While heart disease once favored men and was even called “a widow maker”, it is now the leading cause of death in the United States for both men and women.
However, medical research continues to look for ways to prevent this.
Some of these studies have found that we lose CoQ10 in our heart muscle as we age and this loss is significant.
Although it was small, a Swedish study discovered that heart patients who died within six months had much lower levels of CoQ10 in their blood than those who survived.
And Dr. Karl Folkers, the Director of the Institute for Biomedical Research at the University of Texas at Austin, studied patients with cardiomyopathy, a serious heart problem that often leaves patients needing a heart transplant.
When the patients were given COQ10, the death rates dropped.
CoQ10 has also been found to be extremely helpful in lowering high blood pressure.
CoQ10 is present in small quantities in seafood, eggs, all fruits, and vegetables. However, it is estimated that the average person ingests only 5 mg. of CoQ10 per day.
This amount is considered too low to satisfy the body’s needs. This is particularly true of people over fifty years old. Even at middle age, people have only 20% of the CoQ10 which they had in their twenties.
It is believed that the decrease may be due to free-radical activity in the mitochondria. It is known that free radicals do cell damage, leading to various chronic illnesses including heart disease.
Many doctors recommend a supplement of 30 mg of CoQ10 daily for healthy people and 60 to 100 mg. for people at risk or who already have a heart problem.
You can buy CoQ10 in health food stores. It comes in tablets, soft gels, and chewable tablets.
Most doctors recommend the soft gels. It is also available in various strengths from 60 mg to 400 mg.
While Vitamin C has long been recommended as a protection from the common cold, researchers have now discovered that Vitamin C also protects your heart.
Vitamin C increases the strength of your capillaries. It helps repair red blood cells and inhibits blood clotting. It is also useful in lowering cholesterol and fat levels in the blood.
A serious deficiency in Vitamin C causes scurvy, a disease, which plagued sailors during early days of sailing. Then the British Navy started loading their ships with limes for the sailors to eat. This is how the British sailors became known as “limeys.”
Vitamin C is present in most fruits and vegetables, however citrus fruits such as oranges; grapefruit and tangerines are particularly rich in Vitamin C.
While people today are not so deficient in Vitamin C that they develop scurvy, most people do not get sufficient Vitamin C in their diet. Nutritionists recommend five servings a day of fruits and vegetables however most Americans consume only three servings.
Yet 200 mg of Vitamin C is needed each day to provide optimal antioxidant power and maximum heart disease protection. For this reason, many physicians recommend a supplement.
