This is supposed to improve oxygen delivery to the muscles, helping to break the cycle of muscle spasms. Also to be used with magnesium for muscle relaxing effects. Has anyone tried these two together and have you found that it works?
Tiffany I will be watching this post. am interested in learning more about CoQ10 for several reasons. I can say I have had some success with muscle spasms/contractures use of magnesium with chelated zinc, plus natural food sourced calcium. You won't absorb the magnesium without calcium uless it's by transdermal means like doing Epsom salt soaks..
wouldn't it be lovely if we all had access to a great nutritionist? I gal can dream, right?
hugs, feel better. right there with you spasming away.
I’m pondering once again whether to take Q10 or not, after it didn’t help last year. I’m already taking magnesium malate for FM & glycinate for that/muscles & alertness.
Cuz of my jaw inflammation and blood fats, my focus in the next months includes supps for these that I don’t immediately feel the fx of. If I don’t get the jaw inflammation down in 6 weeks I will lose a tooth. The dentist’s done all he can from his side and wasn’t sure whether to take it out or not, and followed my take to wait a bit and see if the inflammation and decay stops. I’m not quite under as much pressure to get my blood fats (LDL & triglycerides) down again - my main cardio sez they’re still OK (as lipoprotein a hasn’t gone up) - but I want them back down similar to when I was taking meds. So I’m sorta gonna be able to measure the supps’ fx. Also I’ve stopped taking aspirin to thin my blood, so I’m keen to have several supps doing that too, that won’t be measurable tho, as my cardio sez my blood flow is great, due to cycling, table tennis and exercising.
Balancing out the bottom line for me personally today, 2021-10-31
- The sfx skin, gut, sleep & bladder wd be OK, but not brilliant. There are also studies saying that it might be bad for atherosclerosis (contradicting other studies), which my docs & I’d not be keen on.
- the fx on pain, tenderness, fatigue, and sleep issues, possibly (orally) blood pressure, blood fats, blood flow & gums also sound “OK, but not brilliant”, seeing as I am targeting all of these with other supps.
- However if I want to do everything for gums/jaw at the mo, I’m even prepared to tolerate the possible sfx in the next 6 weeks. As I can’t tolerate ‘warming spices’, what I can take for inflammations is limited, so every extra supp helps, plus increasing those I’m already taking (SRP, Zn, Rhodiola, mumijo, NAC).
- I’m already eating lots of nuts & legumes high in Q10, and eating alkaline (veg) and not acidic (no pasta, hard cheese, curd, fish & meat, not much grains) I already have fairly high Q10, which conforms having had no problems with muscle pain from the statin. So chances are I won’t be needing it.
- Last year I used ubiquinone (up from 30-90mg and back down over 2 weeks) something research seems to have usually used, so this a more stable, better documented and cheaper form. But ubiquinol is 2-4x more bioavailable, which may be good or bad, and like taking more it’ll increase the dose available to me…
- The time span of up to 3-6 months is not that helpful, as the gum & jaw infection has to be down inside of 6 weeks, but that doesn’t mean it’s not gonna do anything, and maybe it’ll do the other good things, even like the small note I found from reading a functional doc saying it can help get a stuffy nose at night clear.
- So: I’ll now finish the ubiquinone, then let’s see whether I order that or ubiquinol pills, to take 300-400mg/d for praps 3 months, but I’ll take any sfx to mean it’s too much. The selene and ginkgo recommended to take it together with I’m taking anyway. For a short time the possible sfx of atherosclerosis may be secondary to the possible positive fx.
Click for: my former notes from my blog and 'notebook' after a 2018 meta-review recommending Q10 for statin-induced myopathy, incl. the many alternate names & abbreviations of this coenzyme at the end.
On my blog, shortly before Christmas 2020 I’d already written this:
Q10 (because of ‘muscle pain’ perhaps by the statins for my cardiovascular issues):
Just looked up my notes: Was enough in my bloods. There’s old studies to take it together with ginkgo. Can be compensated by nuts and legumes, which I eat lots. Only if very high cholesterol, mine is down due to diet. Reduced intracellular amounts of ATP, which I seem to have had, altho docs said that isn’t really measurable.
It seems it also has a positive cardiovascular effect, for me relevant is that it increases the good cholesterol, which I could do with a bit. The article on helpherself.org (linked to a dead link) recommends close monitoring, which would not be easy, since my blood is flowing well, despite the plaque. There’s also articles which link it to fibromyalgia/ME/CFS (results are slightly encouraging, an overview concludes, perhaps reducing pain, depression and headache, perhaps as antioxidant, perhaps on a mitochondrial level.).
