Is working standing up too expensive? It could cost you as little as $10

Spending too much time sitting down is clearly unnatural, particularly if you sit down on very comfortable chairs. Sitting down per se is probably natural, given the human anatomy, but not sitting down for hours in the same position. Also, comfortable furniture is an apparently benign Neolithic invention, but over several years it may stealthily contributed to the metabolic syndrome and the diseases of civilization.

Getting an elevated workstation may be a bit expensive. At work, you may have to go through a bit of a battle with your employer to get it (unless you are "teh boz"), only to find out that having to work standing up all the time is not what you really wanted. That may not be very natural either. So what is one to do? One possible solution is to buy a small foldable plastic table (or chair) like the one on the figure below, which may cost you less than $10, and put it on your work desk. I have been doing this for quite a while now, and it works fine for me.

The photo above shows a laptop computer. Nevertheless, you can use this table-over-table approach with a desktop computer as well. And you still keep the space under the foldable table, which you can use to place other items. With a desktop computer this approach would probably require two foldable tables to elevate the screen, keyboard, and mouse. This approach also works for reading documents and writing with a pen or pencil; just put a thick sheet of paper on the foldable table to make a flat surface (if the foldable table’s surface is not flat already). And you don’t have to be standing up all the time; you can sit down as well after removing the foldable table. It takes me about 5 seconds to do or undo this setup.

When you sit down, you may want to consider using a pillow like the one on the photo to force yourself to sit upright. (You can use it as shown, or place the pillow flat on the chair and sit on its edge.) Sitting on a very comfy chair with back support prevents you from using the various abdominal and back muscles needed to maintain posture. As a result, you may find yourself unusually prone to low back injuries and suffering from “mysterious” abdominal discomfort. You will also very likely decrease your nonexercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), which is a major calorie expenditure regulator.

With posture stabilization muscles, as with almost everything else in the human body, the reality is this: if you don’t use them, you lose them.

The China Study II: A look at mortality in the 35-69 and 70-79 age ranges

This post is based on an analysis of a subset of the China Study II data, using HealthCorrelator for Excel (HCE), which is publicly available for download and use on a free trial basis. You can access the original data on the HCE web site, under “Sample datasets”.

HCE was designed to be used with small and individual personal datasets, but it can also be used with larger datasets for multiple individuals.

This analysis focuses on two main variables from the China Study II data: mortality in the 35-69 age range, and mortality in the 70-79 range. The table below shows the coefficients of association calculated by HCE for those two variables. The original variable labels are shown.

One advantage of looking at mortality in these ranges is that they are more likely to reflect the impact of degenerative diseases. Infectious diseases likely killed a lot of children in China at the time the data was being collected. Heart disease, on the other hand, is likely to have killed more people in the 35-69 and 70-79 ranges.

It is also good to have data for both ranges, because factors that likely increased longevity were those that were associated with decreased mortality in both ranges. For example, a factor that was strongly associated with mortality in the 35-69 range, but not the 70-79 range, might simply be very deadly in the former range.

The mortalities in both ranges are strongly correlated with each other, which is to be expected. Next, at the very top for both ranges, is sex. Being female is by far the variable with the strongest, and negative, association with mortality.

While I would expect females to live longer, the strengths of the associations make me think that there is something else going on here. Possibly different dietary or behavioral patterns displayed by females. Maybe smoking cigarettes or alcohol abuse was a lot less prevalent among them.

Markedly different lifestyle patterns between males and females may be a major confounding variable in the China Study sample.

Some of the variables are redundant; meaning that they are highly correlated and seem to measure the same thing. This is clear when one looks at the other coefficients of association generated by HCE.

For example, plant food consumption is strongly and negatively correlated with animal food consumption; so strongly that you could use either one of these two variables to measure the other, after inverting the scale. The same is true for consumption of rice and white flour.

Plant food consumption is not strongly correlated with plant protein consumption; many plant foods have little protein in them. The ones that have high protein content are typically industrialized and seed-based. The type of food most strongly associated with plant protein consumption is white flour, by far. The correlation is .645.

The figure below is based on the table above. I opened a separate instance of Excel, and copied the coefficients generated by HCE into it. Then I built two bar charts with them. The variable labels were replaced with more suggestive names, and some redundant variables were removed. Only the top 7 variables are shown, ordered from left to right on the bar charts in order of strength of association. The ones above the horizontal axis possibly increase mortality in each age range, whereas the ones at the bottom possibly decrease it.

