CoQ10 benefits and experiences?

I’ve been playing around with different vitamins, minerals, and oils for years now, and honestly, I feel great. Lately, I’ve been getting really curious about CoQ10. Everything I’ve managed to dig up on the subject looks incredibly promising—it almost sounds like a fountain of youth.
Just a heads-up, I’m definitely not an expert here. But over the last few years, I’ve become much more interested in healthy living, especially when it comes to nutrition. And no, I’m not one of those people who's afraid to take a handful of supplements every day just to ward off illness or try to stay young as long as possible. At the same time, I'm not naive enough to swallow every flashy advertisement I see...
So, what can you guys tell me about it?

Grace Baker2 said:Does anyone actually know anything about this?

Look, we all know that overdoing it is dangerous and that Big Pharma makes its real money off "supplements." It’s hardly surprising then that the public only hears about the "positive" side of things.
For instance, did you know that taking massive doses of Vitamin C can actually lead to liver cirrhosis?

Let's not get carried away here. Taking one multivitamin every couple of days is plenty, provided you're eating a decent diet.

As for CoQ10, I only know the textbook stuff: it's part of the inner mitochondrial membrane, involved in the respiratory chain, oxidative phosphorylation... basically, there's nothing magical or life-extending about an electron transporter.

No pill is ever going to extend your lifespan or stop the aging process...

Thanks for the reply.

You mentioned that even something as common as Vitamin C can be harmful if you take too much, but you didn't specify at what point that happens. I'd guess it’s somewhere north of 12 grams a day. But honestly, how many people are actually taking doses that extreme? I personally take 1 gram daily, and I know that's already quite a lot. However, Linus Pauling—who was one of the absolute legends when it came to Vitamin C—recommended taking anywhere from 3 to 6 grams a day. He actually took much more than that himself, and he lived to be 94 years old, staying sharp and productive the whole way.

Maybe I wasn't clear before—it's not that I'm afraid of getting older. It's just that I want to prevent illness and disease rather than trying to treat them after they show up.
As for my age, I don't hide it at all. In fact, I embrace it! I just want to look and feel my best through my 40s... my 50s... and my 60s...
Regarding CoQ10, I know it's vital for optimal cellular energy production. It's a powerful antioxidant, supports the immune system, and might even play a role in cancer therapies and heart health. Plus, we naturally lose more of it as we age.

Best,

Man, my memory is failing me—I haven't been keeping up with my Omega-3s or my cholesterol meds 😉—so I can't say for sure what the exact Vitamin C dosage was. I know it was definitely under 6 grams a day, spread out over several years... As for Linus Pauling, he probably would have advocated for those levels regardless; honestly, even he admitted toward the end of his life that he might have been a bit too biased when it came to Vitamin C 🙂
At the end of the day, there are plenty of people hitting that 100-year milestone who never touched a single supplement. Plus, let's be real, there isn't actually a definitive study linking specific vitamins or minerals to longevity or overall health...
Supplements are basically just chemicals, and you don't want to overdo it. Fortunately, we only need them in tiny amounts, so most people should be able to get everything they need from a standard American diet. If someone is living in extreme poverty or dealing with food insecurity and isn't sure if they're eating "normally," then supplements make sense. But if you take too much, some of those chemicals get excreted easily while others tend to build up in your system. Either way, once your systems are saturated, an excess is harmful, not helpful.

Taking 1g of Vitamin C a day is fine. You'll probably just pee most of it out, but at least it’s not a dose that’s going to wreck your kidneys or your liver 🙂

Seriously, don't go overboard. Vitamins and minerals aren't magic potions that protect you from every disease. I'll say it again: taking too much can give you a headache 😉

Best, 🙂

Grace Baker2 said:And no, I’m not scared of taking a handful of pills every day as a way to prevent sickness and disease (and basically delay aging as much as humanly possible). And I'm not naive enough to fall for every single commercial out there...
Please, what do you guys actually know about this?

Ha! Since when does anyone ever admit they're just swallowing whatever the commercials tell them to?

If you're popping a whole bag of pills daily, then yeah, I can objectively say you're a "dedicated consumer." Just saying.

BTW, a whole bag is definitely overkill. Trust me, having too much stuff in your system causes way more headaches than not having enough...

Anyway, darkbison81, where on earth did you dig up that info about cirrhosis? Got any actual references from Medline or something similar? ps... we ended up talking about Vitamin C again! What can you do, it's fate 😉.

