Powerful Enzyme Prevents Heart Attack and Stroke: NATTOKINASE

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for men and women

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, each year about 700,000 people suffer a stroke, the leading cause of serious, long-term disability in the United States. The American Heart Association estimates that nearly every year, about 1 million Americans will suffer a heart attack.

About 700,000 of these will be first-time heart attack sufferers, while approximately 500,000 will be people who have previously had a heart attack. It all adds up to this: contrary to popular belief, heart attack and stroke account for more deaths than all cancers and injuries combined, and one out of every 2.4 deaths is attributable to cardiovascular disease. How is that possible in the richest, most highly educated country on earth?

Most of us all get too little exercise, accumulate too much stress, and eat a poor diet laden with saturated fat, refined sugar and too little fiber. Add to that list the habit of smoking and the answer is quite clear. (Although there is a considerably higher prevalence of cigarette smoking in Japan than in the U.S., mortality from CVD among men in Japan is still less than half of that in the U.S.3) And to make matters worse, a study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (3/6/2002) indicates that exposure to air pollution can cause some 10,000 fatal heart attacks a year in the U.S.!

Mainstream health care has banded together with the pharmaceutical industry to offer a temporary quick fix for the number one killer of our time. Statin drugs reduce cholesterol. Aspirin and warfarin thin the blood. Anti-hypertension medications reduce blood pressure. Bypass surgery, and angioplasty clear the arteries. Essentially, they all help prolong the life of a patient with cardiovascular disease (CVD). But none of these drugs or procedures is without risk or side effects. Well, we've got good news for you!

CVD risk can be greatly reduced by modifying lifestyle and adding nutritional supplements proven to support cardiovascular health. Most of us are aware that eating a lighter, more balanced diet, quitting tobacco and exercising regularly are enough to head off most cases of heart disease before they ever happen. Now there's something else you can do.

Nattokinase has been shown to support normal blood pressure, dissolve blood clots and prevent them from forming in the first place!

What Is Nattokinase?

How is it made?

Natto is produced by a fermentation process by adding the bacteria Bacillus subtilis to boiled soybeans. The resulting Nattokinase enzyme is produced when Bacillus subtilis acts on the soybeans. While other soy foods contain enzymes, it is only the natto preparation that contains the specific Nattokinase enzyme. How was Nattokinase discovered? Japanese researcher Dr. Hiroyuki Sumi had spent many years searching for a natural thrombolytic agent that could successfully dissolve blood clots associated with heart attacks and stroke. Finally in 1980, after testing more than 173 natural foods, Sumi found what he was looking for.

Natto, a traditional Japanese soy cheese, was dropped onto an artificial thrombus (fibrin) in a petri dish and allowed to stand at 37ºC (approximately body temperature). Over the next 18 hours, the thrombus around the natto completely dissolved! Sumi named the newly discovered enzyme Nattokinase, which means "enzyme in natto." Dr. Sumi remarked that Nattokinase showed "a potency matched by no other enzyme." 

Nattokinase:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nattokinase (pronounced nat-oh-KY-nase) is an enzyme extracted and purified from a japanese food called natto. Nattō is a food made from fermented soybeans that has been eaten in Japan for many years. Nattō is produced by fermentation by adding the bacterium  Bacillun natto, a beneficial bacteria, to boiled soybeans. The resulting nattokinase enzyme is produced when the bacterium acts on the soybeans. While other soy foods contain enzymes, it is only the nattō preparation that contains the specific nattokinase enzyme.

Nattokinase is sometimes promoted in the alternative medicine  community as a clot-buster and blood thinner or as a substitute for daily aspirin therapy. However, this substitution is not recommended since there is no evidence that nattokinase is effective in preventing cardiovascular disease. Nattokinase may interact with aspirin to increase the risk of intracranial hemorrhage.

Nattokinase has been effectively marketed by Kenrico in a patented product that prevents cell damage or apoptosis. Sold under the trade name Lexirin, it is derived from fermented soybean to address gastrointenstinal disorders, dermatological conditions, and immunodeficiencies.

There is also evidence of nattokinase being effective in catabolism of toxic amyloid fibrils associated with Alzheimer's Disease.

Apoptosis  is the process of programmed cell death (PCD) that may occur in multicellular organisms. Biochemical events lead to characteristic cell changes (morphology) and death. These changes include blebbing, cell shrinkage, nuclear fragmentation,  chromatin condensation, and chromosomal DNA fragmentation. (See also Apoptosis DNA fragmentation.) Unlike necrosis, apoptosis produces cell fragments called apoptotic bodies that phagocytic cells are able to engulf and quickly remove before the contents of the cell can spill out onto surrounding cells and cause damage.

In contrast to necrosis, which is a form of traumatic cell death that results from acute cellular injury, apoptosis, in general, confers advantages during an organism's life cycle. For example, the differentiation of fingers and toes in a developing human embryo  occurs because cells between the fingers apoptose; the result is that the digits are separate. Between 50 and 70  billion  cells die each day due to apoptosis in the average human adult. For an average child between the ages of 8 and 14, approximately 20 billion to 30 billion cells die a day. 

Research in and around apoptosis has increased substantially since the early 1990s. In addition to its importance as a biological phenomenon, defective apoptotic processes have been implicated in an extensive variety of diseases. Excessive apoptosis causes atrophy, whereas an insufficient amount results in uncontrolled cell proliferation, such as cancer.

Source: Wikipedia