PolyMVA Survivors Website

The 4 Corners Protocol

CoQ10:
Dramatic Results Without
Much Fanfare
by Jeffrey Laign

Why isn't coenzyme Q10 one of the most remarkable new therapies for a wide variety of illnesses prescribed more often by doctors? It may be because it's not a patented drug . . . but that doesn't make it any less effective.

Take a look at the diseases scientists have treated with coenzyme Q10 and you'll understand why researcher Peter Lansjoen calls the organic substance "the most fundamental change in medicine since the discovery of the microbe."

Studies from around the world have contributed to the mounting evidence that CoQ10 may be effective in treating or preventing cancer, heart disease, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson's disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, periodontal disease and AIDS. CoQ10 can boost your energy levels and make you look and feel younger. In fact, it may even help you to live longer.

"It's not a panacea, but it is a substance that can do an awful lot of good for an awful lot of people," says researcher William V. Judy, a veteran CoQ10 researcher at the Southeastern Biomedical Institute in Bradenton, Fla.

If that's so, then why aren't more doctors prescribing it? "The problem with CoQ10," Judy says, "is that it's a natural substance and, as such, not subject to patent laws. Therefore, the big drug companies haven't been interested in studying it."

In other words, says pioneer researcher Karl Folkers, "The reason CoQ10 is not a household nutrient in the West has more to do with the lack of protected marketing positions than with its safety or how well it works."

What is CoQ10?
Your body is composed of more than a trillion cells, each of which contains mitochondria. Think of mitochondria as energy-generating factories. Here nutrients obtained from the foods you eat are burned in the presence of the oxygen you breathe. In order to make energy, mitochondria must have CoQ10 molecules, which assist several enzymes in stimulating the process.

Nobody had ever heard of CoQ10 until 1956 when scientists at the University of Wisconsin isolated a crystalline compound from beef heart mitochondria. They sent the sample to Folkers, who then was head of a biochemical research team at Merck Sharp and Dohme Research Laboratories in Rahway, N.J. It was Folkers who determined the chemical structure of the substance, which is found in high concentrations in the heart, liver, kidney and pancreas.

Scientists subsequently noted that CoQ10 levels were well below normal in patients who suffered from a wide variety of ailments, including heart disease, cancer and muscular dystrophy. One study of more than 1,000 heart attack patients, for example, found that their blood and tissue levels of the substance were markedly lower than those of healthy people.

Nonetheless, it was years before anybody conducted a major study of CoQ10, because no one could obtain enough of it. Although CoQ10 is present in nearly all foods, as well as human and animal tissues, it was difficult and costly the extract.

In 1974 researchers at the Japanese company Nisshin found a way to produce CoQ10 from an ingredient found in tobacco. That discovery was followed in 1977 by development of fermentation methods to make the substance. The researchers called the coenzyme Ubidecarenone and began marketing it as a cardiovascular medicine. By 1982, Ubidecarenone had become one of the top-five-selling drugs in Japan, consumed daily by more than 6 million Japanese.

Cancer
Folkers and other researchers initially began studying CoQ10 as a treatment for heart disease. Then, after they treated cardiac patients who also had cancer, they discovered that the substance might have significant use in combating tumors.

One patient, for example, took CoQ10 and went for nine years without suffering any symptoms of heart disease or cancer. Other patients remained symptom-free of both diseases for 10 and 15 years.
Another case involved a 44-year-old woman whose breast cancer had spread to her liver. Doctors began giving the woman a daily dose of CoQ10. Several months later her liver tumors disappeared, and the cancer had not spread anywhere else in her body.

But the most compelling cancer study to date was conducted at a private clinic in Denmark and reported in 1994. Thirty-two patients with breast cancer were given a mixture of antioxidants (including vitamins C, E, beta-carotene and selenium), fatty acids and 90 mg of CoQ10. After a month, six of the women showed signs of partial remission. Doctors increased the dosage to 390 mg. A month later, one woman's tumor had disappeared.

"I had never seen a spontaneous complete regression of a breast tumor with any conventional anti-tumor therapy," says Knud Lockwood, one of the principle researchers in the study.

But CoQ10 isn't limited to treating heart disease and cancer. As researchers are discovering, it may hold the key to treating a variety of other diseases as well.

The Link Between Vitamin Q and Cancer
Vitamin Q (Coenzyme Q10 or CoQ10)

CoQ10 has been around for 40 years. In 1961 it was discovered that blood levels of CoQ10 directly correlate with cancer and the various stages of cancer. For example, breast cancer is associated with a decrease in blood levels of CoQ10. In fact, doctors can fairly reliably determine if you will survive breast cancer by the CoQ10 levels in your body. The higher your blood levels, the better your chance of survival.

