The study was published in the September 25, 2014, online edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Heart Failure. It described the effects of 300 mg per day of ubiquinone given to a large group of chronic heart failure patients.
After 16 weeks of administration of this dose and form of CoQ10, there were no significant changes in measures of ejection fraction compared to placebo.3 What the researchers discovered, however, is that when these chronic heart failure patients took 300 mg per day of ubiquinone for two years, there was (compared to placebo) a remarkable:
- 44% reduction in cardiovascular mortality.
- 42% reduction in all-cause mortality.
- 45% reduction in the number of hospital stays (some people consider hospitals worse than jail).
- 29% improvement in the proportion of patients seeing a beneficial change in their NYHA classification (a composite measure of heart failure severity).
“Long-term CoQ10 treatment of patients with chronic heart failure is safe, improves symptoms, and reduces major adverse cardiovascular events.”
These findings help corroborate Dr. Langsjoen’s pioneering research where he used higher doses of a superior-absorbingubiquinol CoQ10 to achieve quicker improvements in cardiac ejection fraction. Dr. Langsjoen sees improved heart function in as early as three months and almost always by six months of treatment with ubiquinol at 200 mg twice per day.
In 1992, the FDA and Texas Department of Health raided Austin Whole Foods and other retail outlets to seize their CoQ10.30 This severely affected the ability of Dr. Langsjoen’s heart disease patients to access coenzyme Q10. The basis for these raids was the FDA’s contention that coenzyme Q10 was an unsafe food additive. Patients whose lives were being saved knew different.
The citizens revolted and protested the FDA seizures in every possible way. They alerted the news media, wrote hot letters to the FDA, congressmen, and senators, and phoned up the Texas Department of Health to protest. Sixty agitated patients and family members assembled at a local church to plan a strategy for keeping CoQ10 on the market.
An in-depth article about this raid and the impact it was having on Dr. Langsjoen’s patients was the subject of a detailed article, titled “Heartless Behavior,” in the popular Texas Monthly magazine (June 1992 issue) which is still available online (http://www.texasmonthly.com/content/heartless-behavior ).
After a monumental struggle, the Texas Department of Health backed down and patients were once again able to obtain CoQ10 (in Texas). For heart failure patients whose lives hung in the balance, the ordeal was beyond stressful.
Those with cardiac issues that would like to become a patient of Dr. Langsjoen can contact his clinical practice at the following address and phone:
Peter Langsjoen, MD 1107 Doctors Drive Tyler, Texas 75701 Phone: 903-595-3778
There are over five million Americans afflicted with congestive heart failure today. Many can’t wait two years for a conventional CoQ10 supplement to improve their condition and slash their risk of dying. They need to initiate 400-600 mgof ubiquinol daily to increase their heart’s ejection fraction as soon as possible.
There is now solid evidence from a large, randomized multicenter published trial showing remarkable benefits when 300 mg a day of CoQ10 is added to standard treatment over a two-year period. What makes this finding interesting is that many heart failure patients in the past tried a relatively small CoQ10 dose and if an improvement in ejection fraction did not happen quickly, they and their doctor would have felt CoQ10 to be ineffective. This helps explain why conventional cardiology has been slow to catch on to CoQ10’s lifesaving benefits. To a patient suffering from chronic heart failure, this information is priceless!
National Cancer Institute and CoQ10
Most people associate CoQ10 as having beneficial effects for the heart, brain, and kidneys. Overlooked is data showing that CoQ10 has protective effects against several forms ofcancer.
According to the National Cancer Institute’s position paper:31
“Interest in coenzyme Q10 as a therapeutic agent in cancer began in 1961, when a deficiency was noted in the blood of both Swedish and American cancer patients, especially in the blood of patients with breast cancer.32-34 A subsequent study showed a statistically significant relationship between the level of plasma coenzyme Q10 deficiency and breast cancer prognosis.35 Low blood levels of this compound have been reported in patients with malignancies other than breast cancer, including myeloma, lymphoma, and cancers of the lung, prostate, pancreas, colon, kidney, and head and neck.”32,36,37
The National Cancer Institute goes on further to state:
“Some of the accumulated data show that coenzyme Q10 stimulates animal immune systems, leading to higher antibody levels,38greater numbers and/or activities of macrophages and T cells (T lymphocytes),38,39 and increased resistance to infection. 40-42Coenzyme Q10 has also been reported to increase IgG (immunoglobulin G) antibody levels and to increase the CD4 to CD8 T-cell ratio in humans.43-45 CD4 and CD8 are proteins found on the surface of T cells, with CD4 and CD8 identifying helper T cells and cytotoxic T cells, respectively; decreased CD4 to CD8 T-cell ratios have been reported for cancer patients.”46,47
With a plethora of studies showing CoQ10’s heart benefits, the data about its potential anticancer properties gets lost in the popular media.
