David Colquhoun over at DC’s Improbable Science takes on a recent wave of misleading (and sometimes outright dishonest) press releases regarding supplements that “help energize” you and make you feel better. The main target in this case is Boots and their promotion of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10).

David also does a very good job of clearing some confusion around the (deliberate?) misuse of the word “energy”:

Coenzyme Q10 [helps] synthesize a molecule called ATP. This is a chemical form of energy that can be used to do work, such as making a muscle fibre contract. The word “energy ” here is used in the sense that a physicist would use it. It is measured in joules or in calories. [...]

Energy in this sense has nothing whatsoever to do with the everyday use of ‘energy’ to indicate your vitality, or how lively you feel..

More at Improbable Science. It’s also worth it to read the discussion on Nutriprofile, an online site which seems to have the sole purpose of promoting supplements no matter how good your “nutriprofile” turns out to be!