Grace Baker2 said:Regarding CoQ10, I know that it
1. is vital for optimal cellular energy production,
2. acts as a potent antioxidant,
3. boosts the immune system,
4. could play a significant role in cancer therapies,
5. heart disease, etc. ...
6. and our levels decline as we age.

1. Just like any other component within the respiratory chain,
2. or many other substances found in our environment and our bodies. (It’s actually more accurate to say "reducing agent," because "antioxidant" isn't even a strictly valid scientific term)
3. Proof? (As far as I know, there isn't any). Viruses also "stimulate" the immune system quite effectively. 😉
4. Look, when you're dealing with aggressive medical treatments, everything becomes relevant...
5. Evidence? (Not that I'm aware of).
6. This applies to many other substances in the body. You could say the same thing about water 🙂(losing water is actually one of the biggest issues with aging). Regarding CoQ10, if you take more of it, you just end up peeing more of it out; taking it in old age doesn't automatically mean it's helping. If your mitochondria have failed—which is something you can't just stop—you could swallow every single one of its constituents and you still wouldn't be able to restore function...

This is just an illustration of how you can frame things differently to make them look "appealing." You could write all of those points for thousands of different chemical compounds.

I hope that clarifies my position a bit better. Personally, I'm a fan of chemicals too. 🙂

Bradley Fisher20 said:Look, darkbison81, where on earth did you pull that cirrhosis data from? Do you have a specific citation from Medline or something? And seriously... here we go again with the Vitamin C talk! If it's meant to be, it's meant to be, I guess. 😉.

To hell with this Vitamin C stuff 😁—no, I wasn't hunting through Medline for the info. I actually saw it in a documentary on MoMA recently that featured some really solid data and decent experts for once...
. At this point, the conversation surrounding Vitamin C is old enough that we should finally have enough data and perspective to draw some real conclusions
.
Bradley Fisher20, I honestly think you and I are pretty much on the same page here 🙂.

So, what even is the CoQ10 functional group?

Look, whatever it is, if it doesn't count as an actual vitamin, then your body is supposed to just make it itself. And honestly? It probably doesn't even have a dedicated transport system to move it from your gut to your mitochondria. I could go on with more theories, but the deeper I dig into this whole thing, the more skeptical I get...

I mean, at least 70% of the pharmaceutical industry is built entirely on people being desperate and greedy about their health. When greed is the driving force, companies don't care if a product actually works—they just care that it's a massive money maker.

And man, they have plenty of those. There are like 10,000 "miracle drugs" out there backed by massive amounts of cash...

I completely agree with you, darkbison81—you make some really great points.
Personally, I stick to a solid daily multivitamin supplemented with extra Vitamin C, E, calcium, magnesium, omega-3, lecithin, Lactobacillus, and Bifidobacterium, plus some evening primrose oil. I just take one pill a day, rather than following those recommendations to take three.
I don't take any prescription medications, and I rarely even reach for an aspirin.

Best,

darkbison81, man, we're just screwing around here. I've known that since the first time I laid eyes on you 😉

Bradley Fisher20 said:What exactly is the functional group in CoQ10?

The active part of ubiquinone is a ring—I can't recall the specific technical term right now—that’s somewhat similar to a benzene ring, though it obviously has various side chains (substituents). If I remember correctly, the actual functional group is a keto group that can undergo reduction. Beyond that, the Q10 found in mammalian mitochondria also features ten isoprenoid units (which is why it’s called "10"; some variations out there are just Q6 or Q8). Those units are absolutely essential because they allow it to anchor itself into the inner mitochondrial membrane. Since the ring itself is hydrophilic, it needs that hydrophobic tail to stay anchored within the lipid membrane.

Grace Baker2 said:I’m right there with you, darkbison81. You actually make sense.
I stick to a solid multivitamin supplemented with extra Vitamin C, E, calcium, magnesium, omega-3s, lecithin, Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, and primrose oil. I take just one pill a day instead of following those ridiculous instructions telling you to pop three.
I don't take any prescription meds, and even an aspirin is a rare occurrence for me.

Best,

Personally, I don't have anything against aspirin.🙂 Its mechanism is extremely well-understood (unless I've completely lost my mind, it's an inhibitor of prostaglandin cyclase or some enzyme along that pathway). We've had data tracking its effects for over a hundred years—it's thoroughly documented—so I’d say it’s safe enough to recommend. That said, if you have a sensitive stomach and you're drinking wine, you should probably opt for the buffered version rather than straight acetylsalicylic acid.

Are you getting your probiotics through yogurt or some other way?

