Coenzyme Q10: Nature’s Revitalizer

By Robert M. Oliva CSW

It is of vital importance that we all get sufficient amounts of Coenzyme Q10.  High levels of this enzyme can prevent or help treat such conditions as heart disease, diabetes, periodontal disease, high blood pressure, obesity, cancer and many neurological diseases.  It can even slow down the aging process.  This incredible, naturally occurring nutrient needs to be considered in everyone’s health regimen.
What is Coenzyme Q10?

According to James Balch in Prescriptions for Nutritional Healing, Coenzyme Q10 is a vitamin like substance produced in the body whose actions closely resemble that of vitamin E.  Q10 is a powerful anti-oxidant that is found in every cell of the body.  For this reason it is also called ubiquinone.  Q10 is essential for the production of energy at the cellular level and increases tissue oxygenation throughout the body.  Although Q10 is produced in the body deficiencies seem to be widespread.  Since food contains only trace amounts of this nutrient, supplementation is necessary.
Coenzyme Q10 and Disease

There have been hundreds of studies attesting to the safety and efficacy of Coenzyme Q10 in the treatment and prevention of the many diseases that afflict those of us living in Western society.  According to the Life Extension Foundation, Q10 is a safe and effective therapy for heart disease, cancer, immune depression, low energy and aging.  Q10 is a mighty force in the natural treatment of serious disease as well as a natural boost to both daily and athletic performance.

Let’s take a look at how Coenzyme Q10 can make an important contribution to the treatment of specific diseases and to enhancing the quality of your life.
Heart Disease

Coenzyme Q10 is found most abundantly in the human heart muscle.   The heart contains about twice the amount of this vital enzyme as any other organ in the body.  Patients suffering from heart disease have been found to have about 25 percent less Q10 than the healthy population.

Robert Atkins, MD states in his book Vita Nutrient Solution that “All organs with high energy demands need a lot of CoQ10, and the most important is the heart.”  As early as 1990, Greenburg and Frishman in the Journal of Clincal Pharmacology indicated that over fifty studies worldwide attested to Q10’s positive impact on numerous cardiovascular conditions including hypertension.  In a study by Landsjoein, et al in the International Journal of Tissue Research, 87 percent of cardiomyopathy sufferers displayed significant improvement in heart function without adverse side effects while using CoQ10.  Additionally, other studies have shown that when Q10 is administered to patients recovering from heart failure 75 percent show marked improvement.

Another important point about Q10 is that it helps the body deal with the causes of atherosclerotic plague buildup in our arteries.  Coenzyme Q10 is such a powerful antioxidant that it prevents the oxidation of LDL cholesterol that is thought to be the form of cholesterol implicated in the arterial clogging process that leads to advanced heart disease.
Hypertension

As a major risk factor for heart disease, hypertension must be controlled and should be mentioned separately from other heart conditions.  Hypertension affects the lives of millions of Americans and those living in industrial societies.  Q10 may be a potent antidote to this plague.  CoQ10 in numerous studies has been found to effectively lower high blood pressure.  Additionally, in about 85 percent of those tested, CoQ10 was able to end their dependence on anti-hypertension medications.  These facts can save the lives of thousands suffering from heart disease each year.  Don’t overlook Coenzyme Q10 if you have high blood pressure.  Consult your physician prior to taking Coenzyme Q10.
Diabetes

Diabetes is at epidemic proportions in the Western world.  Each year millions are diagnosed with this chronic, metabolic disease.  CoQ10 has a role to play in assisting sufferers in managing this potentially fatal illness.  Japanese researchers have found that a dose of CoQ10 as low as 60 mg a day reduces high blood sugar in about six months.  This is a critical finding for the treatment of diabetes but also has implications for the treatment of heart disease.  Since cardiovascular disease is a major complication of diabetes itself this makes CoQ10 of vital importance in maintaining proper heart health for diabetics.  Diabetes very often leads to hardening of the arteries.  By helping people maintain healthy sugar levels the likelihood of developing heart disease is lowered.
Cancer

The Life Extension Foundation states that although scientists have “not yet determined the exact mechanism by which CoQ10 benefits cancer patients.” it is believed that the enzyme may suppress the proliferation of cancer cells and boost immune functions.  In other words, CoQ10 does not attack cancer directly but increases the potency of the immune system that has a protective affect against cancer.  Danish researchers have specifically found the nutrient effective in the treatment of breast cancer.  Although the research is not yet conclusive, it seems apparent that CoQ10 can play an important role in the prevention and treatment of cancer.  If you suffer from cancer, discuss the use of Coenzyme Q10 with your physician and oncologist.
Fatigue

CoQ10 has many every day applications.  It is one of the best fatigue fighters known.  It does this because it helps turn the food we eat into energy.  Endurance athletes may especially benefit from looking into this nutrient to bolster their ability to use energy efficiently and to recover from prolonged endurance training.  CoQ10, being an antioxidant that acts directly on the mithochondria of the cell, is able to stop the damage to that part of the cell caused by the intense oxidation resulting from exercise.

