The Dr. Hyman Show - How CoQ10 Supports Heart Health, Prevents Migraines, And Improves Cognition

Episode Date: December 2, 2022

This episode is brought to you by Rupa Health and Athletic Greens. CoQ10 is a compound whose job is to help cells generate energy, so it’s no surprise there are so many wonderful benefits to getting enough of this critical coenzyme. Although you can find it in supplement form, it is also naturally produced by the body. Unfortunately, however, as you age the production of CoQ10 declines. It also declines with chronic stress, toxin exposures, and certain medications. The decreased amount of CoQ10 in your cells contributes to the gradual loss of energy that most of us experience in our thirties and beyond.  In today’s episode of my series I’m calling Health Bites, I am talking all about coenzyme Q10, also known as CoQ10—what it is, what it can do for us, and how to ensure we are getting enough of this critical nutrient. This episode is brought to you by Rupa Health and Athletic Greens. Rupa Health is a place where Functional Medicine practitioners can access more than 2,000 specialty lab tests from over 20 labs like DUTCH, Vibrant America, Genova, and Great Plains. You can check out a free, live demo with a Q&A or create an account at RupaHealth.com. AG1 contains 75 high-quality vitamins, minerals, whole-food sourced superfoods, probiotics, and adaptogens to support your entire body. Right now, when you purchase AG1 from Athletic Greens, you will receive 10 FREE travel packs with your first purchase by visiting athleticgreens.com/hyman. Here are more details from the episode (audio version / Apple Subscriber version): What exactly is CoQ10? (3:42 / 1:32)  Statins, muscle aches and pains, and CoQ10 production (4:20 / 1:55)  How your body makes energy (5:14 / 2:40)  The scientific discovery of CoQ10 (6:05 / 3:30)  Benefits of CoQ10 (6:27 / 3:56)  CoQ10 and heart health (7:40 / 5:10)  Treating and preventing migraines with CoQ10 (8:51 / 6:18) CoQ10, insulin sensitivity, and blood sugar (10:02 / 7:29)  Slowing and reversing Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease (10:34 / 8:00)  CoQ10-rich foods and supplements (11:30 / 8:58)

Coming up on this episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy. It's something I use regularly for migraines, regularly for heart patients. By the way, everybody with a statin, which I don't prescribe that often, but it can be useful sometimes, definitely gets COVID-10. Hey everyone, it's Dr. Mark. One of the most important tools I have for helping my patients optimize their health is testing. And that is why I love what Rupa Health is doing. Functional medicine testing can require placing orders with lots of different labs,

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for your health over time. All right, let's get into today's topic, which is coenzyme Q10. Now, before you turn off, it's really important. I'm going to tell you why it's going to give you more energy and help you live longer and help you deal with all sorts of chronic issues and why it is critical to energy, which we all want more of. So the more we study and learn about the body, the more we learn about how phenomenal our bodies really are. And one of the discoveries that was actually not too long ago in the 50s was of a compound called coenzyme Q10, also known as CoQ10. And it's an extremely important molecule because it helps our bodies take the energy that's in food and oxygen that we breathe and turn it into energy that our bodies can use in the form of ATP.

You know, you might take a high school biology, learn about the Krebs cycle. Well, this is where it does its work. And it's so important. So what is CoQ10 and why is it so important? Well, it helps cells make energy, which is what we all want more of. Now, you can buy it online, you can get it at a supplement store, but it's actually produced by the body. Now, one of the things you might not know, and this is a little tidbit here,

is that when you look at the most common cholesterol drugs called statins, they actually block an enzyme called HMG-CoA reductase. Now that is the enzyme that produces cholesterol, but it also is the enzyme in the body that produces CoQ10. And we see a lot of people with muscle pain and aching and mitochondrial injury, which is a little energy fact in your cells when they take a statin, because I believe it interrupts CoQ10 production, which is necessary to make energy. And so your muscles can ache, you don't have energy and you end up with this cellular damage. So it's a little, it's a little important to remember if you are taking a statin, CoQ10 is super important. In fact, there are even quote drugs out there that now combine CoQ10 and statins

