Want to buy co enzyme Q10 capsules...

katym79

Hi, do you any of you take these? My Dad has a series of health problems and finds these pills make him feel much better - but he can't afford to keep buying them, so I would like to do this for him.Does anyone know the cheapest place to get some or does anyone know a rough estimate of how much it would be to get him a years supply?
Thanks in advance

zerodashzero

What dosage does he take?

Holland & Barrett sell them from 10mg to 200mg. Have a look here - http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/categories.asp?cid=12&left=1

They quite often have them on promotion (and the promotions can vary between the website and stores). I bought the 120mg box that is usually £20.45 on one of their "mega deals" weekends a few weeks ago for just £5. :money:

katym79

thaks for that - i'm not sure what strength they are tbh, i'll have to ask him

icefall

iherb

referral thread here

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=772021&highlight=iherb

pjk_3

The "better" form of coQ10 is called "Ubiquinol". It's better absorbed and so you can take around 50% less and get the same effect. It IS more expensive per mg though so it can be swings and roundabouts. Nonetheless it's worth looking to see what's actually cheaper overall.

I get mine from iHerb.com. Watch out for import charges though as iHerb ships from the US. There are threads here on the forums that give more info about them, especially the vitamin D test thread.

I wonder if your father is taking statins (cholesterol medication). These drugs can reduce coQ10 in the body, making supplementation useful/necessary so maybe his doctor can write a prescription to counteract this side effect. I have no idea if that's actually available on the NHS, but it certainly should be because depletion is a documented side effect.

katym79

Thanks pjk - yes he is on statins - also a long list of other pills for atrophied(sp?) pancreas, type 2 diabetes, pills for his tummy (he survived colon cancer) etc.
He has asked his NHS doctors if they can prescribe Q10 -none of them will up to now - they probably think he costs the taxpayer enough as it is!! But the difference in him is startling when he doesn't take the Q10 - he's knackered, can bearly get through a day without long naps.
I read somewhere that you should have a break with these after takig them for 8 weeks? is that true?

lolly5648

I buy from Zipvit, see:
http://www.zipvit.co.uk/cgi-bin/search1.pl?shopingpage

I have been taking Q10 for about 20 years as they are supposed to help your gums. They have certainly helped me as my dentist said that my gums are now in much better condition.

pjk_3

katym79 wrote: »

I read somewhere that you should have a break with these after takig them for 8 weeks? is that true?

I've not read that so if you have a link I'd be interested.

I think if your Dad is taking statins then he's constantly going to have his CoQ10 levels depleted so it makes sense to constantly try to repair the damage that they are doing. Maybe the "take a break" advice is for those who use the coQ10 for other purposes?

If you Dad's been put on statins as a precaution (rather than following a specific heart problem for example) I'd strongly recommend he reads the book "The Great Cholesterol Con" and considers the risk/benefit. I wonder, did the extreme tiredness happen after he started taking the statins? If so I would have thought the NHS could be persuaded to find a way to fund remedial treatment for the depletion THEIR drugs seem to be causing! I'm not a doctor and this and observation, not medical advice blah blah blah.

I read this week that following 7 days of adding avocados to their diet, a group of high cholesterol patients reduced their "bad" cholesterol by 17%.

katym79

aagh - can't find where i read that 8 week rule thing now - but when i googled Q10 yesterday i definately found somewhere that said that, but i've read quite a lot of different resources now that make no mention of it, so hopefully its just a bit of rubbish.
Dad has been put on statins as a precaution, yes, he has no history of heart problems, but he did have quite high blood pressure a while back and i was under the impression statins were given to him to help lose some weight?? He did lose some weight initially, but has put a fair bit back on - he is crap at diets! If he could nail this, i reckon a lot of his problems could be ironed out, but he won't listen...

pjk_3

I had a quick Google and found a few references to it taking up to 8 weeks for coQ10 levels to be restored so perhaps somebody based an article on that and got their wires crossed.

If you have a friendly pharmacist perhaps you could get them to check and see if coQ10 is actually available on the NHS at all. If it is, your Dad could write to his GP and make a more formal request stating the need because of his statin prescription. I've found making written requests to GPs considerably more effective than "chats" - presumably because there's a copy kept on file which could be used as evidence in the future if the request is ignored and found to be relevant. I would like to think this isn't the case of course but...

Anyway, from what I've read, statins MAY help some people but they also cause an awful lot of misery and pain. The evidence that they are useful as a preventative measure in people without previous cardiovascular problems sits somewhere between limited and non-existent. However, the evidence that they cause all sorts of new problems is growing daily. I believe the widespread prescribing of cholesterol lowering drugs to be a case of unnecessarily medicalising millions of people based on little to no actual science. If cholesterol really is a problem (and that's debatable) there are other ways to tackle it - avocados being just one of them :-)