Anti-aging versus Well-aging
Everybody wishes to stay healthy and vital until old age. We all know that over the years, our body uses up, the joints become stiffer, our condition deteriorates, and one or two health problems will affect us. But our ultimate goal is to be spared from serious or life-changing diseases and to feel joy, happiness, strength, and vitality in old age. We cannot and do not want to stop aging itself, but our goal is to grow old healthy. Here, a vital substance, namely the coenzyme Q10, plays a decisive role.
Aging – a natural process
Currently, we have a life expectancy of 80 years in Germany, with women having more life expectancy than men. Factors that we can influence for better life expectancy are the lifestyle, the diet, and an optimized supply of vital substances. That fact that smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and obesity reduce life expectancy is well known. But less known is the fact that lack of vital nutrients and, above all, a deficit of coenzyme Q10 can reduce the maintenance of life, contribute to diseases and significantly affect our aging.
How does the aging process actually develop in our human body? In essence, aging is the result of the cells’ diminishing ability to divide and renew all spent body cells. High oxidative stress additionally promotes cell aging. This problem arises whenever too many free radicals are formed in the body and too few antioxidants (especially vital substances) are present for the degradation. Free radicals or oxidants are produced by every respiration, so they are a natural process of the body. However, external factors also influence the formation of free radicals such as pollutants in the air, ozone pollution, UV radiation, pesticides, alcohol, smoking, drugs, other toxins, medications, infections, surgery, and a poor diet. Also physical and mental stress, as well as extreme sports can lead to increased free radicals and thus to oxidative stress. However, the free radicals are not only harmful, but also fulfil important tasks in our human organism as a weapon of the immune system against foreign organisms such as pathogenic bacteria and viruses, as well as against body-hostile cancer cells.
It is crucial that aggressive oxidants and antioxidants balance each other in the organism. Important antioxidants are coenzyme Q10, selenium, zinc, vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, polyphenols, and sulphides. This will ensure that we age but have a good chance of staying healthy. Coenzyme Q10 plays a key role in this system because it also provides the energy needed to keep the process going. Every person breathes about 17 tons of oxygen in the course of his life. Of these, one ton of oxygen is taken up as free radicals, which the body must neutralize again. The coenzyme Q10 performs this energetic power act. Lack of sufficient energy and coenzyme Q10 in the body leads to premature aging and disease.
Energy supplier coenzyme Q10
Coenzyme Q10, also known as ubiquinone, is a so-called vitamin-like substance that the human body can partially produce from amino acids and B-vitamins. Chemically, it is a compound of oxygen, hydrogen and carbon found in all body cells.
The name ubiquinone means “exists everywhere”. The ability of self-synthesis of coenzyme Q10 decreases significantly with aging, so it must be supplied externally to ensure good health. Organs and tissues that consume a great deal of energy often have a markedly reduced coenzyme Q10 content in old age. These are the heart, liver, kidneys, pancreas, nerves, muscles and the immune system.
Without coenzyme Q10, energy production in the cell is impossible and cell death occurs. 95% of the energy produced in the body is coenzyme Q10-dependent.
The cell organelles responsible for producing energy are called mitochondria. Here, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is formed, which is then available to the other cell organelles as an energy source. In order to form adenosine triphosphate, energy has to be transferred in the form of electrons as well as protons. This task is done by coenzyme Q10. 95% of the body energy thus generated is dependent on the electron transfer by coenzyme Q10. Depending on the type of organ, the respective organ cells have much or little mitochondria. Much energy is needed especially in the heart, muscle, brain, liver, kidney and reproductive cells. So a liver cell can contain well over 1000 mitochondria.
Considering that human beings consist of ten billion cells and contain some cells with up to one billion ATP molecules, which are used and reused 1000 to 1500 times in 24 hours, the importance of coenzyme Q10 to reach old age with long lasting health can be recognized even without studying biochemistry.
But coenzyme Q10 is not only the key to our cell’s energy supply, it also has additional antioxidant functions in the adipose tissue: it stabilizes the cell membrane and keeps it elastic, it prevents the oxidation of lipids in cell membranes and it regenerates vitamin E for radical defence.
What is the supply situation with coenzyme Q10?
The human organism can produce limited coenzyme Q10 in the liver itself which depends on the age. However, this is only possible in the presence of the amino acids phenylalanine, tyrosine and methionine, minerals, and B vitamins (especially folic acid and vitamin B12).
There must also be normal liver function for self-production of coenzyme Q10. In all forms of hepatic dysfunction, self-production of Q10 is reduced or even abolished.
The table shows how the self-production of coenzyme Q10 decreases even under optimal conditions:
|Organ||Coenzyme Q10 value at age 20 in percent||Coenzyme Q10 value at age 40 in percent||Coenzyme Q10 value at age 79 in percent|
Only a small amount of coenzyme Q10 can be absorbed through the diet which usually is not more than 1% of the daily requirement. Coenzyme Q10-rich are meat (heart and offal), fatty fish, vegetable oils, nuts and whole grains. Vegans and vegetarians both have a problem with the intake and self-production (vitamin B12) of coenzyme Q10.