because they know it's so important. So basically your body makes energy in your mitochondria, these little subcellular organelles, there's anywhere from hundreds to thousands and thousands of these inside a single cell that basically take oxygen and food and combust them like an engine and produce energy. Your car runs on gas, but your body runs on this thing called ATP. But it's like an assembly line, and it needs all these different steps and all these different enzymes, all these different nutrients. And one of the key steps requires coenzyme Q10 to make energy. Now, when you get older, your CoQ10 production declines. It declines with other things like stress, chronic stress, toxins, even medications like statins. And when you have lower levels of CoQ10, it leads to this lower level of energy that we

experience as we get older, but it also leads to some serious diseases. Now, it's kind of a cool thing. It was discovered, as I said, in the 50s and 1957. Scientists didn't really catch on to it for a number of decades. But in 1978, the Nobel Prize was awarded in chemistry to the scientists who understood how mitochondria make use of CoQ10 to make energy. And then the science has exploded on CoQ10. Now, what are the benefits of CoQ10? Why should we care? What should we do? Well, it has a lot of benefits simply for the fact that it's so key to making energy, which is key to everything else in our body. It's also a great antioxidant and helps deal with free radicals that can damage our cells. Now, when you see CoQ10 in the research, you see low levels linked to all sorts of age

related diseases, whether it's dementia, Parkinson's, degenerative diseases. But the good news is that you can increase CoQ10 in your diet and it's good for you. But I'm going to explain to you how it works, why it's important. And some of the amazing research that we now know about CoQ10 that can kind of implore us to be way more cognizant of how much we're getting. We can even measure, and I do this in my practice, measure CoQ10 levels. I see lots of people with low CoQ10 levels. And yet the foods that increase CoQ10 reduce the reasons and exposures to things that cause us to reduce CoQ10 production, like the stressors and bad diet and all the normal stuff we talk about, the toxins, allergens,

microbes, stress, all that, that actually cause injury to the mitochondria and damage to our energy production. But it can do so many things. One of the areas where it's so great is heart health. In fact, there's a whole field of metabolic cardiology, which is how do we rejuvenate weak hearts? Congestive heart failure is really common, and it's a debilitating disease. The average life expectancy once you get it is about five years, which is like cancer. Most people don't realize that.

But, you know, in the heart muscle and the brain are the highest concentrations of mitochondria. And so it's no surprise that CoQ10 plays a huge role in heart function. In one study, about 420 people with heart failure, where the heart's not pumping and the muscle isn't working because of lack of energy. If they were given coenzyme Q10, they had improved symptoms and they had a lower risk of dying from heart-related issues. Another study treated about 600 patients with CoQ10 or placebo and found that the group that got the CoQ10 was in the hospital less and had fewer complications than the placebo group and did better overall in their heart function. It's also important in the brain and migraines. It's

something I use regularly for migraines, regularly for heart patients. By the way, everybody with statin, which I don't prescribe that often, but it can be useful sometimes, definitely gets CoQ10. But it's great for migraines. Not all migraines, but there are certain migraines because there's not such thing as a migraine. There are many, many different types of migraines that may be caused by gluten or hormones or the microbiome or mitochondrial issues or CoQ10 issues. And so there's a lot of reasons for migraines, even though they all manifest as the same symptom. And in functional medicine, we say, just because you know the name of the disease, it doesn't mean you know what's wrong with you. You know, the name of the disease is just the name we give to people who share

a set of symptoms, but the causes may be different for different people. And sometimes it is a CoQ10 deficiency that's been linked to migraines because bad mitochondrial function can lead to more inflammation, oxidative stress, and that actually can result in these headaches. So when you actually take CoQ10, you'll get better mitochondrial function, lower inflammation. And researchers in one study found that high-quality CoQ10 supplements were three times more likely to reduce migraines than a placebo. Another study of about 1,500 patients found they had fewer and less severe headaches after they began taking CoQ10. So it's

something, you know, you have to figure out why you're getting a migraine in the first place, but it can be a great adjunct. It also helps blood sugar control. And since about 93% of us are metabolically unhealthy and have some degree now of insulin dysregulation and prediabetes, we see that it really helps with improving insulin sensitivity and blood sugar. And that's great because we are seeing just such a burden of this. And something we can do to actually mitigate that is to take a little CoQ10. It may even prevent diabetes by reducing the number of fat cells that accumulate in the body that lead to more obesity and diabetes. I mean, it's an energy problem. Also, it's been shown to help slow down or stave off reverse Alzheimer's. Mitochondria are the main energy source of your

