Experts Don’t Recommend Coenzyme Q10 to Improve or Maintain Brain Health

Sonya Collins

Updated September 23, 2024

A close-up view of vitamins and mineral nutrition supplements

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Research suggests that antioxidants can help offset the cumulative toll of environment hazards such as pollution, UV light, cigarette smoke, plus alcohol use and stress on our bodies. It’s no wonder people seek them out in foods, drinks and even supplements.

One powerful antioxidant is coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10). Your body makes it naturally, and your cells need it to grow and to stay healthy. It’s present in the largest quantities in your heart, liver and kidneys. But, as you get older, you don’t make as much of it. So it’s reasonable to wonder whether lower levels of CoQ10 as we age go hand in hand with increasing risk for certain diseases. Could a CoQ10 supplement, for example, lower your risk for age-related problems like memory loss and dementia?

Researchers have wondered the same thing. But they don’t have enough evidence to prove that CoQ10 supplements benefit brain health, according to a 2019 report on supplements by AARP’s Global Council on Brain Health (GCBH). AARP’s GCBH, which includes scientists, health care professionals and academic experts, reviewed the available studies on CoQ10 and did not recommend taking the supplement for memory preservation.

Research published since then supports their conclusion: There’s simply not enough evidence for taking CoQ10 supplements to improve or maintain your brain health.

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In a 2023 review in the journal CNS Drugs, researchers examined the 18 most common supplement ingredients touted for their benefits for memory, including CoQ10. They used two large databases of peer-reviewed scientific research, PubMed and Cochrane, to go over all the available evidence on these supplements. For CoQ10, they found “no compelling evidence” for its use when it comes to memory.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the supplement is useless. Some research has found that it may have some heart-related benefits, according to the Cleveland Clinic. For example, the antioxidant might improve symptoms of heart failure and possibly help lower blood pressure. Added to some other important nutrients, it seems to help with recovery from bypass and heart valve surgery, too.

Though there’s not a ton of evidence to support this, CoQ10 may help lower LDL cholesterol — that’s the “bad” cholesterol. It might also help lower total cholesterol, but only in people with diabetes. For people who take cholesterol-lowering statins, CoQ10 may help relieve the muscle pain that sometimes comes as a side effect, according to the Mayo Clinic.

If you’re a healthy person and you want to continue taking CoQ10 despite a lack of evidence for its brain benefits, it’s probably safe to do so, the Mayo Clinic states. It might cause insomnia or an upset stomach. But, if you take the blood thinner warfarin, insulin for diabetes, or certain cancer medications, talk to your doctor before starting or continuing CoQ10. In fact, when you take other medications, it’s always a good idea to run it by your doctor or a pharmacist before starting a supplement, to make sure it’s not going to interact with any of your other medicine.

Of course, you don’t have to take a supplement at all to boost your CoQ10 intake. You can add more to your diet by eating oily fish, such as salmon and tuna, organ meat, such as liver, and whole grains, including brown rice, whole wheat bread and oatmeal.