How To Have More Energy As You Get Older

Fight age-related fatigue with CoQ10

Maria Cross

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that your energy levels diminish as you enter middle age. We’ve all had those conversations about how we used to be able to stay up all night and then go to work the next day, no bother. But then in it creeps: the awareness that you really love a good night’s sleep and an early night is an exciting proposition.

When writing about nutrition, I often find myself stating “levels decline with age”. Nutrients, hormones, bodily secretions….down they all dwindle, and none more so than the vitamin-like nutrient coenzyme Q10.

Also known as ubiquinone, CoQ10 is not considered a vitamin because it is synthesised in the body. It is key to energy production in all cells, and is an important fat-soluble antioxidant.

How you make energy

Energy is produced from the food you eat, which is broken down until it ultimately becomes a unit, or “currency” of energy. That unit is called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is produced within the mitochondria of each cell via a process called the electron transport chain, and CoQ10 is key to that process.

Lack of CoQ10 means lack of ATP and therefore energy. And as bad luck would have it, peak production occurs…

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Maria Cross

MSc. Registered nutritionist, specialising in gut and mental health. OUT NOW! My new book, How to Feed Your Brain. mariacrossnutrition @mariacross