Study title and authors:
The clinical use of HMG CoA-reductase inhibitors and the associated depletion of coenzyme Q10. A review of animal and human publications.
Langsjoen PH, Langsjoen AM.
East Texas Medical Center and Trinity Mother Francis Health System, Tyler, TX 75701, USA. langsjoen@compuserve.com
This paper can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14695925
The author of this paper, Dr. Peter Langsjoen is a specialist in Coenzyme Q10 and cardiology. Dr Langsjoen has authored many papers outlining Coenzyme Q10 deficiency as a factor in heart disease. Dr Langsjoen's papers have demonstrated the association of advanced congestive heart failure with low blood levels of Coenzyme Q10 and shown, unequivocally, that replenishing Coenzyme Q10 dramatically helps the failing heart.
In this review of the scientific literature, Dr Langsjoen found:
(a) The depletion of the essential nutrient Coenzyme Q10 by the increasingly popular cholesterol lowering drugs, statins, has grown from a level of concern to one of alarm.
(b) With ever higher statin potencies and dosages, and with a steadily shrinking target levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the prevalence and severity of Coenzyme Q10 deficiency is increasing noticeably.
(c) Statin-induced Coenzyme Q10 depletion is well documented in animal and human studies with detrimental cardiac consequences in both animal models and human trials.
(d) This drug-induced nutrient deficiency is dose related and more notable in settings of pre-existing Coenzyme Q10 deficiency such as in the elderly and in heart failure.
Dr Langsjoen's review reveals that statins cause a deficiency in Coenzyme Q10 levels, and that low Coenzyme Q10 levels are associated with increased rates of heart failure.
Dr Langsjoen concludes: "We are currently in the midst of a congestive heart failure epidemic in the United States.....As physicians, it is our duty to be absolutely certain that we are not inadvertently doing harm to our patients by creating a wide-spread deficiency of a nutrient critically important for normal heart function".
In this review of the scientific literature, Dr Langsjoen found:
(a) The depletion of the essential nutrient Coenzyme Q10 by the increasingly popular cholesterol lowering drugs, statins, has grown from a level of concern to one of alarm.
(b) With ever higher statin potencies and dosages, and with a steadily shrinking target levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the prevalence and severity of Coenzyme Q10 deficiency is increasing noticeably.
(c) Statin-induced Coenzyme Q10 depletion is well documented in animal and human studies with detrimental cardiac consequences in both animal models and human trials.
(d) This drug-induced nutrient deficiency is dose related and more notable in settings of pre-existing Coenzyme Q10 deficiency such as in the elderly and in heart failure.
Dr Langsjoen's review reveals that statins cause a deficiency in Coenzyme Q10 levels, and that low Coenzyme Q10 levels are associated with increased rates of heart failure.
Dr Langsjoen concludes: "We are currently in the midst of a congestive heart failure epidemic in the United States.....As physicians, it is our duty to be absolutely certain that we are not inadvertently doing harm to our patients by creating a wide-spread deficiency of a nutrient critically important for normal heart function".
