Q10 and why it maybe useful for Heart Failure patients
If you have a look at our previous posts on Q10 we have advocated a look at this interesting supplement. Of course as usual if you are tempted to use it make sure you speak to your clinician and please note that it does have a procoagulant effect therefore if you are on warfarin then consult your warfarin nurse.
Researchers claim that patients who took the supplement, known as Coenzyme Q10, alongside their normal medication during a two-year study had lower levels of mortality than those who did not.
They say that doctors should now consider including the supplement, which costs around 25p per tablet, as part of the treatment of people who have a heart condition.
The supplement known as CoQ10, occurs naturally in the body and plays a role in turning sugar into energy for the cells.
Heart muscle contains large amounts of CoQ10, but previous research has shown that it decreases in patients who have suffered heart failure.
The new study, which involved 420 patients who had suffered heart failure, showed that those who took three 10mg tablets of CoQ10 a day had lower levels of heart failure two years later.
Fewer of the patients who had taken the supplement had died at the end of the study.
Professor Svend Mortensen, from the Heart Centre at Copenhagen University Hospital, who led the study, said: “The CoQ10 treated patients had reduced hospital admission rates for worsening heart failure and lower cardiovascular death, both of which may reflect a significant improvement in cardiac function.
“CoQ10 should be considered as a part of the maintenance therapy of patients with chronic heart failure.”
The results were presented at Heart Failure 2013 – the main annual meeting of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology – in Lisbon, Portugal.
It is also found in foods such as red meat and fish, but at very low levels that deemed to be insufficient to impact on heart failure.
The molecule is known to play an essential role in the mitochondria, the tiny power stations found inside almost every cell of the body that convert sugar into energy.
The new study, known as the Q-SYMBIO trial, followed patients in Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, India, Malaysia and Australia.
After two years, 14% of patients taking CoQ10 had suffered problems with their heart compared to 25% of those who had been taking a placebo.
Just 9% of the patients taking CoQ10 had died compared to 17% taking the placebo.
CoQ10 is currently sold over the counter at pharmacists, including Boots, as an energy booster.
Statins, one of the drugs taken by heart failure patients to control cholesterol, is also known to block the synthesis of CoQ10 in the body, causing levels to drop.
It is unclear how many of the patients in the study were taking statins and the CoQ10 could have been compensating for this effect in the study.
But Professor Mortensen said he hoped to conduct a trial to see how taking CoQ10 with statins could improve heart patient mortality rates compared to just taking statins alone.
He added: “Statins reduce CoQ10, and circulating CoQ10 prevents the oxidation of LDL effectively, so I think ischemic patients should supplement statin therapy with CoQ10.
Helen Williams, a consultant pharmacist for cardiovascular disease at NHS Southwark Clinical Commissioning Group and a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said: “this is a relatively small study for a cardiovascular trial.
“We have often been misled before by small studies that fail to show benefits when extended to larger numbers of patients, so I would great these results with cautious optimism.”
We believe that any positive trial is worth exploring and should not be dismissed in public before a larger clinical trial can take place.
Our Chairman talking through the Heart Failure Toolkit
Following a recent radio interview our Chairman describes the purpose of the Heart Failure Toolkit and its proposed impact.
Heart Skips a beat with the new Pumping Marvellous Toolkit
The BHF have got staying alive and now Pumping Marvellous have got “heart skips a beat” by Olly Murs. We would like to thank everybody for their hardwork and dedication in making this video such a success and we really hope it energises people who have been newly diagnosed with heart failure to have some attitude, belief and success in managing their heart failure symptoms. Also remember this video is also good for carers / caregivers and families to learn about how to help.
This video accompanies the Patient Heart Failure toolkit that has been developed by Pumping Marvellous for the NHS in England and Wales to support self management.
Heart Failure Toolkit Launch
We have confirmed that Pumping Marvellous will be handing over it’s first Heart Failure toolkits to the NHS on 14th February 2013 on the cardiology wards at the Royal Blackburn. the HEart Failure toolkit has 42 components and is a complete self care patient management system. We believe that this is the most comprehensive discharge and educational coaching tool for heart failure patients. If you have any questions about our toolkit or would like to have the toolkit for your trust then please email us.
Fish oils and Atrial Fibrillation
It is important you read this report in context that the information only pertains to preventing AF in patients who have had an AF diagnosis with fish oils. There are lots of other benefits to individuals who take omega-3 fish oils.
The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“The results for atrial fibrillation are important negative findings, answering key clinical and research questions,” said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, an omega-3 expert at the Harvard School of Public Health, who was not involved in the study.
The new research, combined with other trials, “indicates that short-term fish oil use is unlikely to prevent recurrent atrial fibrillation,” he said.
Atrial fibrillation, in which the heart’s upper chambers beat out of step with those below. The condition is linked to strokes and heart failure.
Although doctors prescribe certain medications to treat the condition, none to date has proven particularly effective. As a result, most drug treatment focuses on preventing strokes by administering blood thinners to dissolve clots caused by the fibrillation.
Some evidence suggests that omega-3 fatty acids, found in oily fish like sardines and tuna, might reduce the risk of atrial fibrillation, although exactly how they would produce their effect is not clear.
A study published earlier this year in Circulation, for example, found that people with the most omega-3s in their blood had a 30% lower chance of developing an irregular heart beat than those with the lowest concentrations of the substances.
That 30% difference would work out to eight fewer cases of atrial fibrillation per 100 people – which would be a meaningful benefit if it could be enjoyed by those with fibrillation or at risk for it, just by consuming more omega 3s.
