How CoQ10 Can Help You Live a Healthier Life
For those of us interested in living healthier and potentially even longer, lives, there may be some level of interest in taking dietary supplements for some key nutrients that we may not be getting enough of. You may also want to address particular areas of our lives that you feel you should improve. However, it’s difficult to know which of these supplements or nutritional improvements we should focus on. If you’ve never heard of CoQ10, or coenzyme Q10, you likely aren’t aware of the potential CoQ10 benefits that could become available to you if you increase your use of it into your lifestyle.
But, what exactly is CoQ10? And what CoQ10 benefits are there available to you? What function does CoQ10 actually serve for the body? And what are good sources of CoQ10, anyway? Additionally, is there anything that you should worry about when it comes to taking CoQ10?
There are so many different things that you might need to know before you start adding this new element to your regular routine or consider adding it to your life in the first place.
So, What is CoQ10?
According to Mayo Clinic, CoQ10 is an antioxidant and coenzyme that is produced naturally by the human body. Because of this, many people actually have the amount of this antioxidant that they need for regular functions and bodily upkeep processes naturally. However, sometimes levels of CoQ10 do dip in people.
Most commonly, CoQ10 levels are found to decrease in people’s bodies as they age. However, these levels can also be lower in people with different conditions or for those who are taking certain forms of medication. Those lowered levels of CoQ10 are actually also pretty common in those who have particular heart diseases, as well as those who take statins for lowering cholesterol.
What Does CoQ10 Do for the Human Body?
CoQ10, as aforementioned, is naturally produced by the body, with its primary purpose being that of aiding in the growth and overall maintenance of the body, broadly speaking. However, there are many other effects that happen to be CoQ10 benefits.
One of the biggest CoQ10 benefits is its potential ability to help treat or even prevent some heart conditions. In particular, some evidence from scientific studies has found that CoQ10 can help ease symptoms that are related to congestive heart failure. Additionally, there are some studies that find CoQ10 may reduce blood pressure slightly.
And while there is some conflicting evidence, there may be CoQ10 benefits when the coenzyme is combined with other necessary ingredients, tools, and practices. For example, CoQ10 might help in the healing process for those who have had heart surgery, like bypass surgery or some heart valve surgeries. Regardless, more research needs to be done in these areas to be certain.
Other interesting CoQ10 benefits may be in the works, as research is still being done to confirm or deny some hopeful findings. However, things look promising for a few unruly and unwelcome symptoms, as well as for improving some areas of our lives.
This may be able to treat or even prevent some migraines from popping up. Additionally, the antioxidant may even have the ability to slow (although not stop) the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, which could dramatically improve the outlook on a patient’s life in the long term.
According to WebMD, CoQ10 is also related to helping with the upkeep of your body’s metabolism, meaning that it could have the potential to improve physical fitness and some aspects of beauty practices and standards. It’s also involved in energy production, meaning that it could give you some extra energy to use throughout your workout or your workday.
However, it must be extremely clear that none of these potential CoQ10 benefits have been confirmed, so your decisions should not be based purely on these astronomical projections of potential for the coenzyme.
How Can You Get CoQ10?
Again, this is naturally produced by your body. However, if you’re in a place where you could have lowered or lowering levels of CoQ10, and you’d like to increase them, there are a few different sources you can look into, allowing you to make the decision that best suits your lifestyle and personal preferences.
There are some dietary sources of CoQ10, including meat, fish, and nuts. However, many sources explain that these particular sources of CoQ10 that you can eat don’t exactly have enough of the coenzyme to establish a significant increase or improvement in your life, potentially even with regular consumption.
On the other hand, you are also able to take dietary supplements that can give you a much higher dose of the antioxidant and help you better reach your goals in a more practical way. And these dietary supplements can be found in many forms, including capsules, chewable tablets, syrups, wafers, and even through IV.
Unfortunately, because of the lack of knowledge of the safety regarding CoQ10, you should be sure to proceed with caution. Additionally, children, women who are pregnant, or women who are breastfeeding are not recommended to take the supplements. This is mainly because of this lack of evidence for the safety of these supplements.