When you look at these results as a whole, a few things come to mind.

White flour consumption doesn’t seem to be making people live longer; nor does plant food consumption in general. For white flour, it is quite the opposite. Plant food consumption reflects white flour consumption to a certain extent, especially in counties where rice consumption is low. These conclusions are consistent with previous analyses using more complex statistics.

Total food is positively associated with mortality in the 35-69 range, but not the 70-79 range. This may reflect the fact that folks who reach the age of 70 tend to naturally eat in moderation, so you don’t see wide variations in food consumption among those folks.

Eating in moderation does not mean practicing severe calorie restriction. This post suggests that calorie restriction doesn't seem to be associated with increased longevity in this sample. Eating well, but not too much, is.

The bar for rice (consumption) on the left chart is likely a mirror reflection of the white flour consumption, so it may appear to be good in the 35-69 range simply because it reflects reduced white flour consumption in that range.

Green vegetables seem to be good when you consider the 35-69 range, but not the 70-79 range.

Neither rice nor green vegetables seem to be bad either. For overall longevity they may well be neutral, with the benefits likely coming from their replacement of white flour in the diet.

Dietary fat seems protective overall, particularly together with animal foods in the 70-79 range. This may simply reflect a delayed protective effect of animal fat and protein consumption.

The protective effect of dietary fat becomes clear when we look at the relationship between carbohydrate calories and fat calories. Their correlation is -.957, which essentially means that carbohydrate intake seriously displaces fat intake.

Carbohydrates themselves may not be the problem, even if coming from high glycemic foods (except wheat flour, apparently). This post shows that they are relatively benign if coming from high glycemic rice, even at high intakes of 206 to 412 g/day. The problem seems to be caused by carbohydrates displacing nutrient-dense animal foods.

Interestingly, rice does not displace animal foods or fat in the diet. It is positively correlated with them. Wheat flour, on the other hand, displaces those foods. Wheat flour is negatively and somewhat strongly correlated with consumption of animal foods, as well as with animal fat and protein.

There are certainly several delayed effects here, which may be distorting the results somewhat.  Degenerative diseases don’t develop fast and kill folks right away. They often require many years of eating and doing the wrong things to be fatal.

Losing weight without developing gallstones

Gallstones are estimated to affect 1 in 10 people in North America. Those who are obese have a higher likelihood of developing gallstones. Most at risk of gallstones as a result of obesity are Native Americans, the elderly, and Caucasian women in their forties who haven’t yet reached menopause.

Gallstones are so named because they develop in the gallbladder, a small organ that stores and releases the bile made by the liver. Bile is a dark green fluid containing bile salts and cholesterol. The gallbladder releases bile into the small intestine to assist in digesting fats more efficiently. However, if the bile contains high concentrations of cholesterol, then stones too difficult for the bile salts to dissolve may develop.

Because gallstones usually form without any symptoms, most people don’t know they have them or may feel only minor symptoms such as abdominal pain after eating a fatty meal. However, if a stone becomes lodged in a bile duct causing blockage, it can result in sudden pain in the abdomen, back or right shoulder.

Cholecystitis, or gallbladder disease, which is caused by duct blockage, infection or inflammation, is one of the most common digestive diseases. Pain from duct blockage can become intense and lead to hospitalization and surgery. In the U.S. alone, gallbladder surgeries approach 700,000 annually, costing approximately $6.5 million.

Surgery costs increase if gallstones and duct blockage or infection cause the pancreas to become inflamed. The resulting pancreatitis can lead to severe or life-threatening complications. The major cause of acute pancreatitis in North America is gallstones.

Link to Obesity and Losing Weight Too Quickly

Because of obesity’s major role in the formation of gallstones, weight management is critical for decreasing the likelihood of developing them. Obesity is thought to increase risk of gallstones because of elevated production of cholesterol, which in turn increases the concentration of cholesterol in bile.

Paradoxically, losing weight actually increases risk of developing gallstones among obese people, especially amongst those who lose large amounts of weight rapidly. Although not entirely understood, nutritional and medical scientists think that losing weight too quickly may shift the balance of bile salts and cholesterol, causing increased concentrations of cholesterol. Gallstone risk may also be increased by consuming a diet too low in fat or avoiding fat, which reduces the frequency of gallbladder contractions and results in fewer chances of gallbladder emptying.