And seriously, taking one pill is better than three. Sometimes I honestly think if someone actually followed the dosage instructions on those bottles for a few years straight, they'd end up dead from toxicity... 🙄

I eat fruit yogurt pretty much all the time—at least three or four times a week—and I’ve also been taking Lactobacillus supplements for a few months now.

Grace Baker2 said:Look, I don't hide my age—far from it. But I want to look and feel my absolute best, whether I'm in my 40s, my 50s, or even my 60s...

I’ll get to a technical question later, but I had to address this first...

Grace......but I want to look and feel my best in my 40s... 😲 ...which implies you aren't even close to 40 yet if you're already loading up on all this stuff.😲

I’ve been 40 for a while now, and trust me, you need way, way less than this mountain of supplements just to stay healthy and look decent.🙂

But hey, they don't say "less is more" for nothing.😉

Grace Baker2 said:I eat fruit yogurt pretty much all the time—like three or four times a week—and I’ve also been taking probiotic capsules for a few months now.

Look, if you want some actual advice on saving money:🙂 fruit yogurts are fine, but those specialized probiotic drinks or cultured dairy products (just check the labels to see which strains they actually include) are way better than pills. A probiotic in a capsule isn't exactly at its peak because the freeze-drying and the whole manufacturing process messes with it. Besides the fact that the bacteria in yogurt are alive and kicking, the yogurt itself acts as a much better delivery system.🙂 For instance, you could probably ditch your calcium supplements if you just had a little yogurt every single day.

Take that extra cash you're saving and go buy some nice makeup or something.🙂

(PS: I’m not some kind of health fanatic or anything, it’s just that my work happens to involve Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, and other LAB strains right now.)

I hear you, Kenneth Hernandez67. I'm in my mid-40s myself.
I've been taking a daily multivitamin, along with some Vitamin C and E, for about 20 years now... though the rest of the supplements only joined the routine in the last few years.
Why are you so surprised? It's not like these things are dangerous.
At the end of the day, if I take too much, my body just flushes out the excess.
It’s definitely not like being on a regimen of antidepressants or heavy painkillers. 🙂

I'm not going to argue with you; that's a waste of my time. At the end of the day, your body, your choice. 🙂

Besides, you mentioned wanting to feel good and look great in your 40s, 50s, and 60s... which leads me to conclude you aren't quite there yet.

darkbison81, thanks for looking out for me, but I think you’re suggesting the wrong thing as a replacement (I’m talking about makeup). 🙂
I’ll be the first to admit that, given my age, I probably overdo it—sometimes "less is more" would be better.
But after decades of getting ready every single day and just loving those beautiful little palettes and all those vibrant colors, it’s pretty hard to break the habit. 🙂

Grace Baker2 said:darkbison81, thanks for looking out for me, but I think you’re suggesting the wrong kind of substitute—I’m talking about makeup here. 🙂
Look, I’m willing to admit it: given my age, I probably overdo it. Maybe "less is more" actually applies to me.
But after decades of doing my face every single morning and honestly just loving the ritual of those pretty little palettes and vibrant colors... it’s hard to just break the habit. 🙂

Well, fine. If you aren't going to go the makeup route, just buy some high-end lingerie instead. 🙂 Since Kenneth Hernandez67 is suddenly convinced he's got three sets of breasts to manage now... 😁

I was just trying to point out that sometimes there's a much more effective—and cheaper—way to handle things: actual core strength versus chasing myths in capsules and calcium tablets. 🙂 Since you're in your 40s, if I were you, I’d still take the calcium occasionally (though, granted, the pill bottle will definitely last longer than any workout routine).

Grace Baker22 said:At the end of the day, you just "flush out" the excess.

Sure, many things get excreted, but others stick around—specifically the fat-soluble ones like A, E, D, and Coenzyme Q10. But even for the stuff that does leave the body, it’s not as trivial as people think. Your liver only has a finite capacity for processing certain substances. If you constantly overwhelm its systems, those compounds start accumulating in the hepatocytes, and that's where the trouble starts (inflammation, cirrhosis, or in the worst cases, tumors). On top of that, the renal system isn't exactly thrilled about filtering out toxic levels of any substance over a long period either.

I think you're sensible enough—looking at how you take Vitamin C in reasonable doses—so I'm not trying to scare you. I just want to point out that this isn't as insignificant as it might seem at first glance. Any substance can be both beneficial and harmful to human health; it all comes down to factors like dosage. For instance, arsenic was actually used back in the day as a treatment for syphilis. 🙂