Online publication only
"We are now in a position to witness the unfolding of the greatest medical tragedy of
all time - never before in history has the medical establishment knowingly created a
life-threatening nutrient deficiency in millions of otherwise healthy people."
- Peter H. Langsjoen, MD
Ubiquinone (CoQ10) is a popular heart medication that until 2001 was only available by prescription in Japan. The public is hardly aware that an increasingly popular class of cardiovascular drugs called statins (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) interferes with the body's synthesis of CoQ10. Top-selling statin drugs, such as Lipito® and Zocor®, earn their makers in excess $20 billion per year. These drugs lower the endogenous production of cholesterol and are often touted as "life-saving" by cardiologists and the media.
Are statin drugs really good for us, or are cardiologists mistaken? How can drugs that lower the body's production of CoQ10 benefit heart patients? Are the health benefits attributed to CoQ10 supplementation hype, or are the thinking and the science used by statin drug marketers fundamentally wrong?
CoQ10 Basics
Coenzyme Q10 is a vitamin-like, fat-soluble antioxidant found everywhere in the body. The highest concentrations have been measured in vital organs such as the heart and pancreas. At age 20, an individual's heart has a higher CoQ10 level than other major organs. At age 80, this is no longer true, with CoQ10 levels in the heart cut by more than half. More than 35 controlled clinical trials in Japan, Europe, and the U.S. have proven that CoQ10 therapy is highly effective in treatment of congestive heart failure, angina and ischemic heart disease, and myocardial infarction. It is now believed that CoQ10 is the key nutrient for generating 95% of the total energy required by the human body.
A healthy, youthful human body can make its own CoQ10. Endogenous production or biosynthesis of CoQ10 has 17 steps, requiring at least seven vitamins (vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B3 (niacinamide), vitamin B6, folic acid, vitamin B12, vitamin C, and pantothenic acid) and several trace elements.
The pharmaceutical giant Merck has known for more than 15 years that statin drugs interfere with CoQ10 biosynthesis, leading to low serum levels, which cause muscles to atrophy. The following claim from one of two 1990 Merck patents (4,933,165) suggests adding CoQ10 to statin drugs to overcome statin-induced myopathy:
1. A pharmaceutical composition comprising a pharmaceutical carrier and an effective antihypercholesterolemic amount of an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor and an amount of Coenzyme Q.sub.10 effective to counteract HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor-associated skeletal muscle myopathy. (Italics added.)
This invention has never been implemented, probably because the world supply of CoQ10 is limited, and current production would only supply one-sixth of the world's statin users.
Various Health Benefits Attributed To CoQ10
The CoQ10 science has accelerated from its discovery in 1957 until the present day and appears excellent. The following headlines summarize the many clinical studies that have shown CoQ10 supplementation beneficial in disease conditions ranging from Parkinson's disease to cataracts. Dosages studied range from 30 mg to 1200 mg daily. Higher dosages have generally been found to be more beneficial:
• CoQ10 Gives Complete Protection Against Stroke
Since 1972, in studies of stroke in three animal models (dog, rat, gerbil), ubiquinone (coq10) was the only agent giving complete protection and this was over two times more often than the next best agent (naloxone) of the many tested to date.
(http://faculty.washington.edu/ely/coenzq10abs.html)
• CoQ10 benefits Cardiovascular Disease
CoQ10 levels in heart tissue decline disproportionately with age. CoQ10 pioneer Karl Folkers (1985), in agreement with earlier Japanese studies, found lower CoQ10 levels in patients with more severe heart disease and showed that CoQ10 supplements significantly raised blood and heart tissue levels of CoQ10 in these patients.
(http://faculty.washington.edu/ely/coenzq10.html)
• CoQ10 Improves High Blood Pressure
At least six clinical trials have shown a blood pressure-lowering effect of CoQ10.
(http://content.intramedicine.com/dse/consumer/monoAll-style.asp?objD-100015&ctype-ds&mtyp-4)
• CoQ10 for Parkinson's disease
Less disability developed in subjects on CoQ10 than in those on placebo, and the benefit was greatest in people receiving the highest dosage.
http://www.coq10supplement.com/story/coq10-slows-parkinsons
• CoQ10 Benefits People With Kidney Failure
"Because CoQ10 has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of chronic renal failure, a large-scale, long-term study should be initiated as soon as possible." - Alan Gaby
http://www.coq10supplement.com/herbal-remedies/coenzyme-q10/coq10-renal-failure
• CoQ10 for Youthful Skin
Recently, scientists have also discovered that this natural supplement may even slow down the skin's aging process. Gerson Unna confirmed that, like vitamin E, Co-Q10 slows down tissue damage by decreasing the effect of free radical molecules. In a placebo-controlled study, researchers at Beiersdorf discovered that after six weeks of daily treatment on crow's feet (eye wrinkles), wrinkle depth was reduced by 27%; after ten weeks, fine lines and wrinkles were reduced by a surprising 43%. The enzyme also has been effective in the reduction and fading of age spots and is touted by Beiersdorf for its lack of toxicity.