As always, individuals with a high risk for gallstones should follow medical advice in treatment. Medical researchers have studied methods that obese people can lose weight while reducing risk of gallstone developments. Statin regimens and bile salt therapies have had mixed results. A drug called ursodiol has shown much promise in helping to dissolve cholesterol in bile and prevent gallstones.

There have also been successes such as employing modifications in diet to help reduce risk of gallstones. Along with following a doctor’s advice, individuals can consider these weight-management strategies, which have shown promise based on epidemiologic studies or in clinical trials for losing weight as naturally and safely as possible.

Three Steps to Help Lower Risk of Gallstones While Losing Weight

Step 1: Avoid very low-calorie dieting, losing no more than 1-2 pounds per week.

Overall, research studies have found that obese people who lost 3 pounds or more weekly had a greater likelihood of developing gallstones. This may be because they are more likely to experience an imbalance between bile salts and cholesterol, as well as irregular gallbladder emptying.

For these reasons, people who are obese or who are at high risk for developing gallstones should also avoid skipping meals or fasting.

By eating three steady meals throughout the day and losing weight at a slower rate, obese people can reduce the weight-loss risk factor in gallstone formation. To ensure steady weight loss at 1-2 pounds per week, calorie intake should be reduced by only 500 to 1,000 calories. Weight loss is also influenced by activity, which may require eating more calories to compensate for calories burned.

Step 2: Avoid saturated fats and eat small amounts of monounsaturated or polyunsaturated dietary fat daily.

Foods high in saturated fats, trans fats and cholesterol are all associated with increased risk in gallstone formation. However, foods high in polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats (from olive oil or high-oleic sunflower oil) may help lower cholesterol saturation and reduce risk of gallstone formation.

A randomized clinical trial on obese subjects compared a low-calorie diet (900 kcal/d) with 30 grams of fat per day with a low-calorie diet (520 kcal/d) with less than 2 grams of fat per day. After eight weeks, not one of the subjects on the diet with 30 grams of fat per day had developed gallstones. The researchers were led to conclude that dietary fat ensured regular gallbladder emptying and reduced bile cholesterol saturation.

A 10g threshold of fat per meal is now considered to be most efficient at maximizing gallbladder emptying, which can support healthy weight loss while reducing risk of formation of gallstones.

Furthermore, according to one randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, fish oil in amounts of almost 12 grams per day may work comparatively to ursodiol in reducing risk of gallstone formation in low calorie diets.

Step 3: Avoid refined sugar and strive for a diet high in fiber.

In epidemiologic studies, there is a higher association of gallstones in those who ate greater amounts of refined sugars. In contrast, long-term consumption of relatively high amounts of dietary fiber has been correlated with reduced risk of gallstone diseases.

The risk appears to be even lower if the amount of fiber consumed comes from sources rich in insoluble fiber found in whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Soluble dietary fiber such as found in oats and legumes also appears to be protective, showing reduction of gallstone formation in animal studies.

Diets higher in fiber and lower in refined sugars will also assist in weight loss. Refined sugars, found in high amounts in sodas and desserts, contribute to high calorie intake, which contributes to obesity. Dietary fiber is filling, providing a satiety effect, but offers little or no calories that would contribute to weight gain.

Individuals should increase dietary fiber to recommended levels (25 to 30 grams daily) gradually.

Safe Road to Optimal Health

Once again, each of these steps is a natural dietary habit that will help lower the risk of developing gallstones and support losing weight safely. Apart from diet, getting regular exercise daily is also helpful. And, for every pound lost gradually, the ultimate achievement is reduced risk of gallstones in the future.

Beyond reduced risk of gallstones, the end-benefits of healthy weight management are profound including improved activity and mobility, improved health of organs such as the heart and brain, and reduced risk of diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Healthy weight management improves overall health and wellness at every level.

No evidence of dairy and heart disease link

New research has once again confirmed after systematically analyzing 17 studies that there is simply no evidence to substantiate claims of a link between dairy and higher risk of cardiovascular disease or death.

The evidence, in fact, shows just the opposite—drinking milk slightly reduces the risk of coronary heart disease (1). In addition, multiple studies show that milk and dairy proteins (whey and casein) may actually protect the heart by helping to maintain lower blood pressure, lower blood sugar, and lead to reduced bodyweight (2-4).

