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Coenzyme Q10
A compound your body makes for itself, which carries electrons in the part of your cells that produces energy. Your own production falls with age and with statins. EFSA assessed its health claims and rejected every one, so it is in three of our formulas on published work, not on a claim. It can also lower the effect of warfarin, which is why all three are ruled out if you take a vitamin K antagonist.
WHAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO SAY
Nothing. The claims were assessed and rejected.
Regulation (EU) 432/2012 lists no authorised health claim for coenzyme Q10. This is not a claim waiting in a queue: EFSA assessed claims on energy, blood pressure, the protection of DNA, proteins and lipids from oxidation, cognition, cholesterol and endurance, and rejected them in 2010. There is nothing on the register for us to quote here, and we are not going to write something that sounds like one.Regulation (EU) 432/2012 lists no authorised health claim for coenzyme Q10. EFSA assessed its claims in 2010 and rejected every one, so there is nothing for us to quote here.
Coenzyme Q10 has no authorised claim for energy, for your heart, for blood pressure or for cholesterol, however often you read otherwise. Where it sits in Energy & vitality, the tiredness claim comes from the B vitamins next to it, not from the coenzyme Q10. Its role inside your cells is well described. That is biology, not a permission to promise anything.
WHY UBIQUINOL
Two forms of one molecule. No claim for either.
Coenzyme Q10 comes in two states: ubiquinone, the oxidised form, and ubiquinol, the reduced one. Our file prefers ubiquinol, noting better uptake in people over 40, and our EU regulatory record names it as the form to use. Ubiquinone is acceptable and cheaper. Either way it dissolves in fat, not in water, so it needs a meal with some fat in it.
Acceptable and cheaper, according to our file. It is the form that gains most from a fatty meal: our file puts that at around three times more absorbed.
The reduced form, and the one all three of our formulas carry. Our file prefers it for better uptake in people over 40. It costs more than ubiquinone.
Stable in a liquid, sensitive to light and oxygen, dissolves in oil and tastes neutral. A concentrated form is available.
No form of coenzyme Q10 carries an authorised claim, so the choice of ubiquinol is not a claim argument and we do not use it as one. Our file gives no figure for how much of an oral dose reaches your blood, and it is still a draft pending review by a clinician. The regulatory check on our current batch is also still pending.No form of coenzyme Q10 carries an authorised claim, so ubiquinol is not a claim argument. Our file is a draft pending clinical review, and the check on our current batch is still pending.
WHERE IT APPEARS
Three of the twenty-nine carry coenzyme Q10.
100 mg with breakfast in Energy & vitality, and 200 mg with dinner in Cardiovascular and Oxidative cardiovascular. All three reach the 100 mg a day, over 12 weeks, that our file lists as the lowest effective dose. Our file would place it in the morning or at midday, because some people sleep worse when it is taken late, and would split any dose above 100 mg into two. The two evening formulas do neither: they sit at dinner for the fat it needs, and that trade-off is part of what clinical validation still has to settle.
THE CEILING
No EFSA limit. Two figures on file, and they do not agree.
EFSA has not set a tolerable upper intake level for coenzyme Q10, and there is no NRV. Our database applies 100 mg a day, a reference from Germany's BfR. Our ingredient file holds your total to 200 mg a day across every formula, in line with a reference from France's ANSES, unless there is a specific clinical goal. Two of our formulas carry 200 mg each on their own, twice the first figure. We would rather show you both numbers than pick the larger one.EFSA has not set an upper limit. Our database applies 100 mg a day, from Germany's BfR; our file caps your total at 200 mg, in line with France's ANSES. Two formulas carry 200 mg each.
The rule that blocks a formula when your total across the plan would pass an upper limit covers seven ingredients, and coenzyme Q10 is not one of them. Our engine still adds up the coenzyme Q10 in your plan against the 100 mg a day in our database, and marks any formula carrying 200 mg as over it. Its file also sets a 200 mg daily cap. Our file also flags ubiquinone and ubiquinol from separate products on the same day as a way the total could double up.
Generally well tolerated. Nausea, indigestion, diarrhoea and a mild headache, and trouble sleeping at high doses taken at night. Our file records no toxicity in studies up to 1,200 mg a day.
All three formulas are ruled out if you take a vitamin K antagonist such as warfarin or acenocoumarol; with warfarin, your INR should be monitored. Ask a doctor first if you take any other anticoagulant, such as apixaban or dabigatran: it can change their effect. In pregnancy and breastfeeding the data are limited, so take care. Under 18, our file only supports it under supervision, where there is a mitochondrial defect. Talk to your oncologist before combining it with cancer treatment: the data are mixed. Our file raises no concern for liver or kidney disease at usual doses (Energy & vitality is ruled out with liver disease, but because of its niacin), and lists no relevant interaction with psychiatric medication. There are no mandatory EU warnings specific to it, and it contains none of the fourteen allergens that must be declared in the EU.
WHAT IT REACTS WITH
Thirteen documented pairs. Four need spacing.
Coenzyme Q10 is one of the 140 ingredients in our library, so it has 139 possible partners. Thirteen of its pairs are documented, out of the 443 on file. Four need at least two hours between doses, eight are compatible, and one, with vitamin K2, is marked for review.
Psyllium husk, konjac glucomannan and white clay reduce how much of a fat-soluble ingredient you absorb, and activated charcoal binds it in the gut. All four are kept at least 2 hours away from coenzyme Q10.
Coenzyme Q10 turns spent vitamin E back into its active form inside your mitochondria, and works alongside L-carnitine in the cell's energy production. Our file recommends the selenium pair for heart-focused healthy-ageing profiles from 60, on the basis of a Swedish trial in older adults. Piperine may raise how much coenzyme Q10 you absorb by about 30%, on weaker evidence. Black garlic, milk thistle, maritime pine bark and resveratrol can share a dose with it. None of these pairs needs separating.
Its structure is close to vitamin K, and it can lower the effect of warfarin: reports show a lower INR. That is why all three formulas are ruled out with warfarin or acenocoumarol, and why the label warning adds apixaban and dabigatran. Vitamin K2 shares Cardiovascular with it; our file records no restriction between the two, only that both are ruled out with warfarin, and marks the pair for review. It may slightly add to blood pressure medication, and slightly raise insulin sensitivity alongside diabetes medication. With cancer treatment the data are mixed: talk to your oncologist. Statins lower your own coenzyme Q10, and one of our engine rules lists it as a complement for people on a statin; that is a rule on file, not a claim, and the decision is your doctor's. The app asks about medication before any formula carrying it is assigned.
None of coenzyme Q10's medication interactions is in our drug table yet: those warnings come from its own file and its label warnings, not from checked pairs. Our file also names PQQ and NADH as partners, NADH on preliminary evidence only; neither pair is in our table. Across the library, 443 of the 9,730 possible pairs are documented, which is 4.55%, and 13 involve coenzyme Q10. The rest are not "safe", they are simply unchecked, and we would rather write that down than let the number look like a badge.None of its medication interactions is in our drug table yet: those warnings come from its own file. Across the library, 443 of the 9,730 possible pairs are documented, which is 4.55%, and 13 involve coenzyme Q10. The rest are not safe, they are simply unchecked.
SOURCES
Everything on this page, with its reference.
Reviewed by VION nutrition team · last reviewed 16 September 2026Read the introduction to Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) →
140 INGREDIENTS · 64 IN USE TODAY
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