The mayoclinic lists 9 side effects, all of which I am very sensitive to. So NO !
http://www.helpherself.com/coq10-thins-blood-and-helps-with-proper-clotting
The last link one is on Cort Johnson’s highly recommendable healthrising on FM & CFS.
Well I’m reconsidering (Mayo’s) sfx-list I’d rejected it for above: Gut, skin, sleep would all be a problem, gut & skin I’d sense, while sleep would be a tough one, as that’s fragile anyway, but as it might even help sleep, may still be worth thinking about…
I’ve found out that the “Q10” I have is “ubidecarenone”, which is ubiquinone - which is less bioavailable than ubiquinol; 300-400mg daily for fibromyalgia! I have only 30mg pills! Best several times a day…
I probably got these - not knowing the difference of the two - because the functional doc I was reading suggested increasing them slowly to 100mg and then down again.
Q10/CoQ10: antioxidant. heart. Energy (ATP-synthesis): mixed evidence. Possibly FM (& migraine=, but probably not CFS: reduces pain, tenderness, fatigue, and sleep issues, possibly (orally) blood pressure, blood fats, blood flow & gums, taken for 3-6 months Dose: Studies used 300-2x200mg/d or 200+200ginkgo for FM. Ubiquinol (reduced form) seems 2-4x more bioavailable than the normal ubiquinon (oxidized form) (which is what I have as ubidecarenone). Selene helps. Sfx bladder (user review Penip), otherwise most of the few for FM very positive?
Cordero MD et al., "Coenzyme Q10 distribution in blood is altered in patients with fibromyalgia. Clin Biochem. 2009 May;42(7-8):732-5.
Lister RE. "An open, pilot study to evaluate the potential benefits of coenzyme Q10 combined with Ginkgo biloba extract in fibromyalgia syndrome. J Int Med Res. 2002 Mar-Apr;30(2):195-9.
I first tried Q10 when doing the supp protocol of a German ‘functional doc’, Kuklinski last year.
He recommends 1st week: 2x30mg, 2nd: 2x60mg, 3rd: 2x90 (100) 4th: 2x100 5th: 2x90. and 6th 1-2x30mg again. In his opinion 30mg can hyper you, which is OK, even tho my wife might complain. He also warns that the blood pressure can rocket, that’s something I’d realize and would be measuring anyway.
He also recommends Q10 because of trigeminal (stuffy nose may come from that) which would help my sleep, if my long history and suspicion that my face pain & nose problems are explained by that.
On this German page it similar says Q10 helps against atherosclerosis (but there’s conflicting evidence against that), ATP, with sfx of diarrhea & skin. Adds that it can reduce the muscle pain of blood-fat reducing statins (which I didn’t have and am no longer taking). Selene is necessary for it to work (I’m taking selene anyway tho, for thyroid). Increases the fx of carnitin (which I’ve been taking as ALC, seems like good FM/energy fx). Interesting for me that it can reduce lipoprotein a using 50-200mg/d (German video, reputable German link about a German study saying:, German Consumer Protection doesn’t recommend substituting the CoQ10 which taking statins decrease generally, but instead to increase it by eating liver, fat fish, nuts and legumes, increasing alkaline food (veg, fruit) decreasing acidic food (grains, pasta, hard cheese, curd, fish & meat) to get the morning-pH down to 7 which can stop the hyperacidity/pain of the muscles. Only if that doesn’t reduce pain should CoQ10 substituted.
Q10: Lipid-corrected CoQ10-determination (German link). I had 1.83 on March 16th 2020, the reference range being stated as >1,45. OR 0.50-1.10 mg/l, but higher levels don’t matter German links 1 & 2.
The ratio of Q10 zu Cholesterin is 0.34, >0,2 seems high, but it’s OK, being high(?) "We recommend this correction too, but only if cholesterol is >350 mg/dl. (Me: 234). With reduced intracellular ATP it’s important to determine Q10 and praps substitute it. Usually the serum level is correlated to the intracellular level. (Read elsewhere that it’s not evenly distributed in FM).
Just realized various alternate names
The normal form of CoQ10 or Co-Q10 or Q-10 or Q10 or Coenzym(e) Q10 is
ubidecarenone = engl. Ubiquinone = UQ = German ubichinon, ubichinon-10, UQ, -10
which in this oxygenated form is less bioavailable than
ubiquinol (German: Ubichinol; Ubihydrochinon, QH2); 300-400mg daily for fibromyalgia! I have 1x30mg pills! Best several times a day…)