How much COQ10 to take, given my history?

I'm 67 now, and around age 52, in 2000, when I had my first EKG, they discovered that I'd had a "silent" heart attack, sometime before that. It turned out to be a totally blocked RCA - right coronary artery. The cardiologist at the time said that, because I'd started martial arts 2 years before that, at age 50, apparently it had developed collateral flow around the blockage and I was lucky. ( a minor miracle? ) Apparently a lot of people just die when it happens.

But he then suggested that I quit martial arts and take up something less strenuous. The problem was that the REASON I'd had the heart attack was that I'd never found any kind of exercise before that, that I could do very much of, or for very long ( 2-3 months at best ) without getting bored and quitting. ( treadmills made me feel like a hamster - SO boring ) Martial arts was good exercise ( if you find the right school ), highly motivating for me, and was the very reason I was surviving. So I fired that cardiologist and went to one who was voted one of the "top docs" in Colorado, instead. ( I'm in the Denver area ) She LOVED the fact that martial arts was saving me, and just gave me some reasonable limits, which my school respected. Not to exercise past the point of exhaustion, or past when I need to catch my breath.

I continued with that school until 2003 and then left and tried half a dozen other schools, none of which were as good, then I quit for awhile. During the time when I quit was when I wound up needing a stent on the left side.

In summer of 2014 I started back again, at yet another school, stayed there about 14 months, and then decided to go back to my first school, where I've been ever since ( the good one ). It costs more, but I get the workouts I need, to keep that RCA going, plus the martial arts which are interesting and keep me motivated. I've been back at that school since October 2014. And I can almost keep up with the 20 year olds, during the difficult workouts they do.

I've been on Atorvastatin 20MG for years and taking some COQ10 too, but I guess I found some wrong info about it, a couple of years ago on the web, and started taking only 30mg each morning. During that time, I started feeling kind of run down and fuzzy headed. Now it appears that the dosage may have been too little, in light of the 20mg Atorvastatin. I went back to the web about a month ago and searched again and found Web MD ( I think ) where it said that someone with a heart history AND on statins, should be taking 200mg of COQ10.

So I cautiously upped my dosage of the Puritan's Pride 30mg COq10's from 30 to 90 mg since then, and the energy and alertness has improved greatly. I also have music going around in my head most of the time, like I used to ( it had stopped, on the 30 mg ). No, I'm not crazy, just a music lover, and usually have a tune going, when the COQ10 has been enough.

One problem though - I take the COQ10 in the morning ( or it messes with my sleep ) and at night I take 300mg of 5-HTP for depression, which make me feel pretty good during the day. But since upping the dosage from 30 to 90mg, it's not doing as well. But it doesn't feel like I should be taking more than 90MG of the COQ10 - I feel pretty amped up on it.

BUT, I was doing some more reading on the web and came across a page from Facebook that said that a lot of COQ10 is derived from tobacco and is synthetic, and it's better if we take the stuff that's derived from yeast fermentation, is what they call "trans form", also has piperine to help absorbtion, and is made in the U.S. True?

But if that's true, the stuff they sell like that ( few companies meet those specs ) only comes in 200MG and I'm afraid that might be too much, given how amped up I feel on the 90mg now. Or am I feeling so amped up because it's synthetic? Thoughts on that?

Post Edited (MamaBear2015) : 12/30/2015 6:06:23 PM (GMT-7)

I've found that my doctors won't discuss supplements like this - they claim to only know about Rx drugs.

Pharmacist? You're joking, right?

OK, I'm not going to get any help here. I get it.

No no, you don't get to offload this as "attitude". There are online forums for everything now days and I came here asking for some supplement advice, NOT medical advice which I understand I would need to ask my Dr about. Supplement advice should be available all over forums like this, but I apparently tried the wrong one, where people are too afraid to give it.

I speak to my Dr about supplements all the time. I asked him about Fish Oil just this week, i wanted to start taking it again, but he said not to, because it has blood thinning capabilities and i am already on Plavix and Baby Aspirin.
Look, in a sense, MamaBear is correct, Drs generally take the "cure it with meds" approach. But if you get the right Dr. who gives a crap, he will either give you the answer, or he will direct you to someone who will.
My Dr knows what he knows and he knows what he doesn't know. So when i ask nutrition questions he refers me to a nutritionist.
Maybe you should try asking your Dr MamaBear, and if he has no answer, and doesn't tell you how to get it, maybe find a new Dr.

change dr. simple. word of mouth is the best bet. I will take your response with a grain of salt, as we all have, however we are members who took the time to post to you. medical advice is negligent and against forum rules.

I've always found cardiologists willing to discuss CoQ10; there have been respected studies done regarding its effect for people on Atorvastatin. And my pharmacist is always helpful with supplements; he has a computerized database he can go to if he isn't familiar with a supplement.

One problem with getting information on most supplements is that no valid studies have been done on them. There is no rigorous investigation as there is for pharmaceuticals. No one has watched them closely for years to see what side effects occur and what dosages work, so the information simply isn't available.

Some people depend on advice from employees at health stores selling supplemental products. Of course, they do have a certain amount of conflict of interest, plus that general lack of knowlege about supplements.

I personally take 100 mg. daily. I don't notice any difference in how I feel with or without it, but continue to take it because I did see one study years ago that discussed its benefits.