Bedsides athletes, people who are ill also benefit from taking CoQ10.  Dr. Atkins reports on a study by J.H.P Vanfracchi in which two groups were studied for their reaction to Coenzyme Q10 supplementation.  The first group was suffering from chronic lung disease and was administered 90 mg of CoQ10 for about eight weeks.  The second group was made up of healthy but sedentary young men.  Group two was also given 90mgs per day.  The results were that the group suffering disease showed a much more dramatic increase in pulmonary capacity.  So if you are healthy you will notice less improvement from Co Q10 than if you are suffering from illness.
Periodontal Disease

At this point there are only a few clinical trials that have indicated that Coenzyme Q10 is effective in treating gum disease.  More work needs to be done before definitive answers or recommendation can be made.  But I can suggest that you experiment with using this enzyme to create stronger and healthier gums.  I can only offer a personal anecdote.  I suffered with bleeding, swollen and sore gums for years.  It was necessary for me to have gum treatments every three months just to keep my gums status quo.  I then read an article about the potential of Coenzyme Q10 in dealing with gum disease.  I decided to take the plunge.  That was two years ago.  My gums are now in perfect condition.  I now go to the dentist once a year.  My hygienist was originally shocked at the improvement.  I have heard many anecdotes similar to my own.  I’m also aware that anecdotes don’t make science. In this case, however, I believe that science will soon catch up with what we know from our experience.  Try it; see if it works for you.
Supplementing with Coenzyme Q10

Recommendations vary as to the optimal dosage to take of this vital nutrient.  The body’s production of CoQ10 peaks around the age of 20.  There is a steep decline after this.  Another complication for many of us is that with the popularity of high-carbohydrate diets many people are not getting enough Q10.  Why? Because the main source of this nutrient comes from organ meats, red meat and nuts, the very foods people avoid. Many experts recommend 60 to 100 mgs a day for the basically healthy and up to 200 mgs for those seeking therapeutic effects for degenerative diseases.

If you are suffering from any disease at present and taking prescribed medication, please consult with your physician or naturopath before taking Q10.  Drug interactions can occur.

Since Coenzyme is fat soluble, it is best to take it with fat containing foods.
Summary

Think seriously about adding Coenzyme Q10 supplements to your diet.  Since food contains only race amounts, supplementation should seriously be considered.  Although it is rather expensive you may find it worthwhile.  Q10 has many applications.  You can expect improvements in blood pressure, respiration, energy levels, blood sugar levels, lipid peroxidation, heart function and gum health.  There is over forty years of scientific research clearly demonstrating that Coenzyme Q10 is safe and effective.  Don’t turn a blind eye to nature’s revitalizer.

You can learn more about natural living at http://www.healingaction.com.

Robert M. Oliva, CSW is a certified New York State social worker with over twenty years experience in psychotherapy, stress management and wellness. Bob is an internationally known health writer and is the founder and editor-in-chief of the health site HealingAction.com. Presently, Bob is a doctoral candidate in naturopathy at Clayton College. He lives with his wife Mary and his two sons David and Chris on Long Island, New York. Bob also spends a few hours a week playing with his grandson Jonathan.

How Not To Be Understood

By Shawn Lomax

Speaking Spanish has its disadvantages, as well as its dangers. Having a grip on the language, you get too confident. You lose your wariness and your ability to insist through gestures. You tend to think that people understand you, and, worse still, they come to the conclusion that you understand them. And you end up with a mop and bucket, looking like a half-shaved hearthrug. Or at least I did. You see this week my humble adequacy with the language has left me washing the entrance and between floors of my building, and with the worst haircut of my life.

Recently paid, I found myself deep in the conviction that a haircut was to be had before it was too late and the money got spent on other, sweeter things. Having decided, and properly launched into the act, I was frustrated to find the stairs blocked by two wizened neighbors in full flood. Not even seeming to notice, they simply absorbed me into the tide of their complaint.

With pinched suspicion spilling over into suspicious hostility, my elderly distressed housecoat of a downstairs neighbor directed her crumpled stocking complexion at me in a burst of “We’re not gypsies, you know. We all have to clean the stairs.” Taken aback several meters, I flailed for an adequate response. Something superior but sharp, along the lines of “Well you can mention it at the next meeting of the Comunidad, which would incidentally be my first, thank you ladies. Goodbye and pleased to meet you,” would have been good. Something subtle in defense of gypsies would have been better. But instead I was an immediately sullen seven year old, angry to be told that he hadn’t cleaned his room properly, when he had cleaned it. He had. He had. But really he hadn’t, and hated to be told it, so he just jammed his fists in his pockets and sulked his way through the harangue without looking at them.