cells, especially brain cells. And when your mitochondria are not functioning, it can kill the brain cells or make them not work well. And we see from the research that CoQ10 is actually neuroprotective. Dr. Delbredesen is a colleague and friend who's functional medicine to treat Alzheimer's and his RECODE program. It's a key part of the program. Also in Parkinson's disease, high dose CoQ10 can also help with tremor and symptoms. And Parkinson's is a mitochondrial issue.10 can also help with tremor and symptoms. And Parkinson's is a mitochondrial issue. So most chronic illnesses and most diseases of aging are ultimately mitochondrial problems. And in my book, Young Forever, which is coming out in February 2023, I talk a lot about the causes of aging and mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the

10 hallmarks of aging. And we need to learn how to take care of our mitochondria, protect our mitochondria. I mean, CoQ10 is just one part of the story, but it's an important part. Okay, so how do we get CoQ10 in our diet? What do we have to do? Well, if you think you're low on CoQ10, you're maybe in your 30s or 40s or older, you're probably right. And you can get both CoQ10 rich foods and you can take a high quality supplement. I personally do both. There are a number of foods that are really high in CoQ10. Probably stuff people don't eat that much like organ meats, like liver, kidney, heart. You can actually take organ meat supplements. There's actually a great company called Mighty Meats, which kind of grinds them up into like a hamburger and

mixed it with some beef. So it actually doesn't taste weird or bad. And I had them. They're delicious. Mighty Meats. I don't have any relation with the company, but they're pretty awesome. And that's a great way to get CoQ10. Wild caught, cold water fish like trout, herring, mackerel, certain vegetables, spinach, cauliflower,

broccoli, fruits, sometimes like strawberries, oranges, nuts and seeds, all can help you boost your CoQ10 levels. Now, even if you're eating a healthy diet, I think it's important to supplement. And it's one of those key supplements I take. And I've had chronic fatigue syndrome. I've had severe mitochondrial injury. I know what it's like. I know what it feels like. It's horrible.

And I use CoQ10 for a long time to help me deal with this. And now I just take it as my general longevity stack. And so I basically take ubiquinol, which is an easier used form of CoQ10. I use pure encapsulations. And I use 100 to 200 milligrams a day for the average person. So I hope you learned about why it's important to manage your energy, why CoQ10 is important, how it affects so many different conditions, and can use a little health bite to get you healthier. So it's kind of a mitochondrial all-star CoQ10. Lots of benefits for it.

And, you know, there are no side effects. It's very safe to take. It's a no-brainer. I encourage you to focus on this for your daily regimen and see how you feel. And that's pretty much it for today's Health Byte. I hope you loved it. If you like it, please share it with your friends and family on social media. Leave a comment.

How have you used things to help your mitochondria and cook you 10? What have you noticed? We'd love to hear from you. And we'll see you next time on The Doctor's Pharmacy. Hey, everybody. It's Dr. Hyman. Thanks for tuning into The Doctor's Pharmacy. I hope you're loving this podcast. It's one of my favorite things to do and introducing you all the experts that I know and I love and that I've learned so much from. And I want to tell you about something else I'm doing, which is called Mark's Picks. It's my weekly newsletter. And in it, I share my favorite stuff from foods to supplements, to gadgets, to tools to enhance

your health. It's all the cool stuff that I use and that my team uses to optimize and enhance our health. And I'd love you to sign up for the weekly newsletter. I'll only send it to you once a week on Fridays, nothing else, I promise. And all you do is go to drhyman.com forward slash pics to sign up. That's drhyman.com forward slash pics, P-I-C-K-S, and sign up for the newsletter, and I'll share with you my favorite stuff that I use to enhance my health and get healthier and better and live younger longer. Hi, everyone.

I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Just a reminder that this podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical

or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, seek out a qualified medical practitioner. If you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, you can visit ifm.org and search their Find a Practitioner database. It's important that you have someone in your corner who's trained, who's a licensed healthcare practitioner, and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health.