60 count, 50 mg each

SMOOTH AND EASY WITH NATTOKINASE

Heart disease and stroke are the first and third leading causes of death in the United States. Of 2,403,351 deaths in the United States in the year 2000, for example, 878,421, or over 36%, were attributed to heart and cerebrovascular diseases. In comparison, accidents (97,900) and murders (16,765) combined accounted for less than 5% of total deaths. 1 These figures do not take into account deaths due to other diseases with circulatory involvement. For example, a recent Japanese study showed that of patients with senile dementia, about 60% were due to clogging of cerebral arteries by small blood clots (or thrombi). Certain types of diabetes also have been shown to be due to changes in the blood vessels supplying the pancreas, again tied to small blood clots in these vessels.

For years the major culprit in clogged blood vessels has been assumed to be cholesterol. More recent research has shown, however, that cholesterol buildup in arterial plaques is the body's response to an injury to the arterial wall by blood clots. If blood clots could be prevented from forming in the blood, then the whole issue of cholesterol levels could be avoided.

What if there were a dietary supplement that could help prevent the formation of blood clots in blood vessels, a blood thinner, in other words, that was safe to take long-term, came from a completely natural source, and as a side benefit also lowered your blood pressure? The good news is that there is such a substance, an enzyme purified from a traditional Japanese food called natto, which is made with soy beans that have been fermented with a specific bacteria, Bacillus subtilis var. natto. This fermentation process produces an enzyme called nattokinase which has been shown to have remarkable fibrinolytic (fibrin dissolving) properties 2,3,4 .

Fibrin is the protein in our blood serum that produces blood clots. Individual strands of fibrin are always present in our blood as it courses through the body. When an injury or other trauma (such as bacteria or toxins in the blood) occurs, then the fibrin undergoes a chemical change that causes the individual strands to stick to each other, forming a clot. This is a vital function that we cannot really live without. However, when the body is unable to properly or completely break down the clots once they have served their function because it is unable to make sufficient quantities of the natural enzyme that dissolves clots, called plasmin, then the clots can break loose and flow through the blood stream, damaging the lining of the blood vessels and causing the problems which eventually lead to heart disease, stroke, senile dementia and other serious diseases. One of the main causes of decreased plasmin production in the body is age, which is why circulatory diseases are much more prevalent in the elderly than in younger people. However, arterial plaques are commonly found even in relatively young people, so it is a problem that shadows us throughout our lives. Nattokinase does not interfere with normal clotting. Rather it acts to clean up old blood clots that would otherwise circulate throughout the body causing damage to blood vessels.

Nattokinase is a natural enzyme that complements the plasmin produced by our body. It dissolves fibrin clots as well as activates pro-urokinase pathways, which stimulate the body to produce its own plasmin. There are other fibrinolytic enzymes derived from plants, such as adzuki beans, Korean ginseng, Japanese water dropwort, but these also inhibit platelet aggregation, which can interfere with the normal clotting process. They also have lower activity than nattokinase. Some pharmaceutical drugs given to prevent stroke also work by inhibiting platelet aggregation, such as Ticlopidine and Clopidogrel. These drugs are costly and have significant side effects, and a recent large-scale study done at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago showed that Ticlopidine is no more effective than aspirin in preventing strokes in blacks, who have twice the incidence of stroke of other races 5 . Aspirin also has deleterious side effects, causing bleeding and damage to the intestinal lining.

Plasmin stimulators, such as urokinase and streptokinase, are similar to nattokinase but prohibitively expensive and less potent and are only effective when given intravenously immediately after a heart attack or stroke, so they do not have the preventive benefit of nattokinase. Coumadin, which is widely used as a blood thinner, is a drug with potentially fatal side effects if used incorrectly. It is also used as a rat poison under the name Warfarin 6 . Coumadin is also routinely given only after a heart attack. Nattokinase can do the same thing as Coumadin and other blood thinners but safely and without side effects and can be safely taken before any symptoms appear as a preventative.

Unlike most other commercially available nattokinase, New Life Nattokinase does not contain Vitamin K. New Life Nattokinase can therefore be used in conjunction with coumadin, heparin and other blood thinners which cannot be used with Vitamin K. New Life Nattokinase also has our Beta Lipid added to protect the nattokinase from being digested in the stomach and to improve dispersability.

Nattokinase has also been shown to lower blood pressure in patients with hypertension with a 10% drop in pressure in one study 7 . This is due to an increase in the diameter of blood vessels due to the action of nattokinase.

One capsule of New Life Nattokinase taken three times a day provides you with sufficient amount of the enzyme to keep your blood flowing smooth and easy.

1 National Vital Statistics Report, Vol. 50, No. 16, September 16, 2002.
2 Sumi, H., Hamada, H., Nakanishi, K., Hiratani, H. Enhancement of the fibrinolytic activity in plasma by oral administration of nattokinase. Acta Haematol 1990; 84(3):139-43.
3 Sumi, H., Hamada, H., Mihara, H. A novel strong fibrinolytic enzyme (nattokinase) in the vegetable cheese "natto". International Journal of Fibrinolysis and Thrombolysis. Abstracts of the Ninth International Congress on Fibrinolysis, Amsterdam, 1988 Vol. 2, Sup. 1:67.
4 Sumi, H., Hamada, H., Tsushima, H., Mihara, H., Muraki, H. A novel fibrinolytic enzyme (nattokinase) in the vegetable cheese Natto; a typical and popular soybean food in the Japanese diet. Experientia 1987, Oct 15;43(10):1110-1.
5 Gorelick, P.B., Richardson, D., Kelley, M., Ruland, S., Hung, E. Harris, Y., Kittner, S., Lergans, S. Aspirin and Ticlopidine for prevention of recurrent stroke in black patients: a randomized trial. JAMA, 2003, 289(22):2947-2957.
6 For a review of Coumadin toxicity, see http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic872.htm.
7 Maruyama, M., Sumi, H. Effect of Natto Diet on Blood Pressure. JTTAS, 1995.