The fact that the stairway of the building is, strictly speaking, unclean able, doesn’t really come into it. The decrepit seediness of the place was one of the things that first attracted me to it, with its banisters a fragile wrought iron memory of better, nineteenth century times, walls bulging south and flaking paint like a shabby but distinguished bachelor whose dandruff is somehow an acceptable part of his condition.

Were this not enough, next door is a building site and the windows of the stairwell lack glass, so keeping the cracked raw meat colored floor tiles clean would be a permanent occupation, as well as a waste of time. But try explaining that to two old marujas who have dedicated their lives to the extinction of the stain, whose human pride consists in the inhuman perfection of an interior living space X meters squared, who not only scrub and polish every imaginable surface daily, but consider it an aberration from the norm and a disgusting slippage into decadence should others fail to follow suit. You think I’m exaggerating? Try living here. Cleaning is more than a profession for those without employment; it’s a passion that suffers no competition, except perhaps complaining. Particularly complaining about how filthy their neighbors are. Particularly me, because I’m here and I give signs of understanding them. They can’t complain to my landlord because he’s never there. And my blond, eight foot, unfortunately male Dutch flat mate would just shrug in that blond good natured Dutch way, effectively explaining that he didn’t understand a word. Which left muggins, who understood without being able to retaliate, blushing his way down the stairs, furiously exercising his esprit d’escalier all the way to the hairdresser’s.

My state of frustration-enhanced ineptitude may have made me forget the one thing I’ve learnt about getting your hair cut: If you don’t like the hairstyle of the person proposing to adjust yours, better go somewhere else. In this case it was so obvious as to be laughable in retrospect. And, given the rate my hair grows, that will be in a month or two.

There was a thunderstorm going on at the time, and that might have distracted or excited him. Come to think of it, there was something of the Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein about him, and more of the Igor. His hair rose up in tufts around his head like dust thrown up by the impact of an explosion. His eyes followed me remotely through glasses unfashionable before there were fashions in such things. But he nodded at the end of my explanation so I thought he understood.

Even in English I never feel like I’m asking for something normal in a hairdresser’s. And this sense of insecurity, compounded by the uncertainty of the translation “just give it shape”, and together with what little I know of Spanish grooming tendencies “not classical” , “more modern”, conspired to leave me somewhere between Hitler youth and the chorus from Grease.

I should have known better. I should have left when I could. But I was suffering that strange inertia of the barber’s chair, when you’ve already surrendered to stronger opinions about how you are going to look. Anyway, he had seemed to accept that I didn’t want to look very different. And then he took a razor and shaved the hair off the back of my head. Then he did the same to the sides. And, after fussing merrily at the top with a scissors for some minutes, he slapped down the rough edges with gel, smiled, and handed me a clothes brush. And that was it.

Back on the street the rain washed a sticky itchy mixture of gel and hair ends down the back of my neck. Shop windows reflected a derangement of ominous spiky bits. Once home the brutal honesty of the bathroom mirror confirmed that my head was now host to an irregular and inexpert wigwam. All of which made washing dust off the stairs seem like not such a bad idea, or at least a release for an accumulation of frustrations that may have brought me closer to my neighbors without persuading me that it’s a good place to be. I doubt they’ve noticed the stairs have been cleaned, but at least my new look gives them something else to criticize.

Shawn Lomax is a writer of sketch pieces and reviews. He lives and works in Barcelona, Spain.

Eat Your Way To Better Health

By Monique N. Gilbert, B.Sc.

Making the right dietary choices can have a profound impact on our health and longevity. As a society, we have the largest assortments of foods in the world, both good and bad. However, this availability can tempt us to eat unhealthy foods. Fortunately, overcoming these temptations is easier than you think. A few simple changes in your diet can make the difference between being healthy and unhealthy.

So, you may ask, what kind of diet do researchers recommend for promoting and maintaining good health? According to the American Institute of Cancer Research (AICR), the smartest strategy to promoting good overall health is to eat a balanced, predominantly plant-based and nutritionally dense diet. Most of your daily calories should come from vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans.

Take advantage of our highly developed food distribution system, which allows a vast array of fruits, vegetables and other plant foods to be available throughout the year. Eat less fat and more fiber. Make plant-based foods the largest part of every meal. Limit the amount of animal-based foods, such as meat and dairy products, which are loaded with saturated fat and cholesterol. Use olive oil or canola oil instead of butter or margarine to reduce your intake of saturated fat and hydrogenated fat (trans fat).

