Until now, CoQ10 was the most underappreciated and underutilized nutrient I’d ever come across in my lifetime.
It’s so important that it should be a vitamin, yet even when I studied nutrition for my licensed clinical nutritionist certification it was completely ignored.
Now today there’s a nutrient that’s even more ignored. It’s also critically important… even more important than CoQ10.
Why is this newly discovered nutrient so important? Because it’s the only nutrient that we have ever discovered that can increase your number of mitochondria, the tiny generators in your cells that give your body energy.
Until now, the only way to increase the number of your mitochondria was through vigorous exercise. I get a tremendous boost to my energy level by doing short bursts of challenging exertion and have recommended this to anyone that would listen for years.
Now for the first time, I have a nutrient that can have the same effect on energy production that vigorous exercise has.
It’s called PQQ.
Why does PQQ work so well to supply you with energy?
Well, mitochondria have their own supply of DNA. So they can multiply within each of your cells. That is … if they have the right nutrient to give them the right signal.
That’s where PQQ comes in. PQQ triggers what we call “mitochondrial biogenesis.”
Mitochondrial biogenesis is a fancy way of saying that you’re naturally growing more energy-producing power plants in your cells.
For me this is a “dream come true” nutrient. It perfectly combines the two things that I have been most interested in during my professional career. One, it improves performance both mentally and physically; and two, it’s anti aging.
You see, depending on the type of cell, you may have as few as 2 mitochondria per cell, or as many as 2,500. Not surprisingly, it’s the “energy-hungry” organs like your heart and brain that have the greatest number. But as your mitochondria become weaker as you get older, they die off, You lose your capacity to make energy and your physical and mental performance declines hand-in-hand with your aging.1, 2, 3
PQQ acts as the “spark plug” inside your cells helping you make new mitochondria. Then CoQ10 helps each individual mitochondria make energy.
But the key to staying young is having MORE mitochondria that are healthy enough to actually produce energy.
Researchers at the University of California at Davis are pioneers in the study of PQQ. When I looked into their work, I saw a clear connection between PQQ and the growth of new mitochondria.
In one study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, researchers fed mice a diet supplemented with PQQ, and grew a staggering number of new mitochondria in just 8 weeks.4
This is great news for your entire body… but especially for your brain.
PQQ also stimulates your natural production of nerve growth factor, which triggers the growth of new brain cells.5, 6
And PQQ can relieve the stress on your brain cells called excitotoxicity.7, 8 This is the over-stimulation of brain cells that causes senility and loss of memory as you get older.
So not only does PQQ create new power generators, it helps restore younger, faster brainpower.
All that new energy keeps your heart young, too. PQQ is a remarkably strong antioxidant that shields the mitochondria in your heart from the stress of making all that energy.
And that’s a good thing, because mitochondria are fragile. They don’t have the same kind of protection other parts of the cell enjoy. That makes PQQ’s role as “protector” of mitochondria is just as important as its ability to make new ones.
So, how can you get more PQQ for a better brain, heart, and more energy?
For starters, most nutritionists and even alternative doctors who recommend nutrients don’t know this, but certain foods do have a bit of PQQ in them, including various vegetables, fruits, milk, and animal products.9
Foods with the most PQQ are the fermented soy products natto and tofu (processed soy does NOT have PQQ in it), eggs, parsley, kiwi fruit, and green peppers. Green tea and oolong tea also have PQQ. Wine and whiskey have a bit in them, too, but not very much.
Fortunately, you can take PQQ as a supplement. But I have to warn you: the amount used in scientific studies I quoted above is equivalent to a human dose of 10mg. Yet most supplements contain only 1 to 5mg dose. The reason is that PQQ is expensive, and many supplement makers want to get away with giving you either lower quality or a lower dose.
That doesn’t sit well with me. It’s why I decided to create my own PQQ supplement. Then I put it together with a potent dose of the best reduced CoQ10 I could find. A full 10mg of PQQ along with a full 50mg of ubiquinol CoQ10 will give you the best energy generating supplement you can get.
1. Bruce A, Johnson A, Lewis J, Raff M, Roberts K, Walter P. Molecular Biology of the Cell. New York, NY: Garland Publishing, Inc.;1994.
2. Voet D, Voet JG, Pratt CW. Fundamentals of Biochemistry: Life at the Molecular Level. 2nd ed. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; 2006:547.
3. Pike RL, Brown M. Nutrition: An Integrated Approach. New York, NY: Prentice-Hall; 1984:450-84.
4. Stites, T. et al. Pyrroloquinoline Quinone Modulates Mitochondrial Quantity and Function in Mice1. J. Nutr. February 2006 vol. 136 no. 2 390-396
5. Yamaguchi K, Sasano A, Urakami T, Tsuji T, Kondo K. Stimulation of nerve growth factor production by pyrroloquinoline quinone and its derivatives in vitro and in vivo. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 1993 Jul;57(7):1231-3.
6. Murase K, Hattori A, Kohno M, Hayashi K. Stimulation of nerve growth factor synthesis/secretion in mouse astroglial cells by coenzymes. Biochem Mol Biol Int. 1993 Jul;30(4):615-21.
7. Bishop A, Gallop PM, Karnovsky ML. Pyrroloquinoline quinone: a novel vitamin? Nutr Rev. 1998 Oct;56(10):287-93.
8. Hara H, Hiramatsu H, Adachi T. Pyrroloquinoline quinone is a potent neuroprotective nutrient against 6-hydroxydopamine-induced neurotoxicity. Neurochem Res. 2007 Mar;32(3):489-95.
9. Kumazawa T, Sato K, Seno H, Ishii A, Suzuki O. “Levels of pyrroloquinoline quinone in various foods.” Biochem J. 1995 April 15; 307(Pt 2): 331–333.