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Japan enjoys one of the best life expectancy rates among both men and women in the world. A major reason for this is their diet rich in fish, rice, green tea, soya products and low in foods rich in saturated fat.
For hundreds of years the Japanese have been enjoying one food which has been identified as a possible contributory factor to their longevity. Natto is a fermented soya bean product that the Japanese usually enjoy for breakfast.
During clinical studies scientists discovered a fibrinolytic enzyme in natto, called nattokinase, that is reported to reduce and prevent blood clots and lower blood pressure thus helping to prevent both heart attacks and strokes.
Cardiovascular disease is a massive problem in the western world, each year over 250,000 people in Britain alone suffer from heart attacks and 125,000 die from coronary artery disease. Many more suffer from angina - acute pain in the chest on exertion due to narrowing and blockages in the blood vessels that supply the heart.
These statistics are alarming and considering that cardiovascular disease (this includes heart attacks and strokes) accounts for four out of every ten deaths many people are looking for natural and effective treatments to combat and prevent these chronic life threatening illnesses.
A heart attack or angina attack can occur when a blood clot (or thrombus) blocks an artery and reduces the supply of oxygen to the heart muscle. A stroke occurs when a clot travels to the brain, where it then blocks a blood vessel.
In the mid 1980's a Japanese research scientist, Dr Hiroyuki Sumi, began work on a project to identify a natural product that would replace conventional pharmaceutical drugs used for dissolving blood clots. As part of his research, he and his team examined over one hundred and fifty different foods from around the world to see if they could find any likely candidates.
Dr Sumi came to Natto and after some extensive tests found that it closely resembled an enzyme in the body that destroys blood clots. After further extensive scientific study, Dr Sumi and his team evetually isolated an enzyme in natto (derived from a process of fermentation involving soya beans and a beneficial bacteria called Bacillus natto).
The enzyme that Dr Sumi had managed to isolate had the ability not only to dissolve blood clots quickly and efficiently but also prevented them from forming in the first place. Dr Sumi named the enzyme 'nattokinase' which means 'enzyme in natto'.
Blood clots are clumps of a naturally-occurring protein called fibrin which can accumulate in a blood vessel. The human body produces several enzymes that promote the formation of blood clots (clotting is a vital mechanism that prevents haemorrhaging), but only one that dissolves them.
This enzyme, known as plasmin, diminishes with age and this is a contributory factor in deaths from heart disease. Nattokinase has been found to closely resemble plasmin.
Nattokinase remains active in the body for 8 to 12 hours. It not only dissolves existing blood clots, but prevents blood coagulation as well and may be a valuable precautionary measure in the prevention of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which is associated increasingly with long-haul travel. However, research has yet to confirm this.
In addition to its anti-clotting factors, nattokinase has been found to reduce blood pressure. It contains substances that inhibit a naturally-occurring enzyme that causes blood vessels to narrow and blood pressure to rise.
In studies undertaken by the Miyazaki Medical College and the Kurashiki University of Science and Arts in Japan, five patients with high blood pressure each took nattokinase equal to 200g of natto for four days.
In four out of the five volunteers, systolic blood pressure fell on average by almost 11 per cent and diastolic blood pressure dropped by an average of about 10 per cent.
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