Battles To Defend Against CoQ10 Prohibition After we introduced CoQ10 in 1983, public demand for this nutrient soared. The FDA’s response was to seek to ban it altogether because they deemed it to be a prescription drug that required government “approval” to be sold.
Companies selling CoQ10 were raided and individuals (including us) were placed under intense criminal investigation at enormous cost to taxpayers. In 1987, FDA agents accompanied by armed US Marshalls (with guns drawn) kicked down our doors and proceeded to seize every bottle of CoQ10, every one of our newsletters, and any other nutrient (magnesium, fish oil, etc.) they deemed to be an “unapproved drug.” We later filed suit against the FDA and won back all of the seized materials, though the supplements were spoiled and had to be discarded.
In 1990, the FDA conducted an armed raid against Highland Laboratories in Oregon and seized their CoQ10 and accompanying literature.48 The owner of this company was criminally indicted and rather than face the expense and uncertainty of a trial, pled guilty and was placed on six months house arrest.49
Frustrated that we continued to offer CoQ10, the FDA went to a state pharmacy board and declared that nutrients like CoQ10 posed an imminent threat to the public’s health and therefore had to be embargoed from sale to the public. At the FDA’s behest, pharmacy board inspectors placed embargoes on our CoQ10 and that of another supplier of CoQ10 in the same state. We prepared a 300-page lawsuit against the pharmacy board attesting to the safety and efficacy of CoQ10.
As a courtesy, we presented the lawsuit to the pharmacy board’s attorneys and gave them the option of lifting the embargo before we filed the lawsuit. After reading the 300-page lawsuit that substantiated the safety and efficacy of CoQ10, the pharmacy board lifted the embargo against us (and the other company) and promised to never take the FDA’s word at blind faith again. The state pharmacy board was clearly perturbed that the FDA deceived them about the safety of CoQ10.
We were later arrested at the behest of the FDA and fought a multiyear battle in which the US Attorney’s Office eventually dismissed the charges that the FDA brought that sought to incarcerate us for life.
To this day, the FDA tries to censor claims that CoQ10 can benefit heart failure patients, despite overwhelming documentation that this nutrient markedly reduces death rates when properly used.
Based on findings published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology late last year, CoQ10 can reduce overall death rates in patients with congestive heart failure by 42%.
The number of lives that could be saved if every congestive heart failure patient properly supplemented with CoQ10 is potentially over 120,000 each year.
If you multiply the number of lives lost by the 30 years the FDA has been censoring information about CoQ10, the total comes to over 3.6 million dead Americans, which is more than all the American deaths suffered by all the wars this nation has ever fought.
The chart on this page documents the striking carnage caused by FDA censorship of CoQ10 compared to all military conflicts the United States fought starting with the Revolutionary War.
Based on these staggering statistics, it’s hard to argue why the FDA retains authoritarian power over the American citizenry. With universal access to websites, those Americans who wanted to trust the FDA could easily log on to the FDA’s website (www.fda.gov) to read the agency’s position on a given nutrient, drug, or hormone. They could then compare what the FDA says with another government website (www.pubmed.gov) that provides easy access to published scientific papers.
For example, if one enters into PubMed the terms “CoQ10 and congestive heart failure,” 11 new studies appeared in 2014 alone that further substantiate its efficacy. Yet the FDA continues to ignore this published scientific research by censoring health claims for coenzyme Q10.
Too bad our leaders don’t realize that amending the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to strip the FDA of its dictatorial power would save many more American lives and reduce healthcare cost outlays.
This catastrophic loss of life will continue until science is allowed to replace authoritarian edict in determining medical treatment protocols.
Source:
http://www.lef.org/Magazine/2015/4/CoQ10-Wars/Page-01
Winkler C, Hobolth L, Krag A, Bendtsen F, Møller S. Effects of treatment with β-blocker and aldosterone antagonist on central and peripheral haemodynamics and oxygenation in cirrhosis. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2011 Apr;23(4):334-42
Available at: http://www.naturalnews.com/033280_fda_raids_timeline.html. Accessed October 17, 2014
Available at: http://www.myopia.org/fdaraids.htm. Accessed October 17, 2014.
Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/heart-failure/medications.html. Accessed October 17, 2014.
Available at: http://www.texasmonthly.com/content/heartless-behavior. Accessed October 17, 2014.
Sacks CA, Jarcho JA, Curfman GD Paradigm shifts in heart-failure therapy—a timeline. N Engl J Med. 2014 Sep 11;371(11):989-91.