Dyslipidemia
CoQ10 is vital for energy production and as an antioxidant. It has been shown that people who take medications for high cholesterol, more specifically statin medications, have a tendency to develop fatigue and muscle pain. This study talks about the relationship of CoQ10 and associated muscle pain while taking statin medications. The red highlighted section below gives you a summary of the results.
Caso G, Kelly P, McNurlan
MA, et al.
Effect of Coenzyme Q10 on Myopathic
Symptoms in Patients Treated with Statins. Am J Cardiol.
2007;99:1409–1412.
The statin class of
cholesterol
lowering agents is well known for causing muscle symptoms of varying
degrees.
The inhibition of 3-hydroxy 3 methyl glutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) by
statins
is the same pathway shared by coenzyme Q10. Coenzyme Q10
is important for mitochondrial electron transport and decreased levels
may
affect oxidative phosphorylation and mitochondrial adenosine
triphosphate
production (ATP). Statin therapy may reduce coenzyme Q10
levels and
impair muscle energy metabolism resulting in myopathy or other muscle
symptoms
associated with these agents. This pilot study was conducted to
determine if
supplementation with coenzyme Q10 would improve muscle
symptoms in
statin treated patients. This was a double-blind study involving 32
patients on
statin therapy. Patients were enrolled if they had myopathic symptoms
that had
no other identifiable cause. Patients were randomly assigned to either
100 mg
of coenzyme Q10 or 400 international units of vitamin E for
30 days.
Myopathic symptoms and their interference with daily activities were
evaluated
prior to and after the intervention using the Brief Pain Inventory
Questionnaire. Pain intensity was evaluated using the Pain Severity
Score
(PSS). There was no significant difference in the doses of statins used
between
the two treatment groups but the doses did very. Patients treated with
simvastatin received anywhere from 10 to 80 mg, atorvastatin 10 to 20
mg,
pravastatin 10–40 mg, and lovastatin 40 mg. The results showed a
significant
decrease in pain intensity in the coenzyme Q10 treated
patients.
Pain intensity decreased by 40 ± 11% (p<0.001). Patients taking
vitamin E
showed no difference in pain intensity. In addition, the interference of
pain
with daily activities also significantly improved in the coenzyme Q10
treatment group 30 ± 14% (p<0.02) while there was no effect on daily
pain in
patients treated with vitamin E. However, there was no correlation
between pain
scores and the creatine kinase (CK) concentrations. These results
indicate that
supplementation with coenzyme Q10 may decrease pain and
improve
patient's ability to perform daily activities without the need for an
alteration in drug therapy or drug discontinuation. Of note, some of the
limitations of this study were the lack of a placebo control arm and a
lack of
standardization of statin dose. Additional studies are warranted to more
effectively assess the efficacy of coenzyme Q10 on statin
associated
muscle symptoms. Furthermore, the evaluation of the optimal dose and
duration
of coenzyme Q10 supplementation warrants evaluation as these
parameters have varied greatly in studies conducted to date and remain
unanswered.