Coenzyme Q10 is found in all cells. It can not be manufactured in the body without the presence of three other vitamins: niacin (B3), folic acid, and pyridoxine (B6). Dr. Karl Folkers, of the University of Texas, Austin, reported on six breast cancer cases that had remarkable results: "The overt survival for the 5-15 years of six cancer patients, without evidence of cancer, and the complete regression of cancer in five cases, and now a regression of metastases in the liver, are extraordinary..."

Usually when cancer metastases in the liver it is a death sentence. But in the three cases that follow, after suffering the side effects and misery of the ethical treatments of mastectomy, X-ray, and anti-cancer drugs, high doses of CoQ10 had no side effects. According to Dr. Knud Lockwood, these ethical therapies "rarely, if ever, caused highly significant regressions of the primary tumor and metastases in the liver... Therefore, our recording of the disappearance of liver metastases in even one patient having breast cancer is extraordinarily salient..."

The following three case histories are clinical cases reported by
qualified doctors in hospitals in this country.
Using large doses of CoQ10, they had miraculous results
in reversing cases of terminal cancer.

1. A 44 year old woman had both breasts removed for cancer in September 1992.
She then had 10 treatments with three different cancer drugs. She had an echogram of the liver in April 1994, which revealed metastases to the liver. Tamoxifen was then added to her treatment. She was given CoQ10 in a dose of 390 mg daily. In March 1995, an echogram revealed that the metastases had disappeared. A month later, a thorough examination revealed the patient to be in excellent health, with no signs of cancer.

2. A 49 year old had her right breast removed in May 1990. A year later she developed a reoccurrence on the chest wall. She was given X-ray treatment since surgery was impossible. Seven months later, she had fluid in the right lung which contained breast tumor cells -- an obviously hopeless case. She started on 90 mgs of CoQ10 daily, which was later increased to 390 mgs daily. Six months later, her chest X-ray was normal and she felt well. Three years later, she was still free of any sign of cancer.

3. A 75 year old woman was found to have a carcinoma in situ of the right breast. A lumpectomy was performed but microscopic examination of the tissue revealed that cancer tissue had been cut through. Because of the inadequate surgery and fear of spread of the disease, a mastectomy was performed. She had started CoQ10 (90 mgs a day) two months before the mastectomy and, a year later, her dosage was increased to 390 mgs per day. When she was examined three years later and found to be in excellent health with no sign of cancer.

So why aren't all cancer patients taking CoQ10?
1) Most doctors aren't aware of it.
2) No one can patent a vitamin. There is no money to be made here.

