What Is PQQ, and Does It Actually Boost Your Energy?
A real, naturally occurring compound with a genuine, still-developing evidence base for mitochondrial support — not the "almost 800 percent" memory booster one product's marketing claims.
PQQ shows up as a headline ingredient in more energy supplements every year, usually paired with CoQ10. While researching our Everyday Energy Supplements comparison, we found a product built around this exact pairing making one very specific, very dramatic claim. Before getting to that, it's worth understanding what PQQ actually is.
What PQQ actually is
PQQ (pyrroloquinoline quinone) is a compound produced naturally by bacteria to help them process sugar and alcohol into energy, per WebMD's consumer-facing overview. It occurs naturally in some fermented foods and produce — kiwi, papaya, green peppers, parsley — and in human breast milk, though dietary amounts are small.
What it's supposed to do
The claimed mechanism is mitochondrial biogenesis — supporting the growth of new mitochondria, the structures inside cells responsible for producing energy — along with antioxidant protection for mitochondrial DNA. WebMD's own summary is appropriately measured about where the evidence stands: researchers don't yet know a great deal about how PQQ supplements affect long-term health, and while some preliminary studies show it may reduce oxidative stress and support a healthy inflammatory response, more research is needed before stronger claims are warranted.
There is real research behind PQQ combined with CoQ10 specifically. During our own investigation, we independently checked a specific marketing claim — that this combination "improved short-term memory scores by almost 800 percent after just 8 weeks" — against the actual published research it was citing. A real double-blind human study does show the PQQ+CoQ10 combination outperforming either ingredient alone on memory and processing measures. The real magnitude of that result is nowhere close to an 800% jump; the actual published figures describe single-digit-second improvements on a standard processing-speed test. The underlying science is genuine. The number attached to it in that product's marketing is not an accurate representation of it.
Why this matters beyond one product
This is a pattern worth recognizing anywhere you see it, not just in energy supplements: a real ingredient, a real cited study, and one headline statistic that doesn't match what the study actually measured. The fix isn't to distrust every supplement citation — it's to check what the specific number in the ad refers to before treating it as settled fact. Our own comparison page walks through this exact claim, ingredient by ingredient, alongside a second product that makes far more modest, traditionally-worded claims about similar fatigue-related ingredients.
PQQ is a real compound with a real, still-developing evidence base for supporting mitochondrial function — genuine, but modest and not yet fully established. If a product built around it claims a dramatic, specific percentage improvement, that number deserves the same scrutiny as any other marketing statistic: find the study, and check what it actually measured.
See the full side-by-side: one energy supplement's honest, modest claims next to another's real science paired with an inflated headline number.
Read the full comparison →Sources
Not medical advice. Talk to a real clinician before starting any new supplement. Questions about this piece? Email contact@healthyhealthsecrets.com. See also our About page and affiliate disclosure.