Maybe should take extra CoQ10 as well:
Why CoQ10 is needed by those who take vitamin E
There are additional pieces to the vitamin E puzzle. A series of groundbreaking studies by Roland Stocker and his colleagues at The Heart Research Institute in Sydney, Australia demonstrates that vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) systematically promotes LDL oxidation. Stocker calls this pro-oxidant action of vitamin E “tocopherol-mediated peroxidation,” or TMP. Through the TMP process, vitamin E amplifies mild oxidative stresses so that they do much more damage to LDL.(9-11)
The good news is that Stocker’s group discovered that CoQ10 naturally present in the body protects against TMP. They showed that one molecule of CoQ10 can prevent two TMP chain reactions involving as many as 40 to 80 free radicals. In pilot studies they tested LDL from the blood of human subjects given vitamin E and/or CoQ10 supplements. CoQ10 supplements reduced TMP, while vitamin E supplements increased it. When given together, the CoQ10 supplement significantly counteracted the TMP side-effect of the vitamin E supplement.(12-14) Here is a conclusion from one of several studies that show that adequate levels of CoQ10 are required for vitamin E to function as an efficient antioxidant in the body:
“These results demonstrate that oral supplementation with alpha-tocopherol alone results in LDL that is more prone to oxidation initiation, whereas co-supplementation with coenzyme Q not only prevents this prooxidant activity of vitamin E but also provides the lipoprotein with increased resistance to oxidation.”
The work of Stocker and his colleagues agrees with other lines of recent research suggesting that CoQ10 cooperates with vitamin E in a complex partnership that we are only beginning to understand. Indeed these “co-antioxidants” are always found together in cell membranes and LDL. CoQ10 regenerates vitamin E, which would otherwise be quickly exhausted fighting oxidative stress. Vitamin E breaks off the chain reaction of lipid peroxidation, while CoQ10 helps to prevent it from starting.
The many studies of vitamin E supplementation published over the years did not take into account the CoQ10 naturally present in the body, but we can now see that this was a crucial factor. In these studies of vitamin E, CoQ10 served as the “silent partner,” amplifying the effect of vitamin E, regenerating vitamin E as it was exhausted, and preventing TMP.
http://www.lef.org/m...itamine_01.html