHerb search of "Soft Gel Technologies".  I'm sticking with QH-Absorb by Jarrow because I don't trust the NOW brand.  I feel that it probably just hasn't been studied yet.

Abstracts: