| Question: |
| Does USANA use ubiquinol or ubiquinone in the CoQuinone products? |
| Answer: |
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USANA uses solubilized ubiquinone for its CoQuinone products. While certain websites would like consumers to believe that ubiquinol is universally superior to ubiquinone, there is actually very little difference in their benefits and bioavailability at levels typically provided by dietary supplements. If you read most ubiquinol marketing closely, claims like "ubiquinol is 8 times more absorbable than ubiquinone" often appear. The catch is that this statement is only true when a well-made solubilized form of ubiquinol is compared to a poor form of ubiquinone (either a powder, tablet, or oil gel). This is especially deceptive since USANA's solubilized ubiquinone is also ~8 times more absorbable than powdered and tableted ubiquinone. Well-formulated ubiquinol and ubiquinone products are not significantly different at dosages normally taken (30-300 mg). It is true to state that at very advanced dosages (several hundred to 3,000 mg), ubiquinol has some advantages - but these dosages are the exception, not the rule. Based on current research and the many papers we have reviewed, the only real difference between ubiquinol and ubiquinone at common dosages is the price and the amount of hype, because the pharmacokinetics of ubiquionol and ubiquinone are virtually identical at these levels. Here is an in-house review of USANA's CoQ10 formulation as compared to several competing products: http://www.usana.com/media/File/dotCom/company/science/crb/5CRB.pdf And finally, here is an abstract of one of the many papers available on this subject (note the last sentence): Plasma coenzyme Q10 response to oral ingestion of coenzyme Q10 formulations Bhagavan HN, Chopra RK Plasma coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) response to oral ingestion of various CoQ10 formulations was examined. Both total plasma CoQ10 and net increase over baseline CoQ10 concentrations show a gradual increase with increasing doses of CoQ10. Plasma CoQ10 concentrations plateau at a dose of 2400 mg using one specific chewable tablet formulation. The efficiency of absorption decreases as the dose increases. About 95% of circulating CoQ10 occurs as ubiquinol, with no appreciable change in the ratio following CoQ10 ingestion. Higher plasma CoQ10 concentrations are necessary to facilitate uptake by peripheral tissues and also the brain. Solubilized formulations of CoQ10 (both ubiquinone and ubiquinol) have superior bioavailability as evidenced by their enhanced plasma CoQ10 responses. |