Nattokinase: a replacement for Warfrin?

I've been looking at Nattokinase as a supplement for my mother, who is suffering from a calcified heart valve, due to (I believe) her long term use of Warfrin. Warfrin is known to be a vitamin k antagonist. But without vitamin k (vitamin k2 specifically), the body can't regulate calcium properly, and it goes into the arteries instead of into the bones.

Nattokinase is known to prevent and even reverse atherosclerosis. Pure Natto is a source of vitamin k2. But even though the product description says that it contains pure nattokinase enzyme with all vitamin k removed, there are warnings to not take it if you are taking Warfarin (Coumadin), or to consult your doctor first if you are taking Warfarin. And from what I've read on the customer comments on Amazon, it seems that people use it to replace Warfarin:

Great results so far!

My husband has a blood clotting disorder and was placed on Coumadin for life. He wasn't doing well on Coumadin. There was so many nasty side effects so we looked for an alternative to Coumadin. This supplement was recommended to us 10 months ago. He is doing so much better since taking Nattokinase. He is off of Coumadin (without his Dr's blessing), it has brought his cholesterol down, brought his blood pressure down (along with vitamin C), and improved his cataracts. He just had an eye exam and his eye glasses prescription was the same as two and a half years ago. That has NEVER happened. His eyes have always gotten worse for every exam. His Dr wasn't happy with him when he got off of Coumadin, but he is happy with the results and can't believe hubby is off of cholesterol and high blood pressure meds. He has never see that happen in his patients. We are excited to see other benefits pop up in the future.

In the threads attached to that post, people ask for an update, and the author, Jennifer, replies one year later:

Hubby is still doing well on Natto. He also takes Vitamin E, Cod Liver Oil, and Ginko Biloba in order to get the thinnest blood that he can. His blood clotting disorder is serious, though.

Another person, Mary Turner, posts this under Jennifer's original post:

The first time I took Cumadin, my legs felt like they were on fire. I had to go every thursday to the clinic as you have to be monitored when taking cumadin which is really a low dose of rat poison (for real). They can never get it right. It's take one pill, take one and a half, go back to one pill and so on. I told my doctor, "I cannot keep taking this stuff. " He replied, "I don't know what else to tell you to take." I said, "yes you do but your hands are tied by the FDA."

I had already read about Natto and had been reading about natural cures for over 12 years. So I ordered Natto and stopped taking Cumadin. The Natto arrived the same day my brother passed away. I was off work for a week taking care of funeral arrangements but took the Natto everyday. The following Thursday, I went back to the clinic to give them a blood sample and went to work. They called my job to give me the results as usual.

The nurse was so excited and said to me, "your blood plattelets are perfect; how much Cumadin shall I tell the doctor you took?" I said, "tell the doctor I did not take any of that rat poison." She even got more excited and wanted me to tell her what I took to get these results. She looked it up on line as I spelled it out for her and gave me a big thank you as she wanted it for herself.

Now I had not spoke to anyone about what I had taken but they thought it was Cumidin that did the trick. So what does that tell you. [...]

Jennifer also said in the thread that her husband didn't just stop taking Warfarin/Coumadin, that there was an overlap for about a month, where he took both but transitioned to just Nattokinase.

Many other reviewers reported that it lowered their blood pressure, and improved their overall blood circulation. A handful of people said it did nothing for them (I've found that is usually the case with supplement reviews; there are always some who say that). It does seem that it's used in place of Warfarin/Coumadin, rather than with it.

My sister says that my mother's doctor says, he would not object to any supplements as long as they don't interfere with what he has prescribed for her. It seems to me that the Nattokinase would interfere with the Warfarin.

I thought that I might try her on Vitamin K2 (Jarrow Formulas MK-7), because I read that vitamin k1 interferes with Warfarin's blood thinning, but vitamin K2 does not. Yet the K2 supplements also warn against taking them with Warfarin, or at least with consulting a doctor first before taking them.

So, is the only answer to stop taking Warfarin/Coumadin? That would be a tough sell for my mom. She's afraid to go against what the doctors tell her.