The renowned, epidemiologic and nutrition researcher Walter Willet, Ph.D., and his group at Harvard, conducted this huge analysis by looking at various types of dairy intake, ranging from milk intake to total high-fat dairy products and total low-fat dairy products and correlating to risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke and all-cause mortality. This study was a meta-analysis of many prospective cohort studies in healthy men and women (4).

Although it's always a challenging task to summarize published studies' data on food intake, Willett’s group is easily recognized as having the epidemiological expertise of doing such an analysis. Results from the group's careful analysis show:

• a statistically significant inverse association between milk intake and cardiovascular disease.
• no significant relationship between CHD, stroke, and all-cause mortality (including cancer) and total dairy of all types (high-fat, low-fat)

When they examined data on total dairy products or total high-fat dairy intake there was still no impact on CHD, but these results were based on a much smaller number of studies.

A notable strength of this methodology was the use of an advanced statistical approach for trend estimation of summarized dose-response data. This method provides uniform analysis of different studies, exposure categories and range of intakes; as well as greater power using full spectrum continuous exposure data.

These data, published in the January issue of the Journal of American Clinical Nutrition, clearly show that milk intake does not lead to cardiovascular, heart, stroke or any mortality (including cancer) and may even be beneficial in reducing cardiovascular diseases.

Several mechanisms have been discussed over the years concerning the beneficial effects of low-fat dairy intake on lowering blood pressure. For example, data from the famous DASH eating plan show systolic blood pressure reduction with a healthy diet. Inclusion of low-fat dairy products or dairy proteins showed a potential anti-hypertension effect possibly due to the natural mineral content found in dairy, particularly phosphorous.

These types of studies do not show cause and effect, but do, in fact, show that there is not an increased risk of heart disease, cardiovascular disease, stroke or all-cause mortality by drinking milk. One can only hypothesize why these associations exist—a clear possibility is that milk drinkers are taking extra dietary care by consuming natural products, perhaps in place of sugar-laden soft drinks. Diet quality is the key in reducing risk of chronic disease.

CVD is the main cause of death in the Western world claiming 17 million lives each year. Since saturated fat intake is associated with heart disease, dairy foods have often been blamed for contributing to CVD; however, the science community has yet to agree because of many conflicting studies. Although most epidemiological studies have failed to show an effect of dairy on CVD, a few have shown a positive correlation.

Likely confusion arises when results from dissimilar studies get lumped together in hopes of finding the "answer." However, combining evidence from epidemiological, case-control, prospective study designs with different age groups, genders, countries and numbers of subjects may easily explain the mixed results.

References

1. Soedamah-Authu SS, Ding EL, Al-Delaimy WK, Hu FB, Engberink MF, Willet WC and Geleijnse JM. Milk and dairy consumption and incidence of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality: dose-response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Am J Clin Nutr 2011; 93: 158-71.
2. Petersen BL, Ward LS, Bastian ED, Jenkins AL, Campbell J, Vuksan V. A whey protein supplement decreases post-prandial glycemia. Nutr J 2009;8:47.
3. Frestedt JL, Zenk JL, Kuskowski MA, Ward LS, Bastian ED. A whey-protein supplement increases fat loss and spares lean muscle in obese subjects: a randomized human clinical study. Nutr Metab (Lond) 2008;5:8.
4. Fluegel SM, Shultz TD, Powers JR, Clark S, et al. Whey beverages decrease blood pressure in prehypertensive and hypertensive young men and women. International Dairy Journal; 1010; 753-760.

...towards a m a n i f e s t o

Some thoughts on happiness...

Hedonic well-being?

Let Sunshine Win the Day
or Cynicism: it’s healthy and it makes me happy

The North West m a n i f e s t o events came about as a response to societal changes and as a way of artists and health allies expressing their frustrations and articulating shared passion. As a piece of work, it’s less about strategising and more about connecting and moving forward, and very much in the tradition of artist’s manifestos: its about shouting from the roof-tops.

Last week’s event in Liverpool was planned to give voice to practitioners across Merseyside to come together and exchange ideas and vision to inform the manifesto and celebrate some of the unfolding activity across the area. So, as part of a series of events, exploring shared aspirations for the field, this was a bit of a hybrid event, and with over fifty people in the room was vocal, buoyant and inspiring.

I introduced the session by framing our practice in relation to wider national and regional activity and placing the arts at the heart of society, both in reflection and reaction.

Artistic Director of FACT, Mike Stubbs went on to give a Liverpool context, painting a picture of a thriving and engaged cultural sector and challenging us to think about how we evidence our impact.

