Affiliations: East Texas Medical Center and Trinity Mother Francis
Health System, Tyler, TX 75701, USA
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Peter H. Langsjoen, M.D., P.A., 1107
Doctors Drive, Tyler, TX 75701, USA. Tel.: +1 903 595 3778; Fax: +1 903 595
4962; E-mail: langsjoen@compuserve.com
Abstract: The depletion of the essential nutrient CoQ_{10}
by the increasingly popular cholesterol lowering drugs, HMG CoA reductase
inhibitors (statins), has grown from a level of concern to one of alarm. With
ever higher statin potencies and dosages, and with a steadily shrinking target
LDL cholesterol, the prevalence and severity of CoQ_{10}
deficiency is increasing noticeably. An estimated 36 million Americans are now
candidates for statin drug therapy. Statin-induced CoQ_{10}
depletion is well documented in animal and human studies with detrimental
cardiac consequences in both animal models and human trials. This drug-induced
nutrient deficiency is dose related and more notable in settings of
pre-existing CoQ_{10} deficiency such as in the elderly and
in heart failure. Statin-induced CoQ_{10} deficiency is
completely preventable with supplemental CoQ_{10} with no
adverse impact on the cholesterol lowering or anti-inflammatory properties of
the statin drugs. We are currently in the midst of a congestive heart failure
epidemic in the United States, the cause or causes of which are unclear. As
physicians, it is our duty to be absolutely certain that we are not
inadvertently doing harm to our patients by creating a wide-spread deficiency
of a nutrient critically important for normal heart function.
