How CoQ10 supports kidney health

Fifteen percent of U.S. adults or 37 million people in our country are living with chronic kidney disease (CKD) mostly due to high blood pressure and diabetes.

In fact, it’s estimated that 73 percent of cases are from these two causes alone.

If you’re one of them, you know that it’s a disease that generally worsens over time.

Yet, it is possible to have CKD and not even know it. As much as 96 percent of people with kidney damage or with mildly reduced kidney function may not experience symptoms or only very mild ones, like fatigue and loss of appetite.

Luckily, a simple supplement may offer hope…

Antioxidant for metabolic disorders

Researchers from three universities got together to look into the problem of chronic kidney disease because of the danger it poses to every person who suffers from the condition — which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease by two to fifty times and comes with a 50 percent mortality rate for patients with end-stage renal disease.

The team, made up of scientists from the Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran, the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, and the Kashan University of Medical Sciences in Iran set out to perform a systemic review and meta-analysis of randomized control trials to evaluate the effects of CoQ10 supplementation on metabolic profiles of patients diagnosed with CKD.

The reason they focused on CoQ10 is that the antioxidant has been found to work as a complementary therapy for metabolic disorders.

It’s also been found that the circulating concentration of CoQ10 in patients with chronic kidney disease is low. All of this suggested that CoQ10 would be an ideal solution.

The team systemically reviewed seven scientific studies to evaluate the effects of CoQ10 supplementation on the metabolic profiles of patients diagnosed with CKD and found that it:

• Significantly reduced total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol (which is significant because high cholesterol levels can cut off blood flow to the kidney resulting in loss of kidney function).
• Lowered the levels of malondialdehyde, which normally increases as kidney problems progress. Malondialdehyde level is commonly known as a marker of oxidative stress and the antioxidant status in cancerous patients.
• And, reduced creatinine levels (a chemical waste that goes up as the disease gets worse because proper filtration of blood decreases).

They concluded that CoQ10 supplementation significantly improved the metabolic profile in patients with chronic kidney disease.

CoQ10 is normally produced in the body, but production declines with age, beginning as early as our 20s. Fortunately, CoQ10 is available in supplement form.

If you’re currently being treated for CKD, talk with your physician before adding any supplement to your regimen.

An alkaline diet may also be a beneficial tool for avoiding the worsening of kidney disease. Because one of the functions of the kidneys is to remove acid from the blood, nutrition.org notes that “if kidney function declines and other tissues catabolize to maintain pH, then it is very plausible that manipulating the diet to reduce the acid load could spare tissues and improve outcomes.”

Sources:

1. National Chronic Kidney Disease Fact Sheet, 2017 — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
2. Coenzyme Q10 supplementation on metabolic profiles of patients with chronic kidney disease — EurekAlert!
3. The Effects of Coenzyme Q10 Supplementation on Metabolic Profiles of Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials — Current Pharmaceutical Design
4. Relationship between chronic kidney disease and metabolic syndrome: current perspectives — Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity
5. Cholesterol and Chronic Kidney Disease — DaVita Inc.
6. What Is Creatinine? — DaVita Inc.
7. Malondialdehyde can predict survival in hemodialysis patients — Clujul Medical
8. Chronic kidney disease and the global NCDs agenda — BMJ Global Health