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Or So They Say.
Google "idebenone Parkinson's" And Learn All About It. Anyone Tried It Already? Please Post.

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I went to www.answers.com

http://www.smart-drugs.net/ias-idebenone.htm

Idebenone – The ultimate anti-aging drug?
by James South MA

Idebenone (pronounced eye deb e known) is a synthetic analog (variant) of one of life's most essential biochemicals, coenzyme Q10 (Co Q10). Co Q10 is an important antioxidant component of the lipid (fatty) membranes that surround all cells, as well as the lipid membranes surrounding the various organelles ("little organs"), such as mitochondria and microsomes, inside cells.

Co Q10 is also an important member of the "Electron Transport Chain" (ETC) within mitochondria, which are the "power plants" of the cell. Most of the oxygen we breathe is used inside the electron transport chain to produce much of the ATP bioenergy that powers virtually every activity of our cells and bodies.

Without Co Q10, or a good substitute, human life quickly ends, and Idebenone is a "better Co Q10" that has been extensively researched the past 15 years.

CoQ10’s pro-oxidant action

When blood flow is seriously reduced to any part of the body, as in a heart attack, stroke, trauma, shock, or chronic poor blood circulation- cellular/ mitochondrial oxygen (O2) levels quickly drop in the affected region. Yet because oxygen is seven to eight times more soluble in the lipid zones of cell membrane, compared to the watery compartments of the cell, there is still sufficient oxygen remaining in the membranes of cells and organelles, as well as in the electron transport chain, to auto-oxidize Co Q10. As the Co Q10 auto-oxidizes, hydrogen peroxide, superoxide and hydroxl free radicals are rapidly formed in massive numbers. These free radicals quickly damage cell/ organelle structure and function, as well as rapidly halt ATP energy generation by the electron transport chain.

Brain and spinal cord cells are especially prone to such damage, and may be irreparably damaged or even destroyed within minutes.

Why Idebenone is superior to CoQ10

Enter Idebenone to the rescue! Studies have shown that under the same cellular low oxygen conditions that cause Co Q10 to act as a pro-oxidant producer of damaging free radicals, Idebenone prevents the free radical dam-age and maintains relatively normal cell ATP levels. In short, while Idebenone can effectively substitute for Co Q10's positive and life essential functions, it doesn't have Co Q10's free radical producing and energy crashing "dark side" which occurs under hypoxic (low oxygen) conditions.

Idebenone's potential benefits fall into five categories; antiaging, energy enhancement, cognition enhancement, organ protector and protector against excitatory amino acid neurotoxicity.

Idebenone – The anti-aging benefits

The mitochondrial power plants produce over 90% of all cellular ATP bioenergy. They are also generally the richest sites in Co Q10 (or Idebenone). Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) allows mitochondria to reproduce them-selves.

While the DNA in a cell nucleus comes from both our parents, mtDNA comes exclusively from our mother's mtDNA.

There are typically two or three copies of mtDNA in each mitochondrion, with average 1000 mitochondria per cell. Because mtDNA exists in the "heart of the fiery furnace" where electron "sparks" are constantly leaking as ATP is produced in the electron transport chain, mtDNA is far more prone to free radical electron damage than is the DNA in our cell nuclei that contains the "blueprint" for our entire organism.

At the same time, the repair capacity of mtDNA is much less than that of our cell nucleus DNA. As a consequence, over the course of a lifetime our mtDNA becomes ever more damaged, and the mitochondria produced therefrom become ever more ineffective at energy generation.

Studies comparing heart tissue from young people with that from elderly people have shown almost no significant mitochondrial dysfunction in young hearts, with significant, often severe mitochondrial dysfunction in elderly hearts.

The cells that are most susceptible to mitochondrial energy depletion with advancing age are the brain, skeletal muscle and heart muscle cells. Idebenone thus offers a prime anti-aging effect here in several ways. Unlike Co Q10, even under the low oxygen conditions that may occur periodically over a lifetime, Idebenone will serve as a powerful mitochondrial free radical quencher, lessening the ever-increasing mtDNA damage that occurs with age. Idebenone will work even better than Co Q10 within the electron transport chain to keep energy production high, even under hypoxic conditions. This is especially critical to brain and heart cells that may be rapidly damaged during low ATP production episodes that occur due to poor tissue oxygenation.

Idebenone – Energy enhancement

Iron is a "dual edged sword." It is absolutely essential for life, it plays a central role in ATP generation in the electron transport chain. Yet iron can also be a powerful initiator of free radical production and cell structural damage, especially under low oxygen conditions.

This occurs, for example, during stroke, and during the gradual onset of Parkinson's disease. Studies have shown that Idebenone can tightly couple oxidation to energy production. This prevents iron ions from wastefully and toxically, diverting oxygen to producing free radicals inside the mitochondria, instead of energy.

Studies have shown that Idebenone can almost completely eliminate this, diverting 10% of cellular oxygen away from toxic iron induced free radical generation, to beneficial ATP energy production under hypoxic conditions.

Mild cellular hypoxia can occur even from intense exercise, or even from mild exercise done by out of shape "couch potatoes."