Common supplement may slash heart failure deaths by half

Regular doses of the dietary supplement Coenzyme Q10 can cut the death rate of patients suffering from advanced heart failure by half, a new study conducted in several countries, including India, suggests.
Coenzyme Q10 decreases all cause mortality by half, according to the results of a multi-centre randomised double blind trial presented at Heart Failure 2013 congress in Lisbon, Portugal.
It is the first drug to improve heart failure mortality in over a decade and should be added to standard treatment, lead author Professor Svend Aage Mortensen, said.
Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) occurs naturally in the body and is essential to survival. CoQ10 works as an electron carrier in the mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cells, to produce energy and is also a powerful antioxidant.

CoQ10 levels are decreased in the heart muscle of patients with heart failure, with the deficiency becoming more pronounced as heart failure severity worsens.
Statins are used to treat many patients with heart failure because they block the synthesis of cholesterol, but these drugs also block the synthesis of CoQ10, which further decreases levels in the body.

Double blind controlled trials have shown that CoQ10 improves symptoms, functional capacity and quality of life in patients with heart failure with no side effects. But until now, no trials have been statistically powered to address effects on survival.
The study randomised 420 patients with severe heart failure to CoQ10 or placebo and followed them for 2 years.

The primary endpoint was time to first major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE) which included unplanned hospitalisation due to worsening of heart failure, cardiovascular death, urgent cardiac transplantation and mechanical circulatory support.
Participating centres were in Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, India, Malaysia and Australia.
CoQ10 halved the risk of MACE, with 29 (14 per cent) patients in the CoQ10 group reaching the primary endpoint compared to 55 (25 per cent) patients in the placebo group.
CoQ10 also halved the risk of dying from all causes, which occurred in 18 (9 per cent) patients in the CoQ10 group compared to 36 (17 per cent) patients in the placebo group.

CoQ10 treated patients had significantly lower cardiovascular mortality and lower occurrence of hospitalisations for heart failure.
"CoQ10 is the first medication to improve survival in chronic heart failure since ACE inhibitors and beta blockers more than a decade ago and should be added to standard heart failure therapy," Mortensen said.
"Other heart failure medications block rather than enhance cellular processes and may have side effects. Supplementation with CoQ10, which is a natural and safe substance, corrects a deficiency in the body and blocks the vicious metabolic cycle in chronic heart failure called the energy starved heart," he added.