Return to previous page



	*The 4 Corners Protocol*

	CoQ10: Dramatic Results Without Much Fanfare by Jeffrey Laign Why isn't coenzyme Q10 one of the most remarkable new therapies for a wide variety of illnesses prescribed more often by doctors? It may be because it's not a patented drug . . . but that doesn't make it any less effective. Take a look at the diseases scientists have treated with coenzyme Q10 and you'll understand why researcher Peter Lansjoen calls the organic substance "the most fundamental change in medicine since the discovery of the microbe." Studies from around the world have contributed to the mounting evidence that CoQ10 may be effective in treating or preventing cancer, heart disease, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson's disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, periodontal disease and AIDS. CoQ10 can boost your energy levels and make you look and feel younger. In fact, it may even help you to live longer. "It's not a panacea, but it is a substance that can do an awful lot of good for an awful lot of people," says researcher William V. Judy, a veteran CoQ10 researcher at the Southeastern Biomedical Institute in Bradenton, Fla. If that's so, then why aren't more doctors prescribing it? "The problem with CoQ10," Judy says, "is that it's a natural substance and, as such, not subject to patent laws. Therefore, the big drug companies haven't been interested in studying it." In other words, says pioneer researcher Karl Folkers, "The reason CoQ10 is not a household nutrient in the West has more to do with the lack of protected marketing positions than with its safety or how well it works." What is CoQ10? Your body is composed of more than a trillion cells, each of which contains mitochondria. Think of mitochondria as energy-generating factories. Here nutrients obtained from the foods you eat are burned in the presence of the oxygen you breathe. In order to make energy, mitochondria must have CoQ10 molecules, which assist several enzymes in stimulating the process. Nobody had ever heard of CoQ10 until 1956 when scientists at the University of Wisconsin isolated a crystalline compound from beef heart mitochondria. They sent the sample to Folkers, who then was head of a biochemical research team at Merck Sharp and Dohme Research Laboratories in Rahway, N.J. It was Folkers who determined the chemical structure of the substance, which is found in high concentrations in the heart, liver, kidney and pancreas. Scientists subsequently noted that CoQ10 levels were well below normal in patients who suffered from a wide variety of ailments, including heart disease, cancer and muscular dystrophy. One study of more than 1,000 heart attack patients, for example, found that their blood and tissue levels of the substance were markedly lower than those of healthy people. Nonetheless, it was years before anybody conducted a major study of CoQ10, because no one could obtain enough of it. Although CoQ10 is present in nearly all foods, as well as human and animal tissues, it was difficult and costly the extract. In 1974 researchers at the Japanese company Nisshin found a way to produce CoQ10 from an ingredient found in tobacco. That discovery was followed in 1977 by development of fermentation methods to make the substance. The researchers called the coenzyme Ubidecarenone and began marketing it as a cardiovascular medicine. By 1982, Ubidecarenone had become one of the top-five-selling drugs in Japan, consumed daily by more than 6 million Japanese. Cancer Folkers and other researchers initially began studying CoQ10 as a treatment for heart disease. Then, after they treated cardiac patients who also had cancer, they discovered that the substance might have significant use in combating tumors. One patient, for example, took CoQ10 and went for nine years without suffering any symptoms of heart disease or cancer. Other patients remained symptom-free of both diseases for 10 and 15 years. Another case involved a 44-year-old woman whose breast cancer had spread to her liver. Doctors began giving the woman a daily dose of CoQ10. Several months later her liver tumors disappeared, and the cancer had not spread anywhere else in her body. But the most compelling cancer study to date was conducted at a private clinic in Denmark and reported in 1994. Thirty-two patients with breast cancer were given a mixture of antioxidants (including vitamins C, E, beta-carotene and selenium), fatty acids and 90 mg of CoQ10. After a month, six of the women showed signs of partial remission. Doctors increased the dosage to 390 mg. A month later, one woman's tumor had disappeared. "I had never seen a spontaneous complete regression of a breast tumor with any conventional anti-tumor therapy," says Knud Lockwood, one of the principle researchers in the study. But CoQ10 isn't limited to treating heart disease and cancer. As researchers are discovering, it may hold the key to treating a variety of other diseases as well. The Link Between Vitamin Q and Cancer Vitamin Q (Coenzyme Q10 or CoQ10) CoQ10 has been around for 40 years. In 1961 it was discovered that blood levels of CoQ10 directly correlate with cancer and the various stages of cancer. For example, breast cancer is associated with a decrease in blood levels of CoQ10. In fact, doctors can fairly reliably determine if you will survive breast cancer by the CoQ10 levels in your body. The higher your blood levels, the better your chance of survival. Coenzyme Q10 is found in all cells. It can not be manufactured in the body without the presence of three other vitamins: niacin (B3), folic acid, and pyridoxine (B6). Dr. Karl Folkers, of the University of Texas, Austin, reported on six breast cancer cases that had remarkable results: "The overt survival for the 5-15 years of six cancer patients, without evidence of cancer, and the complete regression of cancer in five cases, and now a regression of metastases in the liver, are extraordinary..." Usually when cancer metastases in the liver it is a death sentence. But in the three cases that follow, after suffering the side effects and misery of the ethical treatments of mastectomy, X-ray, and anti-cancer drugs, high doses of CoQ10 had no side effects. According to Dr. Knud Lockwood, these ethical therapies "rarely, if ever, caused highly significant regressions of the primary tumor and metastases in the liver... Therefore, our recording of the disappearance of liver metastases in even one patient having breast cancer is extraordinarily salient..." The following three case histories are clinical cases reported by qualified doctors in hospitals in this country. Using large doses of CoQ10, they had miraculous results in reversing cases of terminal cancer. 1. A 44 year old woman had both breasts removed for cancer in September 1992. She then had 10 treatments with three different cancer drugs. She had an echogram of the liver in April 1994, which revealed metastases to the liver. Tamoxifen was then added to her treatment. She was given CoQ10 in a dose of 390 mg daily. In March 1995, an echogram revealed that the metastases had disappeared. A month later, a thorough examination revealed the patient to be in excellent health, with no signs of cancer. 2. A 49 year old had her right breast removed in May 1990. A year later she developed a reoccurrence on the chest wall. She was given X-ray treatment since surgery was impossible. Seven months later, she had fluid in the right lung which contained breast tumor cells -- an obviously hopeless case. She started on 90 mgs of CoQ10 daily, which was later increased to 390 mgs daily. Six months later, her chest X-ray was normal and she felt well. Three years later, she was still free of any sign of cancer. 3. A 75 year old woman was found to have a carcinoma in situ of the right breast. A lumpectomy was performed but microscopic examination of the tissue revealed that cancer tissue had been cut through. Because of the inadequate surgery and fear of spread of the disease, a mastectomy was performed. She had started CoQ10 (90 mgs a day) two months before the mastectomy and, a year later, her dosage was increased to 390 mgs per day. When she was examined three years later and found to be in excellent health with no sign of cancer. So why aren't all cancer patients taking CoQ10? 1) Most doctors aren't aware of it. 2) No one can patent a vitamin. There is no money to be made here.

	Return to previous page