CoQ10 - Ubiquinol vs. Ubiquinone?

[PatC]

I received an email from an old friend of mine. He said, in part:

"I believe the latest version of CoQ10 which is Ubiquinol (as made by the liver) is the right stuff as compared to the historic Ubiquinone (crystalline form) of CoQ10. Ubiquinol is sold as Ubiquinol (some brands may say CoQ10 on the lable, don't know), but it can be found in 50 and 100 mg size. It is much easier to assimilate and causes blood level up to 8 times more than regular CoQ10. Your body doesn't have to convert Ubiquinol to Ubiquinol as is the case with Ubiquinone. Sooo, 300mg as recommended may not be necessary. 50 mg Ubiquinol twice a day would be like 400 mg of the standard garden variety COQ10. Ubiquinol is only made by one company...Kaneka Corp, in Japan. All brands get it from the same source. Unless they do something else to it (doubtful) it is all the same stuff. It is supplied in a gelcap."

After getting his email I looked and the bottle I have is Ubiquinone. Being the thrifty person I am, I will of course finish that bottle, but I'd like to know if it's true that the Ubiquinol is perhaps a better product.

At iHerb the 100mg Ubiquinone sells for $11.99 for 60 caps while the Ubiquinol 50mg sells for $13.99 for 60 caps, which makes it sound logical that the more expensive would be "better" but I'd like to know for sure.

I'm hoping Topaz or someone else who's looked into this will chime in here.

Thanks.

[Topaz]

This link explains it somewhat.

http://www.epic4health.com/whatiscoq10.html

But there has been a change in CoQ-10 manufacture. I believe that there is now a new source in US...which is responsible for the price drop.
A couple of years ago there was a huge price increase in Japanese product, but that has changed in the last 3 months or so.

I'll look that up for you and come back later.

The names used can be confusing, and sometimes are just manufacturing ploys.

I'll be back...

[Topaz]

The new form has been chemically changed (reduced) in order to improve
absorption...so they claim:

http://www.biosynergy.com/Ubiquinol.htm

This site gives the structures for the various forms of CoQ-10:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coenzyme_Q10

So #1 you need the better fermented form to start with,
#2 perhaps reducing it to the --OL form improves it (but also makes it
more expensive).

Many nutrients get changed by our bodies from what we swallow.
Examples:
cyanocobalamin B12---- activates to methylcobalamin in the body
pyridoxine B6-------activates to P5P (pyridoxal 5 phosphate)
folic acid -----------activates to methylfolate

So it appears that ubiquinone ---activates to ubiquinol

At iherb.com it looks like all the ubinquinols are expensive:
http://www.iherb.com/Search.aspx?c=1&st=l&kw=ubiquinol

If I were going to buy it...I'd go with this one:
http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?c=1&pid=5831517953739956544
(just because I like NOW brand and they are always high quality...a known
entity in the supplement world.)

Regular CoQ-10 is only about 10% absorbable even with the oil enhancing ingredients.

And this is what Dr. Sahelian says about the new form:
http://www.raysahelian.com/ubiquinol.html

This recent study found both forms useful in Parkinson's (CoQ-10 has been used in high dose PD treatments for several years now).
J Neurochem. 2008 Mar;104(6):1613-21. Epub 2007 Oct 31.Click here to read Links
Therapeutic effects of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) and reduced CoQ10 in the MPTP model of Parkinsonism.
Cleren C, Yang L, Lorenzo B, Calingasan NY, Schomer A, Sireci A, Wille EJ, Beal MF.

Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, New York 10021, USA.

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is a promising agent for neuroprotection in neurodegenerative diseases. We tested the effects of various doses of two formulations of CoQ10 in food and found that administration in the diet resulted in significant protection against loss of dopamine (DA), which was accompanied by a marked increase in plasma concentrations of CoQ10. We further investigated the neuroprotective effects of CoQ10, reduced CoQ10 (ubiquinol), and CoQ10 emulsions in the (MPTP) model of Parkinson's disease (PD). We found neuroprotection against MPTP induced loss of DA using both CoQ10, and reduced CoQ10, which produced the largest increases in plasma concentrations. Lastly, we administered CoQ10 in the diet to test its effects in a chronic MPTP model induced by administration of MPTP by Alzet pump for 1 month. We found neuroprotective effects against DA depletion, loss of tyrosine hydroxylase neurons and induction of alpha-synuclein inclusions in the substantia nigra pars compacta. The finding that CoQ10 is effective in a chronic dosing model of MPTP toxicity, is of particular interest, as this may be more relevant to PD. These results provide further evidence that administration of CoQ10 is a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of PD.

PMID: 17973981 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

So it is really hard to say, if the new form is really better or not, at this point.