Co-enzyme Q-10.  This substance is normally manufactured in the human body and is also found in minuscule amounts in almost every cell on Earth.  For that reason it is also called “ubiquinone.”  But this vitamin has been only recently discovered, so as I write this book Co-enzyme Q-10 is not widely known.

Q-10 is essential to the functioning of the mitochondria, that part of the cell that produces energy.  With less Q-10 in heart cells, for example, the heart has less energy and pumps less.  The same is true of the immune system cells, the liver cells, every cell.  As we age the body is able to make less and less Q-10, contributing to the loss of energy frequently experienced with age, as well as the diminished effectiveness of the immune system, and a shortened life span.

Q-10 was first used for its ability to revitalize heart cells.  It was a prescription medicine in Japan.  But unlike other drugs used to stimulate the heart, at any reasonable dose Q-10 has no harmful side effects.  It also tends to give people the extra pick up they are trying to get out of a cup of coffee.  But Q-10 does so by improving the function of every cell in the body, not by whipping exhausted adrenals like caffeine does.  Q-10 is becoming very popular with athletes who measure their overall cellular output against known standards.

Besides acting as a general tonic, when fed to lab animals, Co-Enzyme Q-10 makes them live 33 to 45 percent longer!

DMAE is another extremely valuable vitamin-like substance that is not widely known.  It is a basic building material that the body uses to make acetylcholine, the most generalized neurotransmitter in the body.  Small quantities of DMAE are found in fish, but the body usually makes it in a multi-stage synthesis that starts with the amino acid choline, arrives at DMAE at about step number three and ends up finally with acetylcholine.

The body’s nerves are wrapped in fatty tissue that should be saturated with acetylcholine.  Every time a nerve impulse is transmitted from one nerve cell to the next, a molecule of acetylcholine is consumed.  Thus acetylcholine has to be constantly replaced.  As the body ages, levels of acetylcholine surrounding the nerves drop and in consequence, the nerves begin to deteriorate.  DMAE is rapidly and easily converted into acetylcholine and helps maintain acetylcholine levels in older people at a youthful level.

When laboratory rats are fed DMAE they solve mazes more rapidly, remember better, live about 40 percent longer than rats not fed DMAE and most interestingly, when autopsied, their nervous systems resemble those of a young rat, without any evidence of the usual deterioration of aging.  Human nervous systems also deteriorate with age, especially those of people suffering from senility.  It is highly probable that DMAE will do the same thing to us.  DMAE also smoothes out mood swings in humans and seems to help my husband, Steve, when he has a big writing project.  He can keep working without getting ‘writers block’, fogged out, or rollercoastering.