How is your father doing? Did he get any positive results in the follow up ultrasound
My father took Neprinol, 9 tablets a day, for over a year, and the final ultrasound showed virtually no changes in his blood vessels—the lumen of one vessel narrowed by 0.1 mm, which can be considered a measurement error. But the doctor said the lack of negative changes at his age was also good news. On the other hand, there were no side effects either. Just to be on the safe side, my father decided to take another month-long course of Neprinol soon, followed by an ultrasound. If there are any positive results, I’ll certainly let you know.
Below, for your information, I provide an excerpt from the doctor’s conclusions based on the results of the ultrasound examination, prepared and translated with the help of Claude:
Based on the ultrasound duplex scanning results of head and neck vessels from April 2024 to April 2025:
Key Findings:
Atherosclerotic changes:
- Atherosclerotic plaques identified at the bifurcation of internal carotid arteries (ICA) bilaterally
- Right side: plaque 5.1-5.2 mm, stenosis up to 30%
- Left side: plaque 7.0-7.1 mm, stenosis up to 20%
Additional changes:
- Deformation of both vertebral arteries course
- Signs of hypertensive angiopathy (noted in the latest examination)
- Main vessels are patent with symmetric blood flow
Dynamics over one year of observation:
Stable condition - plaque sizes and stenosis degree remained practically unchanged:
- April 2024: right 5.2 mm, left 7.1 mm
- October 2024: right 5.1 mm, left 7.1 mm
- April 2025: right 5.1 mm, left 7.0 mm
Venous outflow through jugular veins is adequate. Intracranial blood flow without significant impairments.
Conclusion: Moderate atherosclerotic changes of carotid arteries without progression, stable condition.
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Thank you for the feedback. A stable condition is a good state. I hope there will also be some plack regression. I wish you the best of luck.
Yes, additive effect of Nattokinase alongside aspirin and also vitamin k2
This is one of those supplements that I do believe is worth taking.
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I get Nattokinase from www.bellechemical.com and take 8,000 FU’s per day.
No bleeding issues
No side effects
Helps with the arthritic pain in my left hand
Seems to help with other things that I’ll put in the cardiac thread 
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How do you know that it’s Nattokinase that helps you with arthritis?
Good question, I had been taking NK for 3 years before I noticed that my left little finger was becoming arthritic about 2 years ago. It was relatively mild and I didn’t think much about it.
I had started taking it for the other purported benefits. I take 8000 F/U’s per day, several studies indicate this is an effective dose for what I was concerned about, atherosclerosis, inflammation and reducing lipids.
The first time I noticed it was helping with the pain (which had not become an issue until I stopped) was early this year when I ran out of Nattokinase and the pain in my little finger elevated significantly. I attributed it to the winter weather at that time. When I got more NK and started taking it, after a few weeks without, the pain diminished significantly.
BUT it’s not a “cure” and my arthritis is progressing, slowly but surely. So far it’s only in my left hand in a couple joints, On both sides of my family there is a history of arthritis so I never expected to escape it.
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Not sure if it would concern you, Steve, but looking into Belle Chemical led me to some red flags, at least in my mind. From what I could find, they were take over by another company not long ago, some safety violations and an explosion at the factory, a mislabeling lawsuit. Given that, it had me worried about selling ingestible products and drain cleaner in the same facility. I get a universal red flag on all companies when they don’t list a street address. Searching records for their address, what I found on maps is not them. Maybe I’m just paranoid.
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Interesting, I’ve been buying from them for 5 years now and have had good service, and the product has no varied on looks or taste over those 5 years.
Regardless of my experience, there are many sources for nattokinase for people to pick from.
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You piqued my curiosity.
There is more than 1 Belle Chemical company. The supplement company is not in Virginia where the industrial chemicals are produced.
“Online directories describe Belle Chemical as a family‑owned chemical distributor and manufacturer based in Billings, Montana, serving both consumer and industrial customers”
Belle Chemical new owners not long ago.pdf (437.4 KB)
Yes. The one in Billings was the one I tracked. Ultimately, what I found made me suspicious but not dismissive offhand because, well, it’s the internet.
I Stopped Using Nattokinase. Here’s Why. (via Lily Johnston, MD MPH)
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That’s quite a damning anecdote she presented in the video of her patient. I would guess the plaque progression would have happened with or without the nattokinase.
Only reason I still take a high dose of it is because it dropped by fibrinogen level but over 100 (from 400 to under 300) so that is worth it for me. I also am still bullish that it might be able to prevent blood clots.