Moderate your consumption of fried, salted and smoked foods. Eat portions to satisfy hunger, not to clean the plate. The AICR recommends these steps to help protect against several cancers, lower the risk of heart disease and promote good health.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) links one-third of all cancer deaths to diet. They state that we can reduce the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases through dietary means. Both the AICR and the NCI believe in the benefits of eating a plant-based diet. They feel it is reasonable for most of us to include products like tofu, soymilk, tempeh and textured soy protein as part of a healthy diet. If nothing else, these foods can be excellent and complete alternative protein sources when decreasing your consumption of meat and dairy products.

However, researchers do not want people to consider plant-based foods as a magic bullet to counteract bad eating habits. They don’t want people to rely on adding just one or two plant-based products to their diets while continuing to eat foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol. Nor do they advise people to consume large quantities of supplements to try to achieve health benefits. Balance, moderation, and variety are the keys to a healthy diet. Nothing should be excessively consumed. Loading up on any one food or nutrient is never wise. Each food item provides a different chemical composition.

The best way to take advantage of the various beneficial nutrients and compounds, is to adopt good eating habits which include a wide assortment of nutritionally dense foods. Many researchers advise looking at the typical Asian diet and method of cooking for inspiration, which is high in fruits, vegetables, rice, green tea and soy. They mainly derive protein from plant-based sources such as beans, tofu, miso, soymilk, tempeh and other plant-based products. This type of diet is low in meat, fat and dairy products, with a moderate amount of fish.

Meat is mainly used as a condiment than the main course. The quick method of cooking, characteristic of Asian cuisine, also plays an important role in the Asian diet. Steaming and stir-frying reduces the amount of fat needed to prepare foods, and allows foods to retain much of their nutrients. In contrast, the average American or Western diet is high in meat, dairy, starches, sugars, sodas, fast foods and junk foods. Beef, pork, fish and poultry are the main sources of protein. This type of diet is generally low in fiber and high in saturated fats and cholesterol.

Deep-fried foods, such as french fries, potato chips and onion rings, are popular but very unhealthy. It causes foods to absorb a high amount of fat, and the oils used to deep-fry are not always the best. Often vegetables are overcooked, causing them to lose many of their nutrients.

Fast foods and quick eating, characteristic of American dinning, also play a detrimental role to our health. The convenience of ready made and processed foods often provides a diet high in calories but low in nutritional value.

Altering our way of cooking and eating is one of the easiest ways to improve our health and increase our vitality. Making choices based upon nutritional content is the best guide. Choose to eat foods that have bright colors and are high in fiber, vitamins, minerals, and complex carbohydrates; moderate in protein, and low in saturated fat, hydrogenated (trans) fat and cholesterol.

Adopting this way of eating will promote good health and offer you protection against heart disease, stroke, cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes and kidney disease.

Looking for a great cholesterol-free recipe to start your day off on the right foot? Then try this hearty nutritious and delicious breakfast item. It’s high in fiber, iron, potassium, phosphorus, vitamin C, thiamin and niacin, low in saturated fat with a moderate amount of protein.

Potato Tofu Hash

* 5.3 ounces tofu – diced (1/3 of a 16-ounce block firm tofu)
* 3 cups potatoes – diced (3 medium or 4 small potatoes)
* 1 cup onion – diced (1 large onion)
* 1-1/2 tablespoons canola oil
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/8 teaspoon turmeric
* 1/8 teaspoon black ground pepper

1. Dice tofu into 1/4 to 1/2 inch cubes. Peel and dice potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes.
2. Heat 1 teaspoon canola oil, add diced tofu, turmeric, 1/8 teaspoon salt and a dash of pepper. Stir until all cubes are thoroughly coated and get a nice yellow color. Saute tofu until golden brown and firm. Set aside.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon canola oil, add diced potatoes, black ground pepper and 1/ teaspoon salt. Stir to coat all the potato cubes with oil, salt and pepper. Cover with a lid and allow to steam for 3-5 minutes. Uncover for a minute before flipping potatoes over, this will prevent any sticking. Then flip potatoes, cover and steam another 3-5 minutes. Uncover and flip potatoes again. Keep flipping until all potatoes are golden brown.
4. When potatoes are golden brown, mix in tofu cubes and push to one side of the pan. Add 1/2 teaspoon canola oil and diced onions to empty side of pan. Stir and cook onions until translucent, then mix thoroughly with potatoes and tofu. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with juice and toast.

Makes 2-4 servings

This recipe is from Monique N. Gilbert’s book “Virtues of Soy: A Practical Health Guide and Cookbook” (Universal Publishers, 2001, pp. 86-87).

Monique N. Gilbert, B.Sc., has received international recognition for helping people get healthier, feel better, look younger and live longer. Through her coaching program and writings, Monique motivates, inspires and teaches how to naturally enhancing your health, happiness, energy and longevity with balanced nutrition, physical activity and tranquil living environments. Monique believes it is her mission to educate and enlighten everyone about the benefits of healthy eating and a vibrant stress-free lifestyle. For more information, visit her website – http://www.MoniqueNGilbert.com