Supplementing with Coenzyme Q10 and the mineral selenium are linked to better heart health, better heart function, and a big decreased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease in the elderly

October 16, 2012
Ubiquinol, the active version of Coenzyme Q10 allows you to burn the calories from food as energy for metabolism. For the nutrient Coenzyme Q10 to function you have to have a sufficient amount of the mineral selenium in your body. Selenium is a micronutrient meaning the body requires very little of it on a daily basis to function yet many people are low or even deficient in this mineral. In this study Swedish researchers and medical doctors from Linköping University and the Karolinska Institute investigated the “vital relationship” between the two nutrients in 443 Swedish subjects whose ages ranged from 70 to 88. They were observed for four-years. People living in Sweden are often low in selenium because selenium levels are low in their soil - any crops grown on their soil or animals raised on these crops would also lack selenium. Over the four-year period 12.6 percent of the elderly in the placebo group died of cardiovascular disease whereas only 5.9 percent in the Supplemented group died giving results that should not be ignored. Additionally NT-proBNP levels were much lower in the hearts of the supplemented elderly. NT-proBNP is a proxy for heart health and if it is elevated there is tension and stress in the hearts wall. Elevations in its level are connected with having heart failure or dying from cardiovascular disease. A further result through supplementing with the two nutrients was the detection of better cardiac function revealed through echocardiography. The study is published in the International Journal of Cardiology. For more information on the risk factor NT-proBNP see http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/content/abstract/55/5/441 and also http://www.healio.com/cardiology/hf-transplantation/news/online/%7BF7F9E035-E731-4DAD-80F4-33639B35C282%7D/NT-proBNP-levels-predictive-of-incident-HF-CV-death).