200 mcg selenium and 200 mg Q10 not only raise your IGF-1 levels by 20%, but the same combination of supplements halves the chance of dying from a heart attack, heart failure or other cardiovascular problems the Swedes announced in 2015 in PLoS One. Study The researchers gave 443 elderly Swedes - their average age was 76 - 200 mg Q10 and 200 mcg selenium every day for four years - or a placebo. During those four years, and for another six years after the supplementation had ended, the researchers followed the participants and recorded who had died. Results The supplementation reduced the chance of the participants dying. In particular the chance of dying from cardiovascular disease decreased. Even when supplementation had finished, the protective effect remained. Supplementation halved the chance of dying. The Q10/selenium combination also protected the participants who already suffered from cardiovascular disease. The figure above shows that among the participants who had already had heart attack the supplementation halved the chance of them dying. And the Q10/selenium combination also had a protective effect for the participants who had heart failure. Conclusion "A 10-year evaluation of cardiovascular mortality in an elderly Swedish healthy population that was given dietary supplementation with selenium and coenzyme Q10 over a period of four years, indicated a reduced risk of cardiovascular mortality by 50% and a post-intervention persistency of protection against cardiovascular mortality," the Swedes summarised. "However, the mechanism explaining the persistent effect remains to be elucidated."
Mercola holds that the ubiquitol variation of CoQ 10 has far better absorption than the ubiquitone one. Not surprisingly, it's more expensive.
How nice that statins lower Q10 then... /s >Even when supplementation had finished, the protective effect remained. Hm, that is not good for Big Pharma... Personally I think the sample size was quite small, but I would like to know which one was more important the Selenium or the Q10? I think if I make it to 75, I am actually gonna be ready to die...
It is possible that the impact on the swedish subjects would be greater than for the general population for north americans because so many of the swedes have selenium deficiencies resulting from their soil conditions. Don't know, but if this study is replicated - say in the u.s or canada- then you would want to be sure that the test subjects were starting out with the same serum or tissue levels of selenium. Otherwise, you could see less improvement -which does not necessarily mean that the selenium is not beneficial- it just means they may not be starting out with a deficiency (or lower level anyway) as some/many of the swedes were. http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v70/n1/full/ejcn201592a.html?foxtrotcallback=true
Here is the paper referred to in Baron's post (includes link for downloadable PDF): http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0141641
Since most of us not 70+, the big questions are: Would this matter to 50+ year olds (or even younger) and should they start taking them, and if so for how long since the effects are not temporary???
Alzheimer's looms in the distance. Hearts are easy to fix these days, the brain not so much. I would imagine most Alzheimer's patients would have preferred having the big one rather than slowly losing their minds. I see a future of very healthy people playing with their poop all day. Perhaps I should change my nic to Captain sunshine. Been one of those days
If it's dementia you fear then there are a number of heart impairment regimens available. A steady diet of triple bacon cheeseburgers with copious amounts of cheap whiskey and amphetamines should do the trick.