What Is Coenzyme Q10 and Why Do People Take It?

I came across CoQ10 years before I really understood what it did. It kept showing up in talks about energy, heart health, and aging. But nobody ever explained it in plain terms. It was just one of those things that sounded important without anyone telling you why.

So here is the plain version.

What CoQ10 Actually Is

CoQ10 is something your body makes on its own. It lives inside your cells, in the part that makes energy. Every cell has this energy-making part, but the organs that work the hardest have the most of it. Your heart, your liver, your kidneys. That is why CoQ10 builds up there more than anywhere else.

Its main job is to help turn the food you eat into fuel your body can actually use. When CoQ10 runs low, that process slows down. Think of it like a spark plug. The engine can have everything it needs, but without the spark, nothing runs right.

CoQ10 also helps protect your cells from damage. This is a separate job from energy, and it is why researchers have looked at it in the context of aging.

Why CoQ10 Levels Drop As You Get Older

Your body makes CoQ10 on its own, but production peaks in your mid-20s and drops from there. By the time you are in your 40s or 50s, your levels can be noticeably lower than they used to be.

Some common medications also use up CoQ10. Statins are a good example. They are some of the most prescribed drugs in the world. They work by blocking a path in the liver that makes both cholesterol and CoQ10 at the same time. So when CoQ10 production gets cut, people on statins sometimes feel muscle pain and tiredness as a result.

Where CoQ10 Comes From in Food

Your body makes some CoQ10, but you also get it from food. The problem is that most everyday foods have very little. Chicken breast has around 1 to 2 mg per 100 grams. Sardines are a bit higher. Soybeans are often mentioned but the amounts are small.

Organ meats are different.

Beef heart has roughly 113 mg of CoQ10 per kilogram, based on research in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis. Nobody eats a full kilogram in one sitting, so here is what that looks like in real life: a standard 3 ounce serving of beef heart gives you around 10 mg of CoQ10. There is no official daily target for CoQ10 since your body also makes some, but most studies have used doses of 100 to 200 mg per day. Food alone will not get you to those levels, but beef heart gets you closer than almost anything else. And it comes with the B vitamins and minerals your body uses right alongside CoQ10.

This is part of why older diets that included organ meats regularly did not need supplements to get this nutrient. It just came from food. And another reason why the phrase “like helps like” comes into play. If you need help with your heart? Eat heart organ. Need help with your liver, eat liver. It’s not any type of magic. It’s based on that the vitamins your organ needs, CoQ10 for heart, is mostly found in the heart organ you eat.

What the Research Says

CoQ10 has been studied quite a bit. Here is what the research actually shows.

Energy and tiredness. A 2022 review in Frontiers in Pharmacology looked at 13 studies with 1,126 people total. People who took CoQ10 felt less tired than those who took a placebo. The effect showed up in healthy people and in people dealing with conditions like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. Higher doses over longer periods worked better.

Migraines. A 2005 study in the journal Neurology followed 42 people who got migraines regularly. Half took CoQ10 and half took a placebo. In the CoQ10 group, 48 out of 100 people cut their migraine attacks in half. In the placebo group, only 14 out of 100 did. The study was small, so take it as a promising sign rather than a final answer. The American Academy of Neurology still lists CoQ10 as a probably effective option for preventing migraines in adults.

Heart health. The biggest study on this is called Q-SYMBIO. It was published in 2014 and followed 420 people with serious heart failure for two years. Half took CoQ10 and half took a placebo. In the CoQ10 group, 30 people had a major heart event like a hospital stay or cardiovascular death. In the placebo group, 57 people did. That is a meaningful difference. This study looked at people who were already sick, so it does not mean CoQ10 is a treatment for healthy people. But it does show how important this nutrient is to how the heart functions.

Statin muscle pain. Some studies show CoQ10 helps with muscle pain in people taking statins. The evidence is mixed, but the reason it might help makes sense given that statins cut CoQ10 production directly.

None of this makes CoQ10 a cure for anything. But the research behind it is real and the mechanism is clear.

Whole Food CoQ10 vs Supplements

Most CoQ10 supplements come in two forms called ubiquinone and ubiquinol. Ubiquinol is marketed as better absorbed. The evidence on which one is actually better is not settled.

What you do not hear talked about much is that food sources of CoQ10 come with other nutrients your body uses at the same time. B vitamins, iron, amino acids. When you eat beef heart, you are not just getting CoQ10 on its own. You are getting it the way food has always delivered it.

That is why One Earth Health sources its beef heart from grass-fed New Zealand cattle. Animals that graze year-round on open pasture produce organ meats with a richer nutrient profile than grain-fed alternatives. And freeze-drying at low temperature keeps the CoQ10 and B vitamins intact in a way that cooking does not. You can find the Beef Heart supplement here.

Who Should Pay Attention to CoQ10

If you are over 35, on a statin, dealing with low energy that sleep does not fix, or just want to support your heart long term, CoQ10 is worth knowing about. It is not a trendy supplement. It does not get the attention that protein powder or creatine does. But the research on it is solid and the reason it works is not complicated.

Getting it from food is the oldest approach. Beef heart is the best food source. That is really the whole story.