Ubiquinone or Ubiquinol - does it really matter?

Ubiquinone or Ubiquinol - does it really matter?Ever since the discovery of coenzyme Q10 in 1957, scientists have been conducting research with this intriguing nutrient that appears to play a crucial role in human health. Another word for coenzyme Q10 is “ubiquinone” because of its omnipotent importance. “Ubi” means everywhere. In 2006, a new type of CoQ10 called “ubiquinol” surfaced commercially. Clever marketing campaigns attempted to pawn this off as the new and improved CoQ10 source that was absorbed more easily in the body and was superior to ubiquinone. Consumers as well as scientists got confused and started questioning the traditional form of CoQ10 – ubiquinone – although it had been sold commercially and used in studies all along.

More expensive and less stable

Is there really a difference? Is ubiquinol better than ubiquinone? Little information is available about this and to be honest, nobody really knows. In fact, the only known differences between these two types of CoQ10, besides their color (ubiquinol is milky white and ubiquinone is yellowish) is that ubiquinol is a more expensive raw material and is less stable, biochemically speaking.

Makes no difference

Because ubiquinol costs more to manufacture it is more expensive for consumers to purchase and for scientists to use in research. Ironically, CoQ10 shifts between its ubiquinone and ubiquinol form in a continuous cycle inside the body. This is all part of CoQ10’s role in biology. So when you take ubiquinol it shifts to ubiquinone and vice versa. It makes no difference in what form you take the substance.

Depending on whether CoQ10 is in the blood and lymph or inside the mitochondria of the cells, it shifts to the form that is needed in the particular situation. In blood and lymph, CoQ10 primarily serves as an antioxidant. In the mitochondria, it supports the energy metabolism.

Here are some basic facts to put things into perspective:


Ubiquinone has been used in the majority of studies


Ubiquinol is susceptible to oxidation

 


The absorption of ubiquinol and ubiquinone is the same

 

 
 
 The absorption of ubiquinol and ubiquinone is the sameThe massive marketing campaigns for ubiquinol have left many people in the dark about what form of the substance to trust. This is clearly pointed out in a newsletter (“Coenzyme Q10 Facts or Fabrications”) that was issued by a group of leading experts. In their newsletter they call these campaigns “false” and “misleading” and say that they have only generated more confusion about CoQ10. Interestingly, they also make a point of mentioning that since the different forms of CoQ10 can easily be converted from one form to the other, it makes sense to stick with a form that is more affordable. Ubiquinone is less expensive to manufacture. Another thing that may be worth mentioning is that ubiquinol is more unstable and tends to convert back into ubiquinone in the capsule.


Summary

 
Sources:
Cardiovascular mortality and N-terminal-proBNP reduced after combined selenium and coenzyme Q10 supplementation: a 5-year prospective randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial among elderly Swedish citizens.
Alehagen U, Johansson P, Björnstedt M, Rosén A, Dahlström U.
Int J Cardiol. 2013 Sep 1;167(5):1860-6
The Effect of Coenzyme Q on Morbidity and Mortality in Chronic Heart Failure: Results From Q-SYMBIO: A Randomized Double-Blind Trial.
Mortensen SA, Rosenfeldt F, Kumar A, Dolliner P, Filipiak KJ, Pella D, Alehagen U, Steurer G, Littarru GP; Q-SYMBIO Study Investigators.
JACC Heart Fail. 2014 Sep 25. pii: S2213-1779(14)00336-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jchf.2014.06.008.