Here are a list of links about vitamin K2, and how it's been used to reverse calcification in arteries and heart valves. There have been studies that show reversal of arterial calcification in rats:

http://www.knowguff.com/2012/05/vitamin-k2-as-mk-7-restores-elasticity.html

http://www.natmedtalk.com/f25/1614-vitamin-k2-shown-reverse-arterial-calcifications.html

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/11/can-vitamin-k2-reverse-arterial.html

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2009/jan2009_Vitamin-K-Protection-Against-Arterial-Calcification-Bone-Loss-Cancer-Aging_01.htm


I've looked for information about reversing calcification of heart valves in humans. I could not find a lot of information, and what I did find was anecdotal:



http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7533

http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=6207

But even mainstream medicine doesn't rule it out completely, they just say there are insufficient studies to prove it yet:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18196985?itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&ordinalpos=6

There seems to be no end to articles on the subject:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi82.html

http://www.lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi85.html

http://blogs.webmd.com/integrative-medicine-wellness/2007/11/vitamin-k-keeping-calcium-in-your-bones-and-out-of-your-blood-vessels.html

http://www.smart-publications.com/articles/vitamin-k-keeps-calcium-out-of-your-arteries-and-in-your-bones

http://www.preparemd.com/supplements-vitamins-categories-information/vitamin-k2-mk7-reduced-heart-attack/

There was even a book published in 2011, called "Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox: How a Little-Known Vitamin Could Save Your Life":

http://www.amazon.com/Vitamin-K2-Calcium-Paradox-Little-Known/dp/1118065727/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373147390&sr=1-1&keywords=vitamin+k2+and+the+calcium+paradox

But it's gone out of print, despite getting high ratings from readers. Only the Kindle edition is still available at a reasonable price. Used copies are very expensive. I hope they print more copies soon.


Update 07-12-13:

Our local health food store gave me a report about Nattokinase. It's quite informative, and I found it online in PDF format:

http://www.enzymedica.com/images/enzy/articles_handouts/pdf/CardiovascularHealthandNattokinase_H30.pdf
   

Health Articles, 08-25-12

6 Quit-Smoking Tips for COPD
How to quit smoking, starting today, if you have COPD.

Quitting smoking is a top priority for all smokers, but if you have COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) it's even more urgent.

Here's why: If you quit, it might be possible to slow down the disease and lessen the toll it takes on your breathing, but only if you cut out cigarettes permanently -- and soon.

Here's how to do it, starting today. [...]

Partner Depression Common After Heart Attack
Anxiety and Even Suicide Risk Higher Than for Other Spouses

[...] Depression is common among heart attack survivors, and now a new study finds that this is also the case for spouses.

Depression, Anxiety Common in Spouses

When researchers compared the spouses of people in Denmark who had heart attacks to the spouses of people who had other major health issues, they found that the husbands and wives of heart attack patients were at higher risk for depression, anxiety, and even suicide after the event -- even if their spouse survived the heart attack.

Cardiologist and researcher Emil L. Fosbol, MD, PhD, of Denmark’s Gentofte University Hospital, says the suddenness of a heart attack may be a factor.

“These are usually events that come out of the blue,” he says. “One minute the partner may appear perfectly healthy and the next minute they may be critically ill or dead.”

The study was conducted using data from a comprehensive Danish health registry when Fosbol was a research fellow at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina.

The analysis revealed that more than three times as many people whose partners died from heart attacks were using antidepressants in the year after the event compared to the year before.

Spouses of people who survived heart attacks were 17% more likely to have a prescription for an antidepressant in the year following the event, whereas spouses of patients surviving other health scares were no more likely to be prescribed antidepressants. [...]

     

Health Articles, 08-19-12

Blood Types and Heart Disease? Is there a connection?

Blood Type May be a Risk Factor for Heart Disease

The thought of having a heart disease is more than enough to stress an individual. But what if you find out that your blood type may also put you at risk of developing heart problems?

