Selenium/CoQ10 combo prevents heart disease deaths

Natural Health News — Results of a five-year long study suggest that long-term supplementation with selenium and coenzyme Q10 may reduce the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

Swedish researchers randomly assigned 443 Swedish seniors between the ages of 70 and 88 to receive either 200 mg coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) capsules along with 200 mcg of organic selenium yeast tablets per day, or a placebo.

The study participants were monitored for up to four years. Over that time, 12.6% of those on the placebo died of cardiovascular disease, versus just 5.9% of those who got the selenium and CoQ10.

That’s a significant difference. But whether or not the patients dies was not the only proof that the selenium/CoQ10 combination worked.

Further investigation showed that patients who took the supplements had lower levels of N-terminal proBNP, a chemical marker that indicted tension in the heart wall, when compared to those on the placebo.

In addition, echocardiography – heart ECHO tests – showed that those taking the supplements had much better cardiac function than those taking the placebos.

It’s the first time the relationship between these two supplements has been explored. The researchers suggest that the reason the combination is so much more effective than either supplement on its own is that selenium appears to boost the activity of a protein known as TrxR1 that in turn helps optimise the efficiency of the CoQ10.