http://www.prd-journal.com/article/S...240-0/abstract

Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot trial of reduced coenzyme Q10 for Parkinson's disease

Thank you badboy99!

A week ago I was researching my meds trying to figure out why I was having problems and I stumbled across the fact that I was taking a statin drug. I am not one for researching, controversies or conspiracies but what I found shocked me. In simple form I was taking statin drugs to reduce my cholesterol. But I found that reducing my cholesterol by use of statins was also reducing good stuff that I need to help my Parkinson's problems shown in this quote:

"... linked the use of one statin to neurological and memory problems. Statins cause reductions in the muscle mitochondrial content of ubiquinone or Coenzyme Q10, an important part of the ATP-producing electron transport chain that employs the same precursor molecules as cholesterol."

In other words, yes statins are very effective in reducing cholesterol but what else? In fact, the very things my brain needed to produce more of seemed to be producing less of due to this medication! So last week (after talking to my cardiologist of course), as I stopped the statin drugs I immediately began to take CoQ10 enzyme. What a coincidence! Only this study may be indicating going a step further with reduced form CoQ10 is better yet! Here is a short quote from the above referenced study:

"Mitochondrial complex I deficiencies have been found in post-mortem brains of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is the electron acceptor found in complexes I and II, and is a potent antioxidant. A recent trial of the oxidized form of CoQ10 for PD failed to show benefits; however, the reduced form of CoQ10 (ubiquinol-10) has shown better neuroprotective effects in animal models.

Conclusion

This is the first report showing that ubiquinol-10 may significantly improve PD with wearing off, as judged by total UPDRS scores, and that ubiquinol-10 is safe and well tolerated."

Research statin drugs throughout the site for more insight.

And never stop taking medications without talking to your doctor first and seeking professional opinion.

There you have it.

I feel a bit like Scott (of the Antarctic) who was happy to arrive at the South Pole until he saw the tent left behind by Amundsen, who'd got there a month earlier. I was all set to post when I found out that a reference to this paper was originally posted in June, 2015 in thread:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread221400.html

At that time soccertese pointed out the statistical weakness of the claim. But, I feel that it's worth repeating because people are using the results, wrongly in my view, to justify not taking statins.

Unfortunately, there is a paywall, but the abstract is visible. Yoritaka et al. [1] report:

The sample size, n, is small (active/control):
Group A, 14/12
Group B, 14/8

The supposed effect is small, change of UPDRS (active/control):
Group A, -4.2/2.9
Group B, 3.9/5.1

Note that the authors do not claim any statistical significance for group B, the early PD group, not taking levodopa.

UPDRS is measured out of 199 and low scores are good. Against this measure the changes are small. But to be fair, the comparison should be with the actual score and not the maximum score. Nevertheless, I don't think that these results in isolation spread much light on the decision as to whether to take statins.

Reference:

[1] "Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot trial of reduced coenzyme Q10 for Parkinson's disease"
Asako Yoritaka, Sumihiro Kawajiri, Yorihiro Yamamoto, Toshiki Nakahara, Maya Ando, Kazuhiko Hashimoto, Midori Nagase, Yufuko Sait, Nobutaka Hattori
Parkinsonism and Related Disorders, August 2015
http://www.prd-journal.com/article/S...240-0/abstract

John

Thanks John,

I did not realize that I had posted this earlier.

Thanks JohnT for the critical analysis. Though I have been largely gone for several years I have always appreciated your insightful explanations of things that nowadays fly over my head. Whoops, there goes another one! Seriously, thank you!

Soccertese wrote in one of these posts "desperate times call for desperate measures" or something similar. I find myself there more and more.

My experience and experiments are reported here simply for their possible help for others to understand possible actions and reactions in a very simple form. The fact that I have had Parkinson's symptoms for 25 years and diagnosis for 15 years- maybe something I have or something I've had or something I've done or something I'm doing, maybe it can help someone else. And maybe not.

There you have it.

Link to more detailed study information:

http://www.naturalmedicinejournal.co...insons-disease