CoQ10 Protects Against Hearing Loss from Chemotherapy
The cruelest lie ever told in modern medicine is that you can’t take antioxidants when you are on chemo. Because of this lie cancer patients continue to suffer from hair loss, nausea, severe mouth sores, hearing loss, tingling fingers and toes and kidney toxicity.
Not only is the theory behind the prescription highly questionable, but it is consistently refuted by the research. Now, a new study has shown that the antioxidant powers of coenzyme Q10 can prevent hearing damage caused by the chemo drug, cisplatin. . . .
Cisplatin is a commonly used chemo drug that causes nerve damage that can cause tingling, numbness and loss of feelings in the hands and even permanent loss of hearing. If there was a supplement that could prevent the loss of hearing without interfering with the drug, that would be hugely important.
New research shows that there is.
Free radical damage from cisplatin kills hearing cells. But a recent preliminary study found coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) administered with a multivitamin—what the researchers called a dietary antioxidant supplement—significantly protected against toxic damage in the ear, including preventing the occurrence of hearing disorders and tinnitus.
This study found that CoQ10 acted as an antioxidant, preventing the increase in free radical damage that occurred in the control group, and, importantly, preventing cisplatin induced hearing damage.
Several studies have shown that antioxidants do not decrease the efficacy of chemotherapy. One survey of the literature reported that of 50 clinical studies, 47 found that supplements decrease the side effects of chemo and 15 of them found—contrary to the warning—that antioxidants and other nutrients improve survival. They also found that of 10 studies of antioxidant combinations—instead of single antioxidants—all 10 found no negative interference but increased response rates and survival time as well as improved quality of life (Altern Ther Health Med 2007).
A second review of 19 randomized, controlled studies discovered that not one found significant decrease in efficacy from using antioxidants while on chemo. Instead, it found that many of the studies demonstrated either increased survival time, increased tumour response or both as well as reduced side effects from using antioxidants with chemo (Cancer Treat Rev 2007).
For the full story on antioxidants, chemotherapy and The Cruelest Lie Ever Told, see Vol. 12, No. 2 of The Natural Path.
Heliyon 2017;3(2):e00251
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