Based on the findings of the Q-SYMBIO study, presented at the Heart Failure 2013 congress in Lisbon, Portugal, researchers suggest that it should be added to maintenance therapy in chronic heart failure.
"CoQ10 occurs naturally in the body and is necessary for survival," says Pharmachoice spokesperson, pharmacist Liezl van Tonder. "It plays a crucial role in the production of cellular energy and is essential for heart and muscle contraction."
The study involved 420 patients with chronic heart failure and divided them into two groups; the first group taking 100mg of CoQ10 three times daily, whilst the other group did not receive treatment, for two years.
The results of the study showed that CoQ10 treated patients had reduced hospital admission rates for worsening heart failure and lower cardiovascular death, which may reflect a significant improvement in heart function.
She explains, "Heart failure is caused by the inability of the heart to pump blood efficiently around the body. Heart disease may result in heart failure and the statistics are staggering; more people die annually world-wide from Cardiovascular disease (CVD) than any other cause." According to the Heart & Stroke Foundation South Africa, in South Africa alone over 195 people die per day because of some form of heart disease.
This is the first robust clinical study which has addressed whether CoQ10 supplementation might improve survival in chronic heart failure and makes a sufficiently strong case for CoQ10 to be part of a maintenance therapy for chronic heart failure patients.
CoQ10 supplementation is also beneficial to patients on cholesterol lowering medication (statins), up to 50% of patients discontinue their statin medication within the first year of therapy, one of the common reasons being adverse effects including myalgia's (muscle pain). Statins reduce the levels of CoQ10 in the body and may be taken in combination with statin therapy to replenish lowered CoQ10 levels.
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