The daily requirement for coenzyme Q10 for a good energy supply is at least 60 mg, and 100 mg daily is recommended. Due to the poor supply in our food, additional supplements (e.g., Q10 Bio-Qinon Gold with 100 mg) are recommended.
Coenzyme Q10 and its positive influence on aging
Coenzyme Q10 production increases until the age of 20 to 25, after which it starts to decrease steadily. In order to provide enough energy for the normal aging process, coenzyme Q10 should be regularly supplemented from the age of 35 years. Stress, certain illnesses, and the permanent use of medication can greatly increase the coenzyme Q10 requirement. Conversely, a decrease in the coenzyme Q10 content in the body by 25% can lead to serious diseases, and a vicious circle is created which can lead to a strong impairment of health and zest for life.
Of course sport is good for your health, but it also increases your energy consumption. Extreme athletes promote oxidative stress in the body and need more antioxidants and coenzyme Q10. Anyone who regularly exercises intensively should pay attention to a good intake of ubiquinone and consider coenzyme Q10 supplements early on, as energy deficiency reverses the positive effect of exercise and the body can easily be damaged and prematurely aged. Every older endurance athlete therefore benefits enormously from coenzyme Q10.
The formation of coenzyme Q10 in the body is dependent on normal liver function. If this is not guaranteed, coenzyme Q10 must be supplied to the body from outside to ensure the increased energy requirement. Also, a regular, increased consumption of alcohol leads to an impaired liver function and disturbs the coenzyme Q10 formation in the body.
Medicines are actually used to cure sick people, but unfortunately they also have side effects. Not infrequently, the production of coenzyme Q10 in the body is disturbed or even reversed. This side effect is particularly pronounced for drugs from the group of statins. Statins lower cholesterol and are prescribed primarily in people with heart disease or high rates of vascular calcification. But especially with these people, the life expectancy is greatly reduced by the omission of coenzyme Q10 because without sufficient energy it soon leads to heart muscle weakness, arrhythmia and high blood pressure. From a medical point of view, therefore, it is completely incomprehensible why people get the statins, and not coenzyme Q10 prescribed at the same time. After all, it does not make sense to lower the cholesterol level in order to grow as healthy as possible on the one hand, but on the other hand to significantly reduce life expectancy by depleting energy production. A supplement with coenzyme Q10 is absolutely necessary here.
Meanwhile, many people need drugs from the group of antidepressants and tranquilizers. These drugs strongly inhibit coenzyme Q10 production in the liver, so substituting coenzyme Q10 helps to achieve the therapeutic goal of the drugs.
All forms of heart disease are associated with an increased need for coenzyme Q10. It is possible that a chronic coenzyme Q10 deficiency is also the cause of heart disease, so that a substitution can relieve the discomfort significantly and lead back to a normal life expectancy.
In our modern age, we are exposed to a variety of stress. Stress generates a significantly increased metabolism, leads to the formation of free radicals and a considerable requirement of extra energy. To cover this, coenzyme Q10 must be substituted. If this does not happen, life expectancy drops considerably in some cases. Several studies have shown that people with stress and resulting depression nearly always have a coenzyme Q10 deficiency.
Chronic muscle diseases significantly reduce life expectancy. Often, these diseases are associated with a defect of the mitochondria. If there is an additional lack of coenzyme Q10, the symptoms increase. A substitution with coenzyme Q10 helps to keep the energy level as high as possible to relieve the symptoms and to increase the life expectancy.
People with too much glucose in the blood have an increased oxidative stress, especially in the mitochondria. As a result, ATP production is lowered, resulting in a decrease in insulin production in the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. Coenzyme Q10 as an energy source stabilizes the remaining insulin production and above all protects against numerous late damages of diabetes, which leads to a significant reduction in life expectancy.
Cancers most often lead to decreased life expectancy. At the same time, cancers, especially if they are treated with ionizing radiation or chemotherapy, lead to a greatly increased energy consumption, so that the administration of coenzyme Q10 is imperative. Coenzyme Q10, along with other nutrients, increases life expectancy in cancers and significantly alleviates sickness and pain.
High blood pressure enormously loads the cardiovascular system. Energy consumption is increasing and life expectancy is decreasing due to many complications. In addition, most blood pressure medications reduce coenzyme Q10 levels. Coenzyme Q10 alone reduces the average blood pressure by more than 10% and reduces the side effects of the medication used to treat hypertension. Coenzyme Q10 administration is essential for patients with high blood pressure to prevent premature aging.
Aging and maintaining health is highly dependent on the provision of energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate. The energy is produced in the mitochondria, whereby the coenzyme Q10 plays a central role due to its ability to transport electrons and protons. Without coenzyme Q10, energy is not provided sufficiently to the body’s cells. The unwanted consequences are illness and premature aging. The older we get, the more coenzyme Q10 we need for our physical and mental well-being. Seen in this way, ubiquinone is the universal vital substance for healthy aging.