Castro-Marrero, Jesús, Cordero, Mario D, Segundo, María José et al. · Antioxidants & redox signaling · 2015 · DOI
This 8-week study tested whether taking two supplements—coenzyme Q10 and NADH—could reduce fatigue in people with ME/CFS. Seventy-three Spanish patients received either the supplements or a placebo. The group taking the supplements reported less fatigue and showed improvements in blood markers related to energy production and oxidative stress compared to the placebo group.
This study provides evidence that supplementing with CoQ10 and NADH may reduce fatigue and restore key cellular energy-production markers in ME/CFS patients. These findings support the biological plausibility of mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress in ME/CFS, potentially opening a new therapeutic avenue for a condition with few proven treatments.
This study does not prove that CoQ10 and NADH supplementation is a cure or universally effective treatment for ME/CFS. The 8-week timeframe is relatively short, and the study does not establish whether improvements are sustained long-term or whether they translate to meaningful functional recovery. The findings also do not rule out placebo effects or determine the optimal dosage.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Castro-Marrero, Jesús, Cordero, Mario D, Segundo, María José, Sáez-Francàs, Naia, Calvo, Natalia, Román-Malo, Lourdes, et al. (2015). Does oral coenzyme Q10 plus NADH supplementation improve fatigue and biochemical parameters in chronic fatigue syndrome?. Antioxidants & redox signaling. https://doi.org/10.1089/ars.2014.6181
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-castro-marrero-2015-does-oral,
author = {Castro-Marrero, Jesús and Cordero, Mario D and Segundo, María José and Sáez-Francàs, Naia and Calvo, Natalia and Román-Malo, Lourdes and Aliste, Luisa and Fernández de Sevilla, Tomás and Alegre, José},
title = {Does oral coenzyme Q10 plus NADH supplementation improve fatigue and biochemical parameters in chronic fatigue syndrome?},
journal = {Antioxidants & redox signaling},
year = {2015},
doi = {10.1089/ars.2014.6181},
note = {PubMed: 25386668},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/castro-marrero-2015-does-oral},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/castro-marrero-2015-does-oral
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