Punctuated with artist’s interventions, the session drew some significant thoughts and insight from participants that can be found on the dedicated m a n i f e s t o /merseyside blog pages (only available to that sessions participants, but all the m a n i f e s t o sessions will be drawn together leading up to June 2011).

The only off-note, was in Nic Marks’ rounding-up of the morning. Marks, of the new economics foundation (nef), mistakenly forgot he was at an arts event and not a happiness forum, missing, as he did the cynicism, experience and discontent in the room, (and perhaps wider society).

Whilst many of the people in the session had eloquently described how the arts are, by their very nature political, and I’d opened the session by expressing frustration at societal acceptance of blame for government mismanagement and the crimes of the bankers, Marks focused on what he saw as ‘cheap shots’ at the happiness agenda.1

Now I may be mistaken, but at all the m a n i f e s t o events, I’m mindful of ensuring a couple of things; keeping what I say as consistent as possible, for parity’s sake across the region, and focusing on the long (and rather obvious) history of the arts being more than little baubles and trinkets to pacify people, but as exciting, provocative, subversive and again, political.

By suggesting that cynical politicians may just be hijacking the happiness agenda and arguing our work wasn’t just about making people happy, I apparently blinded Marks to why he was there: to look at the arts in relation to well-being.

And the Five Ways to Well-being by nef are pretty much accepted as good, common-sense ways of looking at day-to-day actions to promote well-being. By connecting with people: being active: taking notice of things beyond our day to day: keeping learning and giving. So no argument there, in fact this ‘latest scientific evidence’ is blindingly obvious.

That’s why we asked Marks to round things off; we thought that all these actions might in fact, contribute towards more fully engaged members of society who connect with others and actively debate and question the status quo: take more than a passing interest in the sound-bites of the popular press and see the potential of shared voices and practice as being part of something bigger: contributing to wider civic society.

Surely then, the result of being a fully engaged citizen might just lead to a more cynical and less superficially ‘happy’ society. Describing my comment about our work not just being about making people happy, as being a ‘cheap-shot’ typical of the media, and for a ‘quick laugh’ Marks risked skewing the whole flavour of the session and devaluing the contributions made.2

I doubt that anyone taking part in the session would question the impact of the arts on well-being, that’s why we’re all involved, we weren’t there to explore the damage we can inflict on each other with our practice.

The point is, that the arts offer so much more than hedonic gratification, and through participation give voice to frustration, anger and cynicism; in other words, art is more than the blind pursuit of happiness (whatever that is) that we’re all told we must aspire to.

Like flat-screen TVs, 4x4 cars or celebrity spray-on tan, it seems happiness is being peddled on the consumerist must-have shopping list. Well, with 2.5 million people unemployed and counting, it looks like the only quick-fire state route to happiness will be through prescription drugs, no doubt on offer through our local National Health Franchise.

Whilst we’re on our way to understanding well-being, (and I’d suggest that the arts and cultural engagement play a big part in that journey), I find it increasingly difficult to imagine how subjective happiness can be identified let alone measured.

And yet as far back as the 2006 Conservative Party Conference, David Cameron has muted the idea of a happiness index, commenting, ‘Let optimism beat pessimism, let sunshine win the day..." Five years later, the NHS, Education and Cultural sectors are undergoing fundamental changes and the banking crisis has thrown the global economy into turmoil. Under the instruction of Cameron, a happiness index is being prepared as I type.

Clive Parkinson
Blue Monday: January 24th 2011

1. In his summing up, Marks said that Cameron and the Government don’t talk about happiness, whereas in reality, there is a wealth of coalition rhetoric on the subject.
2. Rounding off the event and from the lectern, Nic Marks looked me squarely in the eyes and asked, ‘Isn’t happiness the most important thing for our children?’ (Like Ricky Gervais, but without the irony). I wanted to scream, ‘Of course it is, you twerp!’ but I applauded politely thinking, ‘I’d like my children to have a healthy degree of cynicism too; oh and food and shelter, oh and education and love...’

HealthCorrelator for Excel (HCE) is now publicly available for free trial

HealthCorrelator for Excel (HCE) is now publicly available for download and use on a free trial basis. For those users who decide to buy it after trying, licenses are available for individuals and organizations. If you are a gym member, consider asking your gym to buy an organizational site license; this would allow the gym to distribute individual licenses at no cost to you and your colleagues.