A group of researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston reviewed 20-year data from two large studies involving adult participants and found a link between blood type and the risk of developing heart disease. Compared to people with blood type O, those whose blood type is AB are found to have 23% increased risk for heart disease while those with type B had an 11% increased risk. Individuals with blood type A have 5% risk for heart disease.

While the researchers did not delve into the mechanisms that cause blood type to affect heart disease risk, evidence from other studies revealed some clues.

Blood type AB, the rarest blood type, is linked to inflammation which can affect how blood vessels work. Blood type A has been associated with higher levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, also known as the “bad” cholesterol, that clogs up arteries. Meanwhile, people with blood type O have higher levels of a compound that has a beneficial effect on blood flow and clotting.

But despite the findings, the researchers noted that a healthy lifestyle still play a significant role in protecting people with the higher risk blood types.

So if you are vulnerable to developing heart diseases based on several different factors, including family history, race, age, obesity, stress, or blood type as the recent study suggests, it’s about time you start making some healthy adjustments in your lifestyle.

Does Keen Attention and More Neurons = a more youthful brain?

Probing The Youthful Brains of ‘SuperAgers’

A Northwestern University researcher has identified an elite group of elderly people age 80 and older whose memories are as sharp as people 20 to 30 years younger than them.

Emily Rogalski, Ph.D., who dubbed these seniors “SuperAgers,” said that on 3-D MRI scans, their brains appear as young as the brains of middle-aged people.

[...]

“These findings are remarkable given the fact that grey matter or brain cell loss is a common part of normal aging,” said Rogalski, an assistant research professor at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

By identifying older people who seem to be protected from the deterioration of memory and atrophy of brain cells that accompanies aging, Rogalski hopes to unlock the secrets of their youthful brains so those secrets can be used to protect others from memory loss or even Alzheimer’s disease.

“By looking at a really healthy older brain, we can start to deduce how SuperAgers are able to maintain their good memory,” Rogalski said. “Many scientists study what’s wrong with the brain, but maybe we can ultimately help Alzheimer’s patients by figuring out what goes right in the brain of SuperAgers.”

“What we learn from these healthy brains may inform our strategies for improving quality of life for the elderly and for combatting Alzheimer’s disease.”

Measuring the thickness of the cortex gives her a a sense of how many brain cells are left, Rogalski explained.

“We can’t actually count them, but the thickness of the outer cortex of the brain provides an indirect measure of the health of the brain,” she said. “A thicker cortex suggests a greater number of neurons.”

The study also found that in SuperAgers, another region deep in the brain, the anterior cingulate, was actually thicker than in the 50 to 65 year olds.

“This is pretty incredible,” Rogalski said. “This region is important for attention. Attention supports memory. Perhaps the SuperAgers have really keen attention and that supports their exceptional memories.”

Only 10 percent of the people who “thought they had outstanding memories” met the criteria for the study, she noted. To be defined as a SuperAger, the participants needed to score at or above the norm of the 50 to 65 year olds on memory screenings, she said.

“These are a special group of people,” Rogalski said. “They aren’t growing on trees.” [...]

     

Numerous Health Articles, 08-11-12

Restless Legs Syndrome and Sleep
5 changes to try for better sleep if you have RLS.

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) steals sleep. It's usually worst in the evening and overnight, which can mean little rest and fatigue the next day.

"Most people with RLS have fragmented sleep, with difficulty falling asleep and repetitive jerking motions that can wake them up," says neurologist Nancy Foldvary-Schaefer, DO, director of the Cleveland Clinic's Sleep Disorders Center.

The good news, she says, is that many people with RLS respond to simple treatments -- and that can mean better sleep.

Here are five simple changes to try: [...]

Read on and count the ways.


Exercise May Fight Depression in Heart Failure
Regular Aerobic Activity Improves Mood About as Well as Antidepressants, Talk Therapy

July 31, 2012 -- Exercise helps people with heart failure feel a bit better, physically and emotionally, a new study shows. It may also lower a person's risk of dying or winding up in the hospital.

Up to 40% of people with heart failure grapple with depression. The combination often leads to poor health outcomes. One study found seriously depressed people with heart failure were more than twice as likely to die or be hospitalized over the course of a year compared to other people with heart failure who weren't depressed.

