This Changes Everything About Nattokinase & Clogged Arteries (New Study)

Name: This Changes Everything About Nattokinase & Clogged Arteries (New Study)
Uploaded: 2026-07-11T15:00:38.000Z
Duration: 15 min 58 s
Channel: Thomas Fordham Brewer MD MPH

Thomas Fordham Brewer MD MPHJuly 11, 202615m

Topics8

Nattokinase and Blood Clot Breakdown0:00 How Nattokinase Works as an Enzyme1:02 The February 2026 Scientific Reports Study4:00 Blood Type Ranking: Fastest to Slowest Nattokinase Response6:30 Von Willebrand Factor Explains the Blood Type Difference7:30 Rh Factor and Its Interaction with Nattokinase10:00 Age as the Strongest Predictor of Nattokinase Effectiveness11:02 Practical Takeaways and Dosing Guidance12:30

In a Nutshell

A new study found that nattokinase dissolves blood clots faster in people with blood type O positive than in other types, especially AB negative, due to lower von Willebrand factor levels making clots structurally weaker. Age was the strongest predictor of reduced effectiveness, with older adults having lower natural clot-dissolving capacity. Practical takeaway: know your blood type before using nattokinase, start at 2,000 FU if appropriate, and consult a provider—especially if on blood thinners—since dosing should be personalized.

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Nattokinase has become one of the most talked about supplements in heart health. Some people take it hoping that it's going to improve their circulation. Others take it because they've heard it'll break down the clots associated with heart attacks and strokes. A brand new study has uncovered something that nobody was really looking at before. The researchers found that one characteristic that you've had ever since you were born may significantly influence how well nattokinase actually works for you. And if it's true, it changes the conversation completely. Because the supplement that seems to work well for one person may not work the same way at all for someone else. By the end of this video, you're going to understand what actually happens with nattokinase, what it does inside your arteries, and what this new study actually found, and what you should know before deciding whether nattokinase belongs in your supplement cabinet.

Most people who've heard of nattokinase know it as a heart supplement, something that helps with clotting, so therefore it's got to be good. Very few people can actually explain what it does inside the body. Enzymes basically are biological tools. They're proteins that your body uses to speed up a specific chemical reaction. In this case, the reaction nattokinase speeds up is the breakdown of blood clots. Our body's clotting all the time, and it needs some way to break those down. That's why we have the ability to break down clots. Nattokinase speeds that up. It comes from a traditional Japanese fermented food called natto, fermented soybeans. The bacterium that ferments the soybeans produces this enzyme as a natural byproduct. That enzyme turns out to have a very specific and powerful effect on the structure of blood clots.

When a blood clot forms in your body, it's not just a blob of congealed blood. It has a structure. The backbone of that structure is a protein. It's called fibrin. Think of fibrin like a net. It's a mesh that forms around the clot and through the clot and holds the whole thing together. Red blood cells get physically trapped inside that mesh, compressed, deformed, unable to carry oxygen the way they normally would because they're not going anywhere because they're stuck inside this mesh. And that's what makes a clot dangerous. Not just that it blocks blood flow, but that the tissue downstream stops getting oxygen. That's what a heart attack is. That's what a stroke is. You block off the artery before that tissue and it can't get oxygen anymore. That causes the damage to heart tissue or brain tissue in a heart attack or stroke.

Nattokinase cuts through that fibrin mesh directly. When it does, the clot breaks apart. The red blood cells trapped inside can even recover their normal shape. Blood flow can resume. And nattokinase therefore is not really doing something vague. It's targeting a specific protein structure inside a clot. Now, your body does need to clot, so let's not do away with clotting completely.

How quickly can nattokinase get through that structure, that clot, that mesh? It turns out how quickly it does that may depend significantly on the person taking it and what you were born with. The study, earlier this year, February 2026, is a study that came out in Scientific Reports, that's part of the Nature Publishing Group, one of the most respected scientific publishers in the world. The researchers wanted to answer a question that seems simple, but was never actually studied before. Does nattokinase work the same way in every person?

To find out, they collected nearly 2,000 blood samples, 1,800 of them actually, from people aged 10 years old all the way up to 70. Every blood type, all eight and Rh combinations, those are blood types, A, B, O, and Rh means positive or negative, so A negative, A positive, B negative, B positive, AB negative, so they're those combinations. For each sample, they formed an actual blood clot in a controlled setting, and then they added nattokinase and measured exactly how long it took to fully dissolve that clot. Now, this is what we would call an in vitro, in other words, in the lab as opposed to in vivo, inside the body.

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This Changes Everything About Nattokinase & Clogged Arteries (New Study)

Nattokinase and Blood Clot Breakdown00:00

How Nattokinase Works as an Enzyme01:02

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