The Best Vitamins and Supplements for Women

Best Supplements for Women

Browse By:
Most Popular:

Coenzyme Q10

Good food sources

Meat, fish, and chicken. Small amounts in vegetables, fruit, and milk.

How to get it: Like many other antioxidants, CoQ10 is found in certain foods, but it's tough to get enough from your diet alone to achieve the 100 mg or more used in clinical trials. Fish and beef have some, but not much. If you're interested in taking a CoQ10 supplement, talk with your doctor. It's available in softgel capsules, wafers, tablets, and powder-filled capsules, but softgels may be best absorbed.

Dosage: Ask your doctor about taking a 60 to 100 mg supplement up to 3 times a day.

Precautions: You should never take CoQ10 in place of a regular medication, but rather in addition to it, when your doctor recommends it. If you take statin drugs to lower cholesterol, your body's stores of CoQ10 may be depleted, so it's worth asking your doctor if a supplement might help replenish them. CoQ10 can blunt effects of blood-thinning drugs such as warfarin and aspirin.

Did you know...

If you regularly eat fish and meat, you'll get about 15 mg of CoQ10 a day from your diet.

Coenzyme Q10

Virtually every part of your body uses this powerful antioxidant, which means it can reduce the effects of damaging free radical molecules. Experts believe CoQ10, as it's nicknamed, works by improving the production of energy in cells, especially those that require a significant amount of energy to keep important organs, like your heart, functioning. In fact, CoQ10 became famous for its ability to help treat heart conditions such as congestive heart failure and cardiomyopathy (inflammation of the heart muscle).

It may also help lower blood pressure by dilating blood vessels: In a review of 12 studies, researchers found that coenzyme Q10 reduced blood pressure by up to 17 mmhg over 10 mmhg. Evidence suggests the enzyme may bolster immunity, help prevent cancer, and play a role in the treatment of migraines and several muscle-weakness disorders, including Parkinson's disease and the muscle-coordination problem ataxia. Some experts also recommend a CoQ10 supplement daily to combat fatigue.