By Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS, February 18, 2009, abstracted from “Amyloid-Degrading Ability of Nattokinase from Bacillus subtilis Natto” in the Februray 2009 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

The incidence of Alzheimer Disease (AD) has doubled since 1980, currently affecting just under five million Americans, and expected to more than triple by 2050 and affect 16 million (1). AD currently costs our healthcare system over $100 billion each year (2).

Fortunately, there are simple ways to help maintain mental health, including eating apples (3), drinking green tea (4), omega-3 fatty acids (5) including fish oil (6), vitamin E (7), grape seed extract (8), niacin (9) and maintaining normal levels of Homocysteine (10). Now a new study (11) has found that a fermented soy food may also help with mental health.

Natto, a fermented food made from boiled soybeans, has been eaten for more than 1000 years in Asia. Within Natto is an enzyme called Nattokinase (12) that has been found to help break down blood clots (13), help maintain blood vessel health after trauma (14), and is even used as a supplement to help improve circulation (15). Nattokinase may also help with mental health.

In the study, researchers exposed three types of amyloid protein: one which appears in the brain of Alzheimer patients (called A-beta-40), one that appears due to diabetes complications (called insulin fibrils), and one that appears during prion disease (such as mad cow disease and Creutzfield-Jacob Diseaase (16)) to nattokinase.

They found that nattokinase was able to degrade all three amyloid proteins, showing remarkable promise that such an easily digestible found may help maintain brain health. Specifically, insulin fibrils showed the biggest degradation at 90%. Although the researchers did not state what kind of natto intake would confer this possible health benefit, the researchers concluded that “This amyloid-degrading ability of nattokinase suggests that it may be useful in the treatment of amyloid-related diseases.”

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Danville, CA. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at mailto:PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.CompleteChiropracticHealthcare.com

Reference:
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