CoQ10 Blocks Alzheimer's Damage

Here's an exciting new reason to take CoenzymeQ10: It may help protect your brain from Alzheimer's.

CoQ10, a potent antioxidant, blocked the type brain damage that leads to Alzheimer's disease, say researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Hamdard University in India, who tested CoQ10 on animals with Alzheimer's-type brain damage. 

The Alzheimer's animals that did not get CoQ10 showed significant loss of cognitive performance. However, animals with Alzheimer's-like brain damage that got daily supplements of CoQ10 showed no signs of diminished cognitive performance and were just as intellectually competent as animals with no Alzheimer's damage.  

Examinations of the animals' brains revealed severe neurological dysfunction in those not given CoQ10 and virtually none in animals that took daily oral doses of CoQ10.

In short, the brains of the animals fed CoQ10 remained normal and their learning and memory, as determined by tests, were completely intact. 

Researchers explain that "CoQ10 supplementation improves learning and memory deficits possibly by inhibiting oxidative stress (damage from attacks by free radical chemicals that worsen with age), and improving levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP).  ATP regulates energy production in the cell's tiny factories (mitochondria).  Source: Ishrat T., Behav Brain Res 2006 Apr 16. Epub)

CoQ10 also reduces the risk of Parkinson's disease, and many doctors recommend high doses of CoQ10 to relieve symptoms of Parkinson's. 

Note: If you take cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, you should routinely take 100 mg CoQ10 daily to reduce risk of muscle-weakening side effects of the statins.