CoQ10 pioneer Karl Folkers claimed that the primary source of CoQ10 in man is biosynthesis. Folkers argues that "suboptimal nutrient intake in man is almost universal, causing subsequent secondary impairment in CoQ10 biosynthesis."According to CoQ10 expert Peter H. Langsjoen, MD, "this means that average or "normal" levels of CoQ10 are really suboptimal, and the very low levels observed in advanced disease states represent only the tip of a deficiency iceberg."
Vitamin C is a natural hydroxamethylglutaryl-CoA (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitor. In experiments, when vitamin C levels are low, cholesterol becomes elevated, and when more vitamin C is consumed, cholesterol levels decline. The mechanism by which vitamin C lowers cholesterol was discovered around 1985. High Vitamin C levels inhibit the same the HMG-CoA reductase enzyme as do the statin drugs. The inescapable conclusion is that vitamin C does what statins do – lowers cholesterol – without side-effects. If the statin drugs have been patterned after Vitamin C, however, they still lack many other benefits of the vitamin. For example, vitamin C promotes the production of coenzyme Q10 and lowers Lp(a).
It is interesting that, in addition to vitamin C, our bodies require many B vitamins to synthesize CoQ10. Voluminous research has found beneficial effects from ascorbic acid supplementation similar to the effects found from smaller dose CoQ10 supplementation. For example, in a recent study, hydro-soluble CoQ10 supplementation was shown to lower circulating levels of Lp(a). We speculate that some of these similar effects may be due to increased endogenous CoQ10 synthesis induced by the ascorbic acid along with generally better all-around nutrition.
Every human body makes up to 500 mg of CoQ10 daily; no human body can make vitamin C. As important as CoQ10 is for health, vitamin C is more important, perhaps an order of magnitude. Most mammals synthesize ten times more vitamin C than they do CoQ10, when adjusted for body weight. Under normal circumstances, the daily amount of ascorbic acid produced by mammals lies between 3,000 mg and 15,000 mg, with an average of 5,400 mg, when adjusted for comparison to the weight of the average male human being.
We conclude that everyone should supplement 3,000 mg to 6,000mg vitamin C daily from birth, including during pregnancy. On the other hand, healthy, well-nourished children will usually synthesize their own CoQ10. With the possible exception of athletes, persons taking vitamin C should not have to supplement CoQ10 until the fourth or fifth decade of life. Athletes have a high requirement for CoQ10 and may benefit from supplementation earlier in life.
The Statin Dilemma
The question persists, how can statin drugs that deplete levels of CoQ10 be life- saving? Not only do statins, used to treat elevated blood cholesterol levels by blocking cholesterol biosynthesis, also block CoQ10 biosynthesis, but most CoQ10 and vitamin E molecules circulate through the bloodstream attached to LDL particles.
According Dr. Langsjoen, "The resulting lowering of blood CoQ10 level is due to the partially shared biosynthetic pathway of CoQ10 and cholesterol. In patients with heart failure, this is more than a laboratory observation. It has a significant harmful effect that can be negated by oral CoQ10 supplementation."
So, are safe statin drugs the next "aspirin?" Considerable hype surrounds the science reporting behind cholesterol-lowering drugs. As we chased down many of the media stories suggesting benefit, we found that most stories are either hoaxes or highly speculative. In the world of media hype, an estimated 0.4% reduction in plaque creates worldwide news. Furthermore, an overall theory that explains the reported benefits of statins is difficult to formulate.
The first red flag one encounters researching the statin studies is that the raw mortality data is kept a closely guarded secret. The data is summarized, but it is surprisingly hard to inspect the raw data of studies published in peer-reviewed journals – i.e., the mortality data that allegedly supports the life-saving claims made for statins – . This is true of the so-called Heart Protection Study (HPS), managed by Oxford University. According to statistician Eddie Vos, after millions of statin pills, in those studies that have summarized or released the data, no change exists in mortality curves – the graphs depicting the placebo and statin groups' mortality rates:
Massive benefits, proclaims Oxford University, about its 2002 HPS study, "The World's Largest Cholesterol-lowering Trial." Seventy-five percent of heart attacks still happen, and while the study placed 300 people on the drug for 12 months, only one death was postponed. Massive drug use, few lives saved. The next European study claiming benefit in high-risk elderly, PROSPER, found six lives saved, but 24 more cancer deaths, and more new cancers in each of four years in a group with 52 fewer smokers. Zero "anything" benefit was next found in the ALLHAT trial in North Americans ten years younger: one death postponed per 1.1 million $3 pills taken! Next was Lipitor's ASCOT study, which also provided no mortality benefit. From ten years ago: cholesterol lowering by any means caused 150 more deaths per 100,000 patient-years of intervention (www-health-heart.org).