"Whenever patients are more depressed, their motivation goes down. Their ability to keep up with their doctors' recommendations goes down. Their ability to get out and do basic physical activities like walking goes down," as does their health, says David A. Friedman, MD, chief of Heart Failure Services at North Shore-LIJ Plainview Hospital in New York. "It's a vicious cycle."

"This [study] ... shows a non-drug way to try to improve patients' mood and motivation. That's the best thing you can do," says Friedman, who was not involved in the research. [...]

Read the rest for details of the study.


Fewer Lies, Better Health?
People Who Lied Less Reported Better Relationships, Improved Mental, Physical Health: Study

Ecstasy Pills Cause Memory Problems
Taking 10 or More Pills a Year Linked to Immediate and Short-Term Memory Problems

July 27, 2012 -- People who use the club drug ecstasy (MDMA) can develop memory problems, a new study shows.

In the study, new ecstasy users who took 10 or more ecstasy pills during their first year showed problems with their immediate and short-term memory.

The researchers say the memory problems may not be immediately apparent. Ecstasy users may not notice the problems until permanent damage has been done. The memory issues are associated with damage of an area of the brain called the hippocampus, which is responsible for memory.

The study compared 23 new users of the drug to 43 people who didn't use any illicit drugs besides cannabis. On average, study participants who used ecstasy took 33 pills over the course of one year.

"Given the specific memory impairments, our findings may raise concerns in regard to MDMA use, even in recreational amounts over a relatively short time period," says study researcher Daniel Wagner, in an email. He is a psychologist at the Klinik fur Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie in Cologne, Germany.

The study is published in the journal Addiction. [...]

It's also highly addictive, has other risks and "may even have a greater effect on all cognitive function". That's ALL cognitive function.

I found it interesting, because I've often thought of people who take Ecstasy as being... not too bright? A sandwich short of a picnic? Or just plain shallow and stupid. This study kinda backs that impression up with some science.


Drug May Slow Memory Loss in Early Alzheimer's
Medication Approved to Treat Patients With HIV May Do Double Duty for Dementia


Walking for Exercise: Americans Making Strides
Still, Less Than Half of Adults Meet Federal Exercise Guidelines

Aug. 7, 2012 -- No exercise is more popular than walking, and more people walk these days than they did five years ago, according to a new CDC report.

Nonetheless, the majority of adults still need to increase the amount of exercise they get each week in order to meet federal health guidelines. Nearly a third of American adults still get no exercise at all.

"Fifteen million more American adults were walking in 2010, and that's a great first step," CDC director Thomas R. Frieden, MD, MPH, told reporters during a news briefing. "It's a great way to get started meeting the 2 1/2 hours per week of physical activity."

And, Frieden says, people who walk are more likely to meet that goal; 60% of walkers get the recommended amount of exercise each week, about twice as many as those who don't walk.

"That's much higher than those who don't get that 10-minute walk," he says, adding that for people who follow the guidelines, "physical activity really is a wonder drug that makes you healthier and happier... even if you don't lose weight, physical activity decreases your risk of diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, and other chronic diseases."

The CDC estimates that more than 145 million American adults -- 62% of the population -- took at least one 10-minute or longer walk per week in 2010. That's a 6% increase since 2005. And increases occurred across all populations.

"Because walking or moving with assistance is possible for most persons, does not require special skills or facilities, and can serve multiple purposes, it represents a way many U.S. residents can achieve a more physically active lifestyle, regardless of sex, race/ethnicity, age, or education level," the report's researchers write.

About two-thirds of adults in the West get out and walk, the highest rate in the country. But the South showed the greatest increase of any region, up about 8% in five years. That's good news for a region that, Frieden points out, consistently shows higher rates of diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, and other chronic health problems.

"This is significant progress we are reporting," he says.

The ideal walk, says Frieden, is a brisk one. "You should get a little winded," he says.

