Cutting Cancer in Women
By Anthony Almada, M.S.
Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is a well-known supplement having antioxidant, heart-helping and cellular energy-supporting properties. Of late, CoQ10 is also showing promise in fighting certain types of cancer in women. Among a group of 75 American women with cervical cancer or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, a precursor to cancer, lower levels of CoQ10 were found in blood and cervical/vaginal cells, compared with 27 women with normal Pap smears. Another study among 200 French women with breast tumors, both malignant and benign, found reduced amounts of blood CoQ10. And a later study of 21 Turkish women with breast cancer undergoing radical mastectomy found lower amounts of CoQ10 within the breast tumor tissue compared with the normal, surrounding tissue. In fact, four of the women had undetectable amounts of CoQ10.
No placebo-controlled studies have yet validated the effectiveness of CoQ10 supplementation in fighting or treating cancer. However, in light of a recent clinical study showing CoQ10 supplementation protects immune cells from DNA damage, CoQ10 certainly merits further study as a cancer preventive and form of chemotherapy.
Anthony Almada, M.S., has collaborated on more than 45 university-based studies and is founder and chief scientific officer of IMAGINutrition.