The HPS paper published in Lancet makes me wary of the claims made by the authors. HPS reportedly had four study groups: 1) a placebo group, 2) a placebo-plus-antioxidant-vitamins group, 3) a statin group, and 4) a statin-plus-antioxidant-vitamins group. A second paper devoted to the antioxidant vitamins was published, implying that claims of "massive benefit" in the first paper were between the statins and placebo. However, the paper is written without even a summary of the supporting data, and these results could very well have been between the statins-plus-antioxidants group 4 against the placebo group 1. The authors carefully avoid this issue. The HPS paper does not discuss the differences between the statins group 3 and statins-and-antioxidants group 4 versus placebo, an obvious point of interest. Instead, the authors published the second paper, diverting attention from this issue. The refusal to publish and share the data indicates that there may be something to hide. British author/researcher Malcolm Kendrick, MD, has this to say about the HPS:
In the Heart Protection Study (HPS), a major study in which the rate of deaths was (reportedly) reduced in patients taking a statin (simvastatin), revealed that, at post-mortem, the people who had been taking the statin had bigger and more complex plaques than those who had not.
Vitamin C and MortalityVitamin C's proven effect on mortality stands in stark contrast to the statin drugs. According to author Bill Sardi, "Vitamin C is the only vitamin repeatedly proven to increase the human life span when taken in doses that exceed dietary levels of this vitamin." This observation was recently confirmed in Britain, again.
In November 2003, the British Centre for Ageing and Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom. (astrid.fletcher@lshtm.ac.uk) published their findings of a direct correlation between low vitamin C and increased mortality:
We found a strong inverse relationship for blood ascorbate (vitamin C) concentrations with all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality, which were only marginally reduced after adjustment for confounders or supplement use. Those in the lowest fifth (< 17 micromol/L) had the highest mortality, whereas those in the highest fifth (> 66 micromol/L) had a mortality risk nearly half that (hazard ratio = 0.54; 95% CI: 0.34, 0.84). Similar results were found after the exclusion of those subjects with cardiovascular disease or cancer at baseline (hazard ratio = 0.51; 0.28, 0.93). In fully adjusted models, there was no evidence for an influence of alpha-tocopherol (vitamin-E), beta-carotene, or retinol (vitamin-A) on total mortality. Dietary antioxidants measured by the food-frequency questionnaire were not associated with all-cause or cardiovascular disease mortality"
Adverse Side Effects of Statin Cholesterol Lowering Drugs
The following headlines from HEALTHFREEDOMNEWS reveal the many little-known side effects of the artificial statin drugs, some of which are required to be reported in Canadian statin drug ads, but not the U.S. versions.
Statin Cholesterol Lowering Drugs have the following characteristics:
1. They deplete the ubiquinone (vitamin-like) Coenzyme Q10 causing cardiomyopathy and heart failure.
2. They change, weaken, damage, or destroy muscle (depending on dose and concomitant use of other drugs).
3. They do not slow atherosclerosis.
4. They induce sudden total memory loss.
5. They increase eye cataract risk.
6. They suppress immune function.
7. They are linked to cancer.
8. They have been linked for ten years with Rhabdomyolysis and Myoglobinuria ( Term Pronunciation: rab′dō-mī-ol′i-sis.)
9. They have been linked with elevated transaminase (indicator of liver and kidney damage).
10. They are linked to nerve damage.
11. They induce muscle pain.
12. They do not extend life.
13. They increase serum Lp(a) concentrations (increasing odds of heart attack or stroke up to 70%).
14. They reduce left ventricular function.
15. They elevate the lactate to pyruvate ratio.
16. They enhance LDL cholesterol oxidation.
17. They would be expected to interfere with any function (e.g., sex hormone production, hair growth, sleep, or proper brain and nerve function) that depends on cholesterol or CoQ10.
18. They are prescribed to 13 million (in the U.S., 25 million worldwide) creating a $20 billion market.
19. They are MORTAL (or else will cause 65,000 predicted myopathies. Source: Merck Patent) NOTE: A biopsy is the only reliable test for statin-induced myopathy. |
