Nattokinase – a Tiny Substance and Many Open Questions

1. What Exactly Is It?

Nattokinase is a substance. Substances are what everything is made of: water, air, your packed lunch. Some substances you can see and touch, for example a piece of wood. You cannot see nattokinase. It is so tiny that no human can detect it with the naked eye.

In the studies we have, nattokinase always appears alongside a bacterium. The bacterium is called Bacillus subtilis var. natto. Bacteria are tiny living organisms found almost everywhere. They are much smaller than a grain of sand.

When researchers study a substance, they ask simple questions: What does this substance do in the body? Does it change anything? And how can we measure that? With nattokinase, there are many such questions. In total, there are 426 papers on nattokinase. 39 of these have been tested in humans, and 11 of these were controlled. Controlled means: there was a second group with which the researchers could compare results. This is important because otherwise you cannot know whether a change is really caused by the substance.

Nattokinase is therefore a distinct substance with its own name. Exactly what it does in the body is not yet fully researched.

2. Where Does It Come From?

The name nattokinase is linked to the bacterium mentioned in the studies: Bacillus subtilis var. natto. Nattokinase is associated with this bacterium.

Bacteria are living organisms you cannot see. They are all around you. Some of them can produce substances that researchers find interesting. Such substances are called natural products because they are not manufactured in a factory but originate from living organisms.

How nattokinase was discovered and who first described it is not stated in the studies we have. Therefore, we omit this and do not speculate.

What is clear is that nattokinase is a natural substance, and researchers want to understand precisely what it is and what it does.

3. What Are Researchers Investigating?

With nattokinase, researchers mainly focus on the blood. Blood flows through your body like water through many small tubes.

Some studies examine whether nattokinase affects blood pressure. One of these was a controlled human study. Other studies look at blood lipids, meaning substances that circulate in the blood. One study administered nattokinase together with red yeast rice. Here, an effect on blood lipids was observed, but not when nattokinase was given alone. This is an important distinction: from a combination, you cannot determine what the individual substance does.

Other studies examine symptoms related to blood flow or a blood marker called von Willebrand factor.

To be honest: much remains open. Researchers do not yet know exactly how nattokinase works in the body or for whom it might one day be important. This question is still outstanding, and researchers continue to work on it.

4. A Thought Experiment

Imagine you want to find out whether an invisible substance changes anything. You cannot see it or touch it. What do you do?

Researchers proceed as follows: they observe something else. They measure how strongly the blood presses against the walls of the tubes. They examine which substances are circulating in the blood. They compare people who received the substance with those who did not.

You can try this with water. Fill a glass with water and stir it slowly with a spoon. Watch closely: the water swirls. When you stop stirring, it continues to swirl for a while. Research is similar: you cannot see the substance, but you can see what changes. This is exactly how it is with nattokinase.

For adults and professionals: the detailed page on nattokinase.