And the ideal exercise is one that you like doing. "The key concept is to do something you enjoy, to build it into your routine, and to keep doing it throughout your life." {...}

I've read in other places too, that walking, as much as you can, when you can, just during your everyday activities, can help you lose weight and keep it off. And that people who live in cities, where driving a car can be inconvenient, walk more and also tend to have less weight problems. I know that when I lived in a city, I often walked to many places, and I also weighed less.


Pets for Depression and Health
Can your depression problems improve when you interact with your pet?
This might seem like a no-brainer, but the answer isn't always "yes".
     

Testosterone for Heart Failure?

It may help:

Male Hormone May Help Heart Failure Patients

[...] Heart failure is a leading cause of hospitalization in people over the age of 65 in the U.S.

About 5 million Americans have heart failure, and each year about half a million more get diagnosed with it, which means their hearts have a reduced capacity to pump blood efficiently.

When this happens, the heart can become enlarged, fluid may build up in the soft tissues and organs, and people typically become exhausted with exertion.

"Patients with heart failure don't feel very well, in part because they can't exercise," says Clyde Yancy, MD, chief of cardiology at Chicago's Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine and a spokesman for the American Heart Association.

"The idea of a novel treatment approach that can help improve exercise capacity is very intriguing," he says.

The studies included nearly 200 patients, most of whom were men. They were 67 years old, on average.

About half the patients received testosterone by injection, patch, or gel, for as little as three months or as long as a year. The other half got a placebo.

The study appears in the journal Circulation. [...]

Read the whole thing for the details.
     

Dick Cheney has a Change of Heart

Literally:

Former Vice President Cheney has heart transplant

[...] Cheney, who served as vice president under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009, suffered his first heart attack when he was 37. In 1988, Cheney underwent quadruple-bypass surgery. He also had two artery-clearing angioplasties and had a heart-monitoring device implanted. The device was removed in 2007.

In 2005, Cheney had six hours of surgery on his legs to repair a type of aneurysm, and in March 2007, doctors discovered deep venous thrombosis, or blood clot, in his left lower leg. An ultrasound a month later showed the clot was getting smaller.

In July 2010, Cheney announced that a small left ventricular assist device (LVAD) had been implanted to help treat congestive heart failure. The device, which included an external system controller, required two rechargeable batteries to help pump blood throughout the body. A few months later Cheney appeared noticeably thinner at the groundbreaking for the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Texas.

“The [heart pump] technology was originally developed to provide a transition,” Cheney told NBC News in an interview in August, “to take somebody who’s reached the point where they needed a transplant, but a transplant wouldn’t immediately be available, so they put this in as a temporary measure.”

Cheney said in the interview that he hadn’t decided whether to seek a heart transplant. [...]

The article said the Cheney's don't know the identity of the owner, but they will be forever grateful. Will the press press to reveal the doner? We shall see.
     

Vitamin C rich foods help with Heart Failure

Foods With Vitamin C May Help Heart Failure Patients
Study: Heart Failure Patients More Likely to Be Hospitalized if Their Diet Is Low in Foods With Vitamin C

Nov.14, 2011 (Orlando, Fla.) -- People with heart failure who don't eat enough vitamin C-rich foods are almost twice as likely to be hospitalized or die as those with heart failure who get enough vitamin C in their diet, new research suggests.

They are also more than twice as likely to have high levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) in their blood, which has been linked to heart disease.

The study is the first to show that people with heart failure who eat enough vitamin C-rich foods live longer, according to study researcher Grace Song, PhD, RN, an assistant professor in the department of nursing at the University of Ulsan, South Korea.

Vitamin C, an antioxidant, may help people with heart failure by calming down inflammation in the body, Song tells WebMD.

Other researchers say that it's not at all clear that vitamin C by itself improves heart health.

More likely, people who get enough vitamin C in their diets eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and are healthier overall, says Alice Lichtenstein, DSc, a nutritionist at Tufts University in Boston.

"What we do know," she says, "is that a diet high in fruits and vegetables lowers the risk of heart disease."

Foods that are rich in vitamin C include cantaloupe, red cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, oranges, papaya, and kiwis. [...]

