An Important Message if You Take Statin Drugs If you take statin drugs to lower cholesterol, making sure you take ubiquinol is even more important. These drugs work by reducing an enzyme in your liver, which not only reduces the production of cholesterol, but it also reduces the production of coenzyme Q10. When you lower the production of CoQ10, you increase your risk of a variety of different health problems.

Premature aging is one primary side effect of having too little CoQ10 because this essential vitamin recycles other antioxidants, such as vitamin C and E.

CoQ10 deficiency also accelerates DNA damage, and because CoQ10 is beneficial to heart health and muscle function this depletion leads to fatigue, muscle weakness, soreness and eventually heart failure. Therefore, it is absolutely vital to supplement with CoQ10 if you're taking a statin drug.

It's also important to supplement right from the start. According to Dr. Duane Graveline, a family doctor with 23 years experience and a former astronaut, once the mitochondrial damage and mutations are formed they cannot be reversed—no matter how much CoQ10 you take. So early intervention is key. Dr. Graveline goes into further detail of how CoQ10 offers protection against mitochondrial DNA damage in this interview.