Coenzyme Q10 might help you stay young — if you believe it will
My first thoughts about the placebo effect came after a rather persuasive marketing campaign from Vichy (yes, that one). But the real push came later — with Coenzyme Q10.
I saw the commercials.
But by then, I’d already had my fair share of disappointment with supplements. If even Vichy couldn’t impress me, a local pharma brand preaching miracles through CoQ10 didn’t stand a chance. I ignored the ads — though their message kept echoing in my head:
“Your biological age depends on how much coenzyme Q10 your body produces. The more you have, the younger you are. After 20, production drops — your cells age faster, your skin loses tone, elasticity, and glow. Modern food can’t replenish the loss, so you must take supplements…”
Sure, sure. I held my ground… until a friend told me she’d noticed her skin improve after taking CoQ10. I don’t trust ads — but I do trust real people.
So I gave in.
Bought a pack from Doppelherz. Took it. And… maybe it worked, maybe not. Hard to tell.
Still curious, I ran a small poll on my Telegram channel: “Does CoQ10 actually do anything for you?” The results left me puzzled — the votes split almost evenly, with just a slight edge for the no effect team.
Why such a split? I couldn’t figure it out — until I came across Bruce Lipton’s “The Biology of Belief” book. He describes countless cases where faith in a placebo triggered real healing — even during surgery (!).
Looks like this was one of those cases. In my poll, 43% of participants genuinely believed in CoQ10’s magic — not too far from Lipton’s numbers, where 30–35% of people respond to placebos.
Everyone’s healed by what they believe in.
As for me, I’ve always been skeptical about supplements — so my results are, predictably, consistent.
The original Russian version of this article was published on March 28, 2019.
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