Heart boost

It’s “heartening” that new scientific research suggests that taking the food supplement Coenzyme Q10 can vastly reduce the risk of death in patients suffering from heart failure.

However, almost ten years ago a local GP advised taking this supplement to counter any decrease in heart muscle that might arise with the consumption of statins.

It’s good that the world is now catching up with a switched-on GP. Dr Neil Milliken stand up and take a bow!

Bob MacDougall

Kippen

Stirlingshire

The beneficial effects of Coenzyme Q10 have been studied for some five decades now and studies are not at a very early stage as stated in your report (25 May).

Thousands of heart patients have benefited from commercially available supplements. So, it appears that both the conference you referred to and the National Health in Scotland may be a wee bit out of date as far as the CoQ10 is concerned: it is, actually, rather surprising that the NHS has not included the CoQ10 in the list of treatments provided to patients with heart failure.

Such a controlled approach would be much cheaper than much more expensive emergency treatments of heart failure.

(Dr) Paul Millar

Riselaw Crescent

Edinburgh