Curing Heart Failure? Is it possible?

Has the irreversible become reversible? The evidence is certainly interesting:

Studies: Stem cells reverse heart damage

[...] Conventional wisdom took a hit Monday, as Bolli's group and a team from Cedars-Sinai each reported that stem cell therapies were able to reverse heart damage, without dangerous side effects, at least in a small group of patients.

In Bolli's study, published in The Lancet, 16 patients with severe heart failure received a purified batch of cardiac stem cells. Within a year, their heart function markedly improved. The heart's pumping ability can be quantified through the "Left Ventricle Ejection Fraction," a measure of how much blood the heart pumps with each contraction. A patient with an LVEF of less than 40% is considered to suffer severe heart failure. When the study began, Bolli's patients had an average LVEF of 30.3%. Four months after receiving stem cells, it was 38.5%. Among seven patients who were followed for a full year, it improved to an astounding 42.5%. A control group of seven patients, given nothing but standard maintenance medications, showed no improvement at all.

"We were surprised by the magnitude of improvement," says Bolli, who says traditional therapies, such as placing a stent to physically widen the patient's artery, typically make a smaller difference. Prior to treatment, Mike Jones couldn't walk to the restroom without stopping for breath, says Bolli. "Now he can drive a tractor on his farm, even play basketball with his grandchildren. His life was transformed."

[...]

"This is unprecedented, the first time anyone has grown living heart muscle," says Marban. "No one else has demonstrated that. It's very gratifying, especially when the conventional teaching has been that the damage is irreversible."

Perhaps even more important, no treated patient in either study suffered a significant health setback.

The twin findings are a boost to the notion that the heart contains the seeds of its own rebirth. For years, doctors believed that heart cells, once destroyed, were gone forever. But in a series of experiments, researchers including Bolli's collaborator, Dr. Piero Anversa, found that the heart contains a type of stem cell that can develop into either heart muscle or blood vessel components -- in essence, whatever the heart requires at a particular point in time. The problem for patients like Mike Jones or Ken Milles is that there simply aren't enough of these repair cells waiting around. The experimental treatments involve removing stem cells through a biopsy, and making millions of copies in a laboratory.

The Bolli/Anversa group and Marban's team both used cardiac stem cells, but Bolli and Anversa "purified" the CSCs, so that more than 90% of the infusion was actual stem cells. Marban, on the other hand, used a mixture of stem cells and other types of cells extracted from the patient's heart. "We've found that the mixture is more potent than any subtype we've been able to isolate," he says. He says the additional cells may help by providing a supportive environment for the stem cells to multiply.

[...]

Bolli says he'll have to temper his enthusiasm until he can duplicate the results in larger studies, definitive enough to get stem cell therapy approved as a standard treatment. "If a phase 3 study confirmed this, it would be the biggest advance in cardiology in my lifetime. We would possibly be curing heart failure. It would be a revolution."

Wow. Read the whole thing.
     

Man follows his Heart instead of Heart Meds

Here's a great little story I got in my email:

Andy Mackie has survived 10 heart surgeries and numerous heart attacks. His love of music and teaching kids keeps him going. Heaven Can Wait for Andy! If you would like to support Andy Mackie’s efforts to teach and share music with kids you can do so through the Andy Mackie Music Foundation.

Something to live for, a passion to do something, can make such a difference even for someone with serious heath issues. Can anyone doubt that teaching music has helped keep Andy Mackie alive? Good for him. And good for all those lucky kids.
     

In Japan: The Puppy with a Heart

From a recent email I received:

PUPPY LOVEA PUPPY has been born in Japan with a large, clear, heart-shaped pattern in his coat.



The Chihuahua was born in May as one of a litter to a breeder. Shop owner Emiko Sakurada said it was the first time a puppy with the marks had been born out of a thousand she had bred.



She had no plans to sell the puppy, which has been named 'Heart-kun'.



The long-coated male Chihuahua puppy was born in Odate (northern Japan).

I checked the story out on Snopes.com, and it seems it's true.

There are also videos about the dog on Youtube: