Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Over the years I've purchased many different brands of CoQ10. These days I go for the one that is guaranteed manufactured in the USA, as this company states it does, and refuse to pay massively more money to get ubiquinol. Notice that this brand does not say specifically what kind of CoQ10 it is, so I'm assuming that's because it is ubiquinone, the cheaper kind. If it were ubiquinol, they'd say so, because it's a selling point. Below is general information on CoQ10 for consumers who, like me, appreciate this type of information: Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is made naturally in the body, but it decreases gradually as we age, and its production is blocked by certain medications, most notoriously by statins (more on that below). CoQ10 is essential to the cellular process that generates adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is the body's most basic source of energy. Adequate production of ATP is crucial to every cell in the body, but is especially vital to heart-muscle cells because they never rest. It is also helpful in preventing and healing nerve-based pain conditions such as diabetic neuropathy. CoQ10 is also a powerful antioxidant. All antioxidants fight free radicals, which damage the membranes and DNA of cells, often to the extent of causing early cell death. Scientists believe free radicals contribute to the aging process as well as a number of health problems, including heart disease and cancer. Because CoQ10 is such a powerful antioxidant as well as increasing cellular energy, it has been long touted by alternative/holistic doctors as offering powerful protection and healing to a damaged heart. In contrast, in a rather tragic irony of mainstream medicine, statin drugs, which are routinely prescribed to millions of people every day to prevent heart disease by lowering cholesterol (and are one of the biggest moneymakers for Big Pharma), have been found to lower the body's levels of CoQ10. This can, in and of itself, lead to a heart attack via the condition called "heart failure" (HF). HF is connected to two main issues related to CoQ10: (1) CoQ10 is crucial, as mentioned above, for energy production at the cellular level, and is most crucially needed in muscle tissue. The heart is made up of muscle tissue, whose energy demands are the highest in the body, and lowering those levels compromises the heart. (2) Statins worsen left ventricular diastolic function, which can lead to HF, and this has also been linked to the lowering of CoQ10 levels, because CoQ10 supplementation reverses this side effect. In addition, as the body's CoQ10 levels go down, many additional nasty side effects of statins increase, including: nausea, diarrhea, increased blood sugar (sometimes to the point of creating type 2 diabetes), and muscle pain, up to and including rhabdomyolysis, a serious condition in which muscle cells collapse, releasing a muscle protein into the bloodstream that can cause liver and kidney damage. For all of the above reasons, patients who are willing to suffer the major health risks of taking statins are recommended to supplement with CoQ10. There is something of a controversy as to which form of this vital nutraceutical is best, ubiquinone or ubiquinol. Since there have been extravagant claims in the marketplace for some time now that ubiquinol is hugely better than ubiquinone, CoQ10 in that form is, naturally enough, sold at hugely higher prices than ubiquinone. According to my own recent research on the subject, however, these big claims and big price tags are not actually merited. This is what I learned: CoQ10 exists in two forms in the body, ubiquinone and ubiquinol. When the body utilizes ubiquinone, in the process it transforms the ubiquinone into ubiquinol. Conversely, when the body processes ubiquinol, it converts it into ubiquinone. Both forms of CoQ10 are important for the body, and the body doesn't care which form you give it, because it can alter each form into the other, as needed.