Is CoQ10 a proven treatment for preventing Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease? No, that's not true: A neurologist told Lead Stories that it is "false" to say that CoQ10 can prevent either disease. While some studies have explored the antioxidant's potential benefits, experts that Lead Stories spoke with said that results are not clear enough to prove that CoQ10 prevents either Alzheimer's or Parkinson's diseases.
The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) published on Instagram on January 1, 2025, under the on-screen title "1,000 Mg of This Supplement Helps Prevent Alzheimer's and Parkinson's." The video's caption said:
Just 1,000 mg of This Supplement Helps Prevent Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
#alzheimers #parkinsons #supplements #memory #brain #dementia #coq10 #robertlove #robertwblove
This is what the post looked like on Instagram at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Fri Jan 2 18:01:08 2024 UTC)
The post doesn't give any proof to support the assertion in its video that CoQ10 (Coenzyme Q10) supplements, an antioxidant also made by the body, can prevent Alzheimer's (AD) and Parkinson's (PD) disease.
Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) responded to the claim in a January 3, 2025, email. An FDA spokesperson said:
Vitamins, minerals, herbs, and other dietary supplements are NOT FDA-approved to treat or prevent disease. A product sold as a dietary supplement and represented explicitly or implicitly for treatment, prevention, or cure of a specific disease or class of diseases meets the definition of a drug and is subject to regulation as a drug.
The FDA recommends that people talk to a doctor or another health professional before using these products.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
In a January 3, 2025, email, Nick Spinelli, a public affairs specialist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said, "Coenzyme Q10 is not part of CDC's public health approach or recommendations to address Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias."
Alzheimer's Association
The Alzheimer's Association directed Lead Stories to the "Alternative Treatments" page (archived here) on its website when asked about the social media claim in a January 3, 2025, email. Under coenzyme Q10, it said:
Coenzyme Q10, or ubiquinone, is an antioxidant that occurs naturally in the body and is needed for normal cell reactions. This compound has not been studied for its effectiveness in treating Alzheimer's.
A synthetic version of this compound, called idebenone, was tested for Alzheimer's disease but did not show any benefit. Little is known about what dosage of coenzyme Q10 is considered safe, and there could be harmful effects if too much is taken.
Parkinson's Foundation
The Parkinson's Foundation also casts doubt on the benefits of CoQ10. In a January 3, 2025, email, it said:
In 2011, a large clinical trial sponsored by National Institutes of Health and the Parkinson Study Group studying the potential benefits of CoQ10 on reducing the progression of early PD [Parkinson's disease] was stopped because a mid-study analysis suggested that there was no improvement in the people taking CoQ10 in comparison to those receiving treatment. Researchers decided that continuing the study would have shown an extremely low likelihood of CoQ10 showing any benefit in delaying the progression of early PD.
The foundation's website (archived here) also included the same information under "Coenzyme Q-10."
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
The website (archived here) for the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health at the National Institutes for Health also offers insights on CoQ10 as a treatment for Parkinson's. It said:
A major National Institutes of Health-funded study showed that CoQ10, even in higher-than-usual doses, didn't improve symptoms in patients with early Parkinson's disease. A 2017 evaluation of this study and several other, smaller studies concluded that CoQ10 is not helpful for Parkinson's symptoms.
Experts
In a January 3, 2025, email, Dr. Eric Musiek, a neurologist and professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, told Lead Stories that CoQ10 is a substance with antioxidant properties that helps cells produce energy. Some scientists speculate it might help treat brain diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Musiek said this is what we know so far:
- CoQ10 and a related compound called idebenone are already used to treat some rare brain diseases.
- PD: Animal studies show CoQ10 might reduce brain damage linked to PD. A small 2002 human study (archived here) hinted it could slow PD, but a larger study in 2014 (archived here) found no real benefit for early-stage PD.
- AD: Animal studies suggest CoQ10 might protect against AD, but human studies are small and show mixed results. There hasn't been a big, definitive study yet.
Musiek's email summary said:
CoQ10 has is used to reduce oxidative stress and improve mitochondrial function in some rare neurodegenerative diseases. It has protective effects in AD and PD mouse models. However, a large clinical trial of high-dose CoQ10 in PD showed no effect, and there is no definitive human data to support its use in AD. Thus, the claim that CoQ10 is proven to prevent AD and PD is false.
Dr. Heather Whitson, director of the Duke Aging Center at the Duke University School of Medicine, told Lead Stories in a January 3, 2024, email that the majority of evidence supporting CoQ10 (or idebenone or other related anti-oxidant supplements) comes from preclinical models, not human studies. She continued:
I am not aware of any convincing, randomized data from humans that shows these treatments prevent Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease. There is some data from smaller studies that suggest these supplements slowed symptom progression in people who already had these diseases but even these findings have not been robust and consistent.
Whitson provided links to two studies to support her conclusions on CoQ10 not being proven effective as a treatment for AD and PD (archived here and here).
In a January 3, 2025, email to Lead Stories, Dr. Paul Newhouse, director of the Center for Cognitive Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said, "At this point, COQ10 does not appear to be an effective treatment in patients." He added:
There is no published data demonstrating that COQ10 or it's synthetic analog idebenone can successfully prevent Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease. Prevention studies require very long timelines and require large numbers of participants. These long-duration studies have not been done.
Read more
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about health topics can be found here.
