“CoQ10 reduces statin-associated muscle symptoms.”
CoQ10 has not been shown to reliably ease statin-related muscle pain, and the most careful trial found no benefit.
CoQ10 is unlikely to fix muscle aches you blame on a statin. In careful testing, many of those aches showed up just as often on a dummy pill, so the cause is worth sorting out with your prescriber before you change anything.
If you get muscle aches on a statin, tell your prescriber before you stop the statin or buy CoQ10.
Safety note: CoQ10 may interact with the blood thinner warfarin and with insulin.
Talk to a healthcare professional if: you have muscle pain or weakness while taking a statin, you are thinking of stopping your statin, or you take warfarin or insulin and want to try CoQ10.
Pooled small trials show at most a borderline drop in pain, and the most careful trial, in people whose statin pain was confirmed, found no benefit. Confidence is Limited because the trials are few, small, short and used different doses and pain scales.
CoQ10 has not been shown to reliably ease statin-related muscle pain, and the most careful trial found no benefit. A 2025 review of 7 small trials (389 people) found pain about 1 point lower on a 0 to 10 scale, a borderline result that was no longer clear when some single trials were left out.
In the careful trial, 120 people who said a statin had caused muscle pain took a statin and a dummy pill in turn without knowing which was which. Only 41 of them (about 1 in 3) had pain on the statin but not on the dummy pill. Those 41 then took 600 mg of CoQ10 a day or a placebo with their statin for 8 weeks, and CoQ10 did not reduce pain (slightly more people reported pain on CoQ10: 14 of 20 vs 7 of 18). In the 2025 review, 4 trials found less pain and 3 found no change; the trials lasted 30 to 90 days and used 100 to 600 mg a day. The review was paid for by a vitamin research society. The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health says the overall evidence does not support CoQ10 for statin muscle pain.
- Kovacic S, Habicht SD, Eckert GP. Effects of coenzyme Q10 supplementation on myopathy in statin-treated patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Nutritional Science. 2025;14:e72. DOI: 10.1017/jns.2025.10043. PMID: 41158831. PMCID: PMC12554813
- Taylor BA, Lorson L, White CM, Thompson PD. A randomized trial of coenzyme Q10 in patients with confirmed statin myopathy. Atherosclerosis. 2015;238(2):329-335. DOI: 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2014.12.016. PMID: 25545331. PMCID: PMC4298455
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Coenzyme Q10. Last updated January 2019