By: Thomas Pickering, MD, DPhil, FRCP, Director of Integrative and Behavioral Cardiology Program
of the Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York.

There have been suggestions from animal and human experiments that coenzyme Q10, an antioxidant which is becoming a popular nutritional supplement, may lower blood pressure and help to prevent heart disease.

A study conducted in India took 59 patients with hypertension who were admitted to hospital with angina or a heart attack, and randomly allocated them to get either four coenzyme Q10 capsules a day (marketed as Q-gel, and each containing 30 mgs of coenzyme Q10) or placebo capsules. The study lasted for eight weeks and involved the measurement of blood pressure and blood tests. The patients given coenzyme Q10 showed a reduction of blood of 12/7 mmHg (systolic/diastolic) at the end of the study when compared with the control group. There was also a reduction of blood triglycerides and insulin, and a slight increase of HDL (“good”) cholesterol.

Doctor’s comments

Unsubstantiated claims are made for many dietary supplements that they lower blood pressure, but here’s one that really does seem to work. There are other studies that have found the same thing, and there is also some evidence that deficiency of coenzyme Q10 is associated with hypertension.

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