HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - CoQ10 to protect heart: anyone with experience?

heblaj01 · 04-29-2006, 03:04 PM

Cathya,

I have not found an exhaustive study comparing all the available CoQ10 formulations for their comparative bioavailability.

However the four documents listed below provide most of the info necessary to select a product among the better ones.

The first reference is a free full text as opposed to Ref 2 & 3 which are available as abstracts (full text for a fee).

It has also has the advantage to be a study not funded by a product manufacturer.

It puts the Q-Gel brand (made by Tischcon Corp using the Bio-Solv® process) slightly ahead of the six other tested brands.

While almost all (if not all) CoQ10 raw & finished materials come from Japan the added ingredients may vary from one wholesaler & its retailers to the others. So it is necessary to carefully check the complete list of those ingredients since some may be desirable while other may not. For instance most CoQ10 pills contain an insignificant amount of Vitamin E as an antioxidant preservative (1 or 2 I.U.). But a few brands (not in Ref. 1) include 100 to 400 I.U. which may not be recommanded when taking chemo which uses an oxidative process to kill cancer cells. An other example (one of the 7 brands in Ref.1) :CoQ10 dissolved in primrose & salmon oil . According to one previous post by Gina primrose oil may be OK for premenopausal patients on Herceptin but not for postmenopausal ones. Some brands also use a small amount of soybean oil (in addition to other oils) which is still controversial for cancer patients.

Consumer lab (http://www.consumerlab.com/results/CoQ10.asp) provides a partial list of CoQ10 brands to non suscribers with their label listed ingredients. (more extensive list for suscribers)

This reduces the work required to find the full content of the pills. Sometimes it may be necessary to get in touch with the manufacturer or wholesaler to get any missing info.

There are other brands claiming to have superior bioavailability such as Life Extension Super-Absorbable CoQ10™ with d-Limonene (http://www.lef.org/newshop/items/item00910.html) but it is difficult to judge their merit without comparative testing.The window in the web site describing the pill bioavailability has an error when it states that it takes 2 times 200mg to get the same effect as 697 mg of a standard pill. This would not be much of an improvement. I checked with their customer service that 2 times 100mg was the correct amount & that "standard pill" was a softgel & not the older powder pill. They also promote d-Limonene as an ingredient helping in cell differenciation.

References:

1. http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/117-1...08/content.pdf

(including table 1 & 2 : http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/117-1203/1108/Tables.pdf)

2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...=pubmed_docsum

3 . http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...=pubmed_docsum

4. http://www.epic4health.com/noname.html (info on available Q-Gel pills).

P.S.
Since Marlys just posted a message indicating that she may already have benefited from her taking CoQ10 I am going to ask her what brand she is using. Keep in mind that the researchers in ref-1 found great variations in circulating CoQ10 blood levels from one individual to the next for the same product.

04-29-2006, 03:04 PM	#9
heblaj01 Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 543	CoQ10 to protect heart: anyone with experience? Cathya, I have not found an exhaustive study comparing all the available CoQ10 formulations for their comparative bioavailability. However the four documents listed below provide most of the info necessary to select a product among the better ones. The first reference is a free full text as opposed to Ref 2 & 3 which are available as abstracts (full text for a fee). It has also has the advantage to be a study not funded by a product manufacturer. It puts the Q-Gel brand (made by Tischcon Corp using the Bio-Solv® process) slightly ahead of the six other tested brands. While almost all (if not all) CoQ10 raw & finished materials come from Japan the added ingredients may vary from one wholesaler & its retailers to the others. So it is necessary to carefully check the complete list of those ingredients since some may be desirable while other may not. For instance most CoQ10 pills contain an insignificant amount of Vitamin E as an antioxidant preservative (1 or 2 I.U.). But a few brands (not in Ref. 1) include 100 to 400 I.U. which may not be recommanded when taking chemo which uses an oxidative process to kill cancer cells. An other example (one of the 7 brands in Ref.1) :CoQ10 dissolved in primrose & salmon oil . According to one previous post by Gina primrose oil may be OK for premenopausal patients on Herceptin but not for postmenopausal ones. Some brands also use a small amount of soybean oil (in addition to other oils) which is still controversial for cancer patients. Consumer lab (http://www.consumerlab.com/results/CoQ10.asp) provides a partial list of CoQ10 brands to non suscribers with their label listed ingredients. (more extensive list for suscribers) This reduces the work required to find the full content of the pills. Sometimes it may be necessary to get in touch with the manufacturer or wholesaler to get any missing info. There are other brands claiming to have superior bioavailability such as Life Extension Super-Absorbable CoQ10™ with d-Limonene (http://www.lef.org/newshop/items/item00910.html) but it is difficult to judge their merit without comparative testing.The window in the web site describing the pill bioavailability has an error when it states that it takes 2 times 200mg to get the same effect as 697 mg of a standard pill. This would not be much of an improvement. I checked with their customer service that 2 times 100mg was the correct amount & that "standard pill" was a softgel & not the older powder pill. They also promote d-Limonene as an ingredient helping in cell differenciation. References: 1. http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/117-1...08/content.pdf (including table 1 & 2 : http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/117-1203/1108/Tables.pdf) 2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...=pubmed_docsum 3 . http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...=pubmed_docsum 4. http://www.epic4health.com/noname.html (info on available Q-Gel pills). P.S. Since Marlys just posted a message indicating that she may already have benefited from her taking CoQ10 I am going to ask her what brand she is using. Keep in mind that the researchers in ref-1 found great variations in circulating CoQ10 blood levels from one individual to the next for the same product.