Cardiomyopathy is a VERY serious form of congestive heart failure. Basically, it’s a disease of the heart muscle in that it severely weakens the heart’s ability to pump blood through the body.
When operating normally, the heart muscle is acting just like the pump that it is. It needs to efficiently and in a coordinated manner, pump blood through all 4 chambers of the heart while opening & closing the valves at just the right time. Obviously, the heart is working all the time - 24 hours a day. So, it has high energy requirements to say the least.
Cardiomyopathy weakens the heart muscle to the point where it cannot pump the blood fast enough to the rest of the body. Basically, what’s called the ejection rate (a measure of the efficiency and strength of the heart in pumping blood through itself) falls to a dangerous level. This literally causes blood to back up within the circulatory system, including the lungs causing them to fill with fluid. Other nasty side effect happen as well, eventually leading to heart failure altogether.
What causes cardiomyopathy? There are a whole variety of reasons such as heart attacks, viral infections, hypertension, and genetics to name a few things.
It always saddens me to hear about people who have advanced cardiomyopathy. Usually, they’ve heard the discouraging and depressing news from their cardiologist that “nothing can be done other than get on the waiting list for a new heart”. At any point in time, there are over 20,000 people on the waiting list for a heart transplant - and those are the people under age 65 who can be on the list because they’re considered young enough. The transplant operation itself can cost over $250,000.
So, is there hope for people in this situation? Although not a cure for cardiomyopathy, the use of a vitamin supplement Coenzyme-Q10 has shown very effective results. In some cases, patients who were Class IV (the worst symtoms of cardiomyopathy and most limited physically) improved to Class I (no limitations) after taking coenzyme Q10 (done by a study in 1992 by Doctors Folkers and Langsjoen).
The reason Coenzyme Q10 works is that it is critical in helping to create energy within the cell mitochondria - the “furnace” at the center of the cell. Muscle cells tend to need a lot of coenzyme Q10 because of their high energy requirements. The heart, being a very active muscle, needs LOTS of Co-Q10. Studies have shown a direct correlation between the severity of heart failure and depletion of coenzyme Q10.
A study was performed in Italy by Baggio and Associates on 2,664 patients with congestive heart failure. They were given coenzyme Q10 to see how it would affect their conditions. The results showed nearly 80% of the patients improved after starting to take coenzyme Q10, with 54% of these patients showing major improvements.
Despite the obvious evidence that coenzyme Q10 is very beneficial to patients with cardiomyopathy, few cardiologists recommend it to their patients. This is extremely puzzling and very disappointing to me. With no known negative side effects at any dosage, the downside of taking this vitamin is non-existent other than the cost of several dollars a day at most. When you have little or no hope anyway, why would you NOT want to try something like take Co-Q10?
Coenzyme Q10 dosage ranges can be 30 mg. to over 300 mg. per day depending on the state of health. The worse it is, usually the higher dosage is required. Some forms of it are better than others, so do your research. Since co-Q10 is oil soluble, it often comes as a gel-cap.
If you have a heart health condition, check with your doctor about coenzyme Q10. If she/he says you don’t need it and doesn’t give you a good reason for making that conclusion, get a 2nd opinion. Your heart health is too important. I also suggest you pick up a copy of What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know About Nutritional Medicine May Be Killing You by Ray Strand, M.D. Check out the chapter Cardiomyopathy: New Hope For A Cure. It may change your life.