But the latest study suggests that it probably can’t. The trial included 586 men and women with a history of atrial fibrillation who were given a gram a day of fish oil or dummy capsules for a year. Participants also were allowed to take other drugs to control their heart rhythms, as prescribed by their doctors.
At the end of the study period, about 24% of the people who took fish oil, and 20% of those who did not, had experienced a recurrence of atrial fibrillation – a difference so small, statistically, it was likely due to chance.
The findings on atrial fibrillation echo results from a study led by Mozaffarian published in November, of patients recovering from heart surgery.
Even so, Dr. Alejandro Macchia, a cardiologist at the GESICA Foundation in Buenos Aires, who led the current study and collaborated with Mozaffarian on the previous one, said fish oil may still prove beneficial for heart health, at least in some patients.
East Lancashire children receive life-saving defibrillator lessons
3:00pm Friday 29th June 2012
By Catherine Pye
LESSONS on how to use a defibrillator and on giving CPR are part of the timetable for a new set of Heart Schools across East Lancashire. Hapton-based heart charity Pumping Marvellous has just completed a session with 70 junior school pupils at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Blackburn, and has plans to roll the course out to Rosegrove Nursery School in Burnley, Mount Carmel in Accrington, St Barnabas and St Paul’s Primary in Blackburn, and another school in Rossendale. As well as equipment know-how from experts at the British Red Cross, charity founder Nick Hartshorne-Evans, has recruited hospital nurses and restauranteurs to encourage healthy lifestyles from a young age. Nick said: “We decided to start this scheme because the cardio vascular profile of East Lancashire, and because we feel the right message has to start early. “We used Rosegrove Nursery as an ideas platform at first, showing toddlers what a raspberry looked like, and that you can make smoothies by combining a strawberry, a banana and some low fat yogurt. Then, the older children are taught how the heart works, the effects of exercise on the heart, the effects of alcohol, smoking and drugs on the heart, and how to give first aid. “We try to make it fun by having very hands-on lessons. With the help of teachers, Nick sets age-suitable homework on how the heart works, and each pupil receives a goody bag of health-related advice. He added: “We now have 70 children who know how to use a defibrillator.”
Heart Failure Toolkit update
Lancashire Telegraph – written by Catherine Pye
The Hapton-based charity Pumping Marvellous applied for £22,000 from NHS North West to produce 1,500 tool kits — parcels of information on how to live with the condition after discharge — and hope to launch them at the end of September.
Nick Hartsthorne-Evans, 42, set up Pumping Marvellous after he suffered heart failure, aged 39, from picking up a virus. He said: “Hospitals do their best to give leaflets that are clinically correct, but is that what the patient needs, to read about how morbid it is?
“What they give you satisfies your needs for about six months. It’s not a life-long thing.
“What we’re doing is based on the ‘bounty bag’ that new mums get after giving birth. It will give patients all the information they need throughout their lives on how to manage the condition. “There will be information in there for the employer, about smoking cessation and alcohol management, information for carers, and how make sure someone is getting benefits they’re entitled to.
“For the cost of each tool kit — about £15 — it will have a great impact on reducing hospital admissions and will make people less symptomatic
After an 18 month trial period, Nick hopes to be able to secure more funding to roll the scheme out regionally and then nationally.
Pioneering new heart treatment
Carl Jordan, of Tunstall, below, is one of just 96 patients from 30 hospitals worldwide to take part in a trial in which he has been fitted with a pacemaker-like device to stimulate his heart.
The device – fitted under Mr Jordan’s collarbone during surgery at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital – aims to reduce the size of his heart. Mr Jordan, who has undergone 12 operations since his first heart attack in 2001, is currently unable to walk more than 70 yards without becoming breathless. He said: “It wasn’t an easy decision to take part in the study but one which I hope will improve my quality of life. I don’t mind being a guinea pig if it helps me, and potentially helps others.
“It was a privilege to be chosen but also frightening.” At the moment my heart is quite big and if it gets any bigger I am in serious trouble. The idea is that it will help shrink the heart so it doesn’t have to work so hard. In turn that will help my breathing.”
Mr Jordan suffered his first heart attack 11 years ago while working as a station manager for the ambulance service. He said: “I have dealt with hundreds of heart attack victims and I knew exactly what was happening to me.”
But just under two weeks after being discharged from hospital, he was readmitted after his health deteriorated. On the wards, Mr Jordan, who lives in May Avenue with wife Angela suffered another cardiac arrest. Mrs Jordan, a catering assistant, said: “We were told that he might not pull through as he was in such a bad way. It was such a scary time.”
Over the years he has undergone a dozen surgical procedures, including open heart surgery. He takes 34 tablets a day and needs to keep oxygen in the house and car.
Now the family are hoping the device – which is connected to the vagus nerve – will help improve his life. The device uses electrical pulses to stimulate the nerve to help improve cardiac function and life expectancy. It is aimed at protecting the heart from the effects of adrenaline, which causes the heart to work faster and enlarge.
Dr Jay Wright, a consultant cardiologist at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, is leading the studyand he carried the operation on Mr Jordan. Dr Wright said: “This is a first in man study and if successful, will improve the quality of life for heart failure patients in the UK.”
Revolutionary Treatment for Heart Failure
This is a truly amazing breakthrough in removing fluid from patients – this is maybe one of the most revolutionary breakthroughs in HF treatment – You need to listen to this http://soundcloud.com/pumping-marvellous/bbc