HCE is a user-friendly Excel-based software that unveils important associations among health variables at the click of a button. Here are some of its main features:

- Easy to use yet powerful health management software.

- Estimates associations among any number of health variables.

- Automatically orders associations by decreasing absolute strength.

- Graphs relationships between pairs of health variables, for all possible combinations.

The beta testing was successfully completed, with fairly positive results. (Thank you beta testers!) Among beta testers were Mac users. The main request from beta testers was for more illustrative material on how to use HCE for specific purposes, such as losing body fat or managing blood glucose levels. This will be coming in the future in the form of posts and linked material.

To download a free trial version, good for 30 use sessions (which is quite a lot!), please visit the HealthCorrelator.com web site. There you will also find the software’s User Manual and various links to demo YouTube videos. You can also download sample datasets to try the software’s main features.

CoQ10 Adds to Mediterranean Diet’s Anti-Aging Benefits

Elderly men and women who supplement Mediterranean-style meals with coenzyme Q10 (coQ10) enjoy greater antioxidant protection and could slow aging, a Spanish study finds (1).

In a randomized crossover trial, University of Cordoba researchers assigned 20 healthy adults (ages 65 and older) to one of the three dietary protocols for the duration of four weeks: a traditional Western-style diet rich in saturated fats, a Mediterranean-style diet rich in olive oil, or a Mediterranean-style diet supplemented with coQ10 (200 mg/day in capsules).

The scientists found that the combination (Mediterranean-style meals and coQ10) improved antioxidant activity and reduced cellular oxidative stress in the subjects more successfully than the Mediterranean-style or Western-style diet alone.

The Mediterranean-style diet protocols also exhibited greater heart-protective benefits in comparison to the Western-style diet. The scientists noticed a significantly greater decrease in HDL cholesterol (the “good” cholesterol) levels in response to the Western-style meals.

Writing in the December issue of AGE, the authors concluded that the effect of the Mediterranean-style diet rich in olive oil, in combination with coQ10, may have “favorable effects on the aging process” and on the prevalence of age-related conditions.

Previous studies, noted by the authors, have found that the olive-oil rich diet supplemented with coQ10 also improves capillary blood flow and helps maintain healthy blood pressure.

Mediterranean-style diet

A Mediterranean-style diet generally includes greater amounts of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and olive oil; at least two servings of fish and seafood per week; moderate amounts of poultry, eggs, cheese and yogurt; and fewer meats and sweets.

In this study, the Mediterranean-style diet consisted of 15 percent of calories as protein, 47 percent as carbohydrate, and 38 percent as fat (24 percent monounsaturated fats [from virgin olive oil], 10 percent saturated fat, and 4 percent polyunsaturated fatty acid).

The Western-style diet consisted of 15 percent calories as protein, 47 percent as carbohydrate, and 38 percent as fat (12 percent monounsaturated fats, 22 percent saturated fats, and 4 percent polyunsaturated fats).

Several other studies have pointed to anti-aging benefits from the Mediterranean-style diet. One such study, just published by researchers at Rush University, of Chicago, in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition linking the diet to a healthier brain in older age (2).

CoQ10 and Oxidative Stress

CoQ10 is a major fat-soluble antioxidant found in all cell membranes, especially within mitochondrial membranes. It’s one of the cell’s most potent scavengers of free radicals, neutralizing the lipid peroxyl radicals that damage cell membranes, proteins and DNA.

Antioxidants are the body’s first line of defense against free radicals and byproducts of metabolism that could lead to cellular decline and dysfunction.

The ability of humans to synthesize coQ10 declines 20 percent for every decade of life after the age of 21. This reduction leads to deficiency, weakness and fatigue throughout the body.

Lower coQ10 levels in tissues and cells can allow for more damage on nearby lipids, proteins and DNA. Because coQ10 is chiefly instrumental (along with selenium) for the regeneration of vitamin E, another potent fat-soluble antioxidant, the diminished coQ10 levels also lead to declines in levels of vitamin E.

Sources:

1. Yubero-Serrano EM, Delgado-Casado N, Delgado-Lista J et al. Postprandial antioxidant effect of the Mediterranean diet supplemented with coenzyme Q(10) in elderly men and women. Age (Dordr ) 2010.
2. Tangney CC, Kwasny MJ, Li H, Wilson RS, Evans DA, Morris MC. Adherence to a Mediterranean-type dietary pattern and cognitive decline in a community population. Am J Clin Nutr 2010.