12.23.08
CoQ10-H2™ Found to Be Better Absorbed in Heart Patients
Congestive heart failure patients who consume a special bioavailable form of Coenzyme Q10 known as CoQ10-H2™ (ubiquinol) have higher levels of this antioxidant in their blood and have a greater degree of clinical improvement than patients receiving the standard form of CoQ10 (ubiquinone), researchers report in the December issue of the journal BioFactors.
New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class IV congestive heart failure patients are often unable to reach adequate plasma CoQ10 levels even after consuming up to 900 mg per day of standard CoQ10 (ubiquinone) supplements. These patients often have plasma total CoQ10 levels of less than 2.5 μg/ml and have limited clinical improvement. Researchers believe these low levels are the result of the intestinal edema that occurs in these patients, which may impair CoQ10 absorption.
In the current study, researchers investigated seven patients with advanced congestive heart failure (mean ejection fraction 22 percent) with sub-therapeutic plasma CoQ10 levels (mean level of 1.6 μg/ml on an average dose of 450 mg of ubiquinone daily). Ejection fraction refers to the fraction of blood pumped out of a ventricle with each heartbeat. All seven of these patients were switched to an average of 580 mg per day of CoQ10-H2 (450–900 mg/day) with follow-up plasma CoQ10 levels, clinical status, and ejection fraction measurements by echocardiography.
After the subjects were switched to the CoQ10-H2, mean plasma CoQ10 levels increased from 1.6 μg/ml (0.9–2.0 μg/ml) up to 6.5 μg/ml (2.6–9.3 μg/ml). Mean ejection fraction improved from 22 percent (10–35%) up to 39 percent (10–60 percent). Clinical improvement in the CoQ10-H2 group was what the researchers termed as “remarkable” with the NYHA class improving from a mean of IV to a mean of II. The prognosis for patients with NYHA class IV heart failure is very poor with mortality as high as 74 percent at 6 months and 94 percent at 12 months, but six of the seven patients receiving CoQ10-H2 survived longer than expected and remained stable throughout the 12-month study. The one patient in this study that did not survive stopped taking the CoQ10-H2 after three months, even after experiencing an improvement in heart function.
The study authors concluded, “Ubiquinol has dramatically improved absorption in patients with severe heart failure and the improvement in plasma CoQ10 levels is correlated with both clinical improvement and improvement in measurement of left ventricular function.”
The results are interesting in light of an earlier study by another group of researchers, which found that in 236 patients with chronic heart failure, plasma CoQ10 concentration was an independent predictor of mortality.
References:
Langsjoen PH, Langsjoen AM. Supplemental ubiquinol in patients with advanced congestive heart failure. BioFactors. December 2008;32:119-128.
Molyneux SL, Florkowski CM, George PM, Pilbrow AP, Frampton CM, Lever M, Richards AM. Coenzyme Q10: an independent predictor of mortality in chronic heart failure. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2008 Oct 28;52(18):1435-41.