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Agree - that plaque progression was probably going to happen regardless. The Fibrinogen level piece is interesting. I was taking 12 FU / day for ~3-4 years -in hope that It would prevent plaque buildup. Over that time, my BP went from being moderately high to low - and I decided to drop Nattiokinase as an experiment to see if it did anything to my Cholesterol or BP (it didn’t seem to have impacted either materially). I did have a CAC of 0 - but I am 45, and its more likely it would have been 0 with or without the nattiokinase.
I did capture my Fibrinogen right before I started the washout (261). I may go back and re-test now that its been 3 months off.
I agree with you that I have some hope that it can prevent blood clots. I am on TRT and some there is some (minor) risk I would want to mitigate.
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Yes I am as well and I am very sensitive to higher hematocrit/hemoglobin so I look at it as an insurance policy. It is probably not necessary for everyone to be using it but there are certainly use cases for some people.
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Nattokinase Supplementation and Cardiovascular Risk Factors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
This review of mostly low dose Nattokinase (2000 FU and lower) leaves open its possible benefit at higher dosing levels.
From the review’s conclusion:
However, a recent clinical study of 1062 patients with
hyperlipidemia showed that nattokinase supplementation at
a dosage of 10,800 FU per day for 1 year significantly de
creased blood total cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL-C and in
creased HDL-C [47]. Ren et al. [48] also found that high
dose nattokinase administration over a relatively long pe
riod of time (26 weeks, 6500 FU) was effective in inhibit
ing the progression of atherosclerotic plaques andhyperlipi
demia. Noticeably, in the meta-analysis of relatively high
total dosage of nattokinase supplementation, the increase in
HDL-Cand thedecrease inLDL-Cwere detectedamongin
cluded participants. So far, the lipid-lowering mechanism
of nattokinase has not been understood, and one possible
explanation is that nattokinase has proteolytic activity on
some certain proteins involved in lipid metabolism [32]. In
general, our observations reflected those of Chen et al. [17]
who also proposed that long-term and high-dose nattoki
nase supplementation seemed to have positive impacts on
blood lipids. For future researches, therefore, it is an im
portant issue to determine if the lipid-lowering efficacy of
nattokinase is dose-dependent.
I’m now on 10,000 FU daily x 1 year and will see if that’s significant for me with another CAC test later this summer.
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I’d love to see the results from this. Please post when you get the details. I’m curious if the higher doses move the needle.
I agree I think the low dose (under 10,000FU) studies that were negative became null and void once the high dose study came out (even if it was not a perfect study).
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“Not a perfect study” has got to be a milestone understatement of some kind. The study, was worthless. First of all, it was not a trial of any kind. Again: not a trial. It was a retrospective report - not a prospective, but retrospective report (and I’m being kind in even calling it retrospective given the design) - i.e you have a bunch of reports of random patients in the past all over the place, no idea how they were chosen originally in each case etc. and not uniform dosage. Many of the patients were also on other medications or supplements (vitamin K, aspirin etc.). It had no control arm (!!) - lol. I was open label - lol. Dodgy Chinese team. Most of the “researchers” involved were employed by the very outfit that manufactured the supplement. Never replicated by anyone else outside of this group. Dodgy claims where there is other evidence against and no mechanism explaining possible “for” - as in LDL lowering.
I think this study belongs either in the toilet, the trash landfill, or possibly dumpster fire.
And while individual reports are always of interest, the issue is statistical - you can find a positive report and then you can find a negative report. In the video I posted, the doctor put her patient on a high dose (10K/12K) for a full year with extensive labs run. RapAdmin is interested if BarryAllen’s regimen would move the needle. Well, in that doctor’s patient it did move the needle - in the wrong direction, and not by a little but by a gigantic amount 5 TIMES - 500% increase of CIMT measurement and btw. zero dropping of LDL. So there’s your n=1 report. Dramatically worse - she was taken off nattokinase immediately. Then there will be BarryAllen’s report. What do we learn? Statistically it’s hard to say. YMMV.
If you feel it’s doing something good for you, it’s your choice of course and more power to you. Just always be aware of what evidence you use - personal testimony based on your own obseration of your own case, that’s legitimate, nobody will quarrel with that - hey, if it works for you, that’s fanastic and never mind anything else. The problem starts when you say it works based on external evidence such as studies - those will need to be examined objectively… different ballgame.
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