Nattokinase enzyme reverses heart disease without side effects. So why would anyone suggest that it might cause brain hemorrhage? This would be a pretty serious nattokinase side effect. Here is the truth.
Does Nattokinase Cause Brain Hemorrhage?
One study of a person taking aspirin who then added natto (400 mg/day for 7 days) to his meds and had an intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) (brain hemorrhage) concluded that nattokinase caused the problem.
Determining cause and effect is the most difficult thing for any scientist to do. The article above mostly serves as a great exercise by jumping to an unwarranted conclusion. If nattokinase actually caused brain hemorrhage, we’d have a lot of natto lovers in Japan dropping dead way too young. I suppose that I would classify this worry in the category of paranoia or propaganda, I’m not sure which.
All the best in natural health,
Dr. D
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Too little information to make much of it. If the person took 400mg at once and had weakness already in a blood vessel, that along with aspirin could potentiate a problem. It’s also possible that this person was going to have an intracerebral bleed regardless and just happened to take nattokinase during this time. I once treated a lady with acupuncture and during the treatment she had to go to the bathroom and developed loose stools. She was convinced it was the acupuncture despite the point not having anything to do with the GI system. Similarly, I’ve seen people where they had a flare of pain the day before seeing me. But if I had treated them just prior to them getting that flare, they would have certainly blamed the acupuncture. Coincidences do happen in medicine.
Lastly, people in Japan don’t consumed enough nattokinase from their diet to pose any problem that that would never happen anyhow.
Thanks for your input, Henry. You’ve got some great experience pointing to one of the most difficult processes in scientific research – i.e., determining cause and effect. It’s even more challenging with a single data point, the patient.
Cheers,
Dennis