This article was updated with audio on August 29, 2025.
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The 80/20 Rule
The 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, teaches us that a small effort often yields the majority of results. In health, this means just a few well-chosen habits or supplements can protect us from many of the world’s deadliest diseases.
I’ve written before about two “80-20 strategies”: intermittent fasting and exercise. Both can significantly reduce the risk of chronic illness. But there is another food—natto, and its key enzyme nattokinase—that deserves a place on this list.
After conducting extensive research on natto and nattokinase, I conclude that this over-the-counter supplement can be beneficial for the most common and deadliest illnesses, and therefore, is an application of the 80-20 Principle.
What Is Natto?
Natto is a traditional Japanese dish made from fermented soybeans. It has been eaten for over 1,000 years and is considered safe. Its strong smell and sticky texture make it an acquired taste, but its health potential is remarkable.
Natto contains:
- Nattokinase – a powerful enzyme with cardiovascular and clot-breaking benefits
- Vitamin K2 – essential for bone and artery health
- Isoflavones – plant compounds with antioxidant effects
- Bacillus subtilis – a friendly bacterium that improves gut balance
Why Natto Is a True 80-20 Food
Research shows that natto and nattokinase have wide-ranging properties:
- Prevents and dissolves blood clots (anticoagulant, fibrinolytic, anti-thrombotic)
- Lowers cholesterol and blood lipids
- Protects arteries from hardening (anti-atherosclerotic)
- Improves insulin sensitivity
- Reduces inflammation
- Supports brain and nerve health (neuroprotective)
- Helps fight cancer through natural polyamines, such as putrescine, spermine, and spermidine.
- Blocks and breaks down SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins (COVID-19 research)
This single food, therefore, touches multiple pathways behind the top killers in the U.S.—heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, kidney disease, and even COVID-19.
How Natto Compares to Common Medications
The properties of natto overlap with several widely prescribed drugs:
- Aspirin or Plavix → blood-thinning
- Statins → cholesterol-lowering
- Vitamin K2 supplements → bone and vascular protection
- Probiotics → gut microbiome balance
- Diabetes drugs → improved insulin response
- Blood pressure medicines → lowers pressure through multiple mechanisms
- ACE-inhibitor–like action
- Mild diuretic effect
- Artery flexibility via vitamin K2
- Reduced heart strain similar to beta-blockers
Nattokinase may also interfere with the COVID-19 spike protein, giving it a role in infection prevention.
A Closer Look at Disease Prevention
CDC data shows that heart disease, cancer, COVID-19, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and kidney diseases are among the top causes of death in the US.
Cardiovascular Diseases are not just heart attacks or strokes. Cleveland Clinic lists the following as manifestations of cardiovascular disease.
- Arrhythmia: A problem with your heart’s electrical conduction system, leading to abnormal heart rhythms or heart rates.
- Coronary artery disease: A problem with your heart’s blood vessels, such as blockages.
- Heart failure: A Problem with the heart’s pumping/relaxing functions, leading to fluid buildup and shortness of breath.
- Peripheral artery disease: An Issue with the blood vessels of your arms, legs, or abdominal organs, such as narrowing or blockages.
- Aortic disease: A problem with the large blood vessel that directs blood from your heart to your brain and the rest of your body, such as dilatation or aneurysm.
- Pericardial disease: Problem with the lining of your heart, including pericarditis and pericardial effusion.
- Cerebrovascular disease: An Issue with the blood vessels that deliver blood to your brain, such as narrowing or blockages.
- Deep vein thrombosis (DVT): Blockage in your veins, vessels that bring blood back from your brain/body to your heart.
Cardiovascular Disease
Beyond heart attacks and strokes, cardiovascular disease includes arrhythmias, peripheral artery disease, aneurysms, and more. Nattokinase’s clot-dissolving and vessel-protecting actions target all of these.
Diabetes Complications
Blindness, kidney failure, nerve damage, and amputations often stem from poor circulation and chronic inflammation. Natto may help interrupt these pathways by improving insulin sensitivity and supporting circulation.
Affordable and Accessible
Treating heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or kidney failure can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime. Natto, by contrast, is an inexpensive daily food or supplement.
As an inexpensive supplement, natto’s actions are similar to:
- Aspirin/ Plavix (anticoagulant)
- Statins, or cholesterol-lowering drugs, can lower total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL levels.
- Vitamin k2 supplements
- Probiotic supplement – The Bacillus Subtilis in Natto increases the number of good anti-inflammatory bacteria and lowers inflammatory bacteria in the gut microbiome.
- Diabetes drugs increase insulin sensitivity.
- Antihypertensive drugs. Natto can lower blood pressure in several ways.
- Nattokinase works like an ACE inhibitor (lisinopril) by blocking the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)
- Diuretic effect – improving insulin sensitivity decreases salt retention and allows the removal of excess water through urination.
- The removal of calcium from the arteries by vitamin K2 makes them more compliant, easing the heart’s workload and reducing the risk of heart enlargement, a common symptom of heart failure.
- Quickly distensible arteries make the heart more efficient and lower the heart rate. Similar to the effect of beta blockers, such as metoprolol.
- COVID-19 prevention. Nattokinase can block the attachment of the spike protein to the ACE2 receptors and degrade the spike proteins too.
Natto supplement options include:
Eating natto itself (if you enjoy the taste)
Taking nattokinase as a supplement, like Best Naturals, can be an alternative since it contains vitamin K2.
Bacillus subtilis probiotics are also available.
The NSK-SD nattokinase formulation in Doctor’s Best is an alternative for those on warfarin (Coumadin, Jantovia) who cannot take vitamin K2.
Summary
The 80-20 principle says that small changes can deliver big results. Natto fits this perfectly. Its combination of nattokinase, vitamin K2, and probiotics has the power to protect against today’s deadliest diseases.
Adding natto or nattokinase supplements could be one of the simplest, most cost-effective steps toward long-term health.
Don’t Get Sick!
Related:
- How I Made and Appreciated Natto
- Insulin Resistance and Atherosclerosis and the Nattokinase Solution
- Protective Effects of Nattokinase against Strokes
- How to dose Nattokinase, Bromelain, and NAC
- High-Dose Nattokinase to Shrink Atherosclerosis and Lower Blood Lipids
- Nattokinase is Nontoxic with a High Safety Margin
- The Outstanding Vascular Effects and Dose of Nattokinase
- Another Study shows Nattokinase can Destroy the S1 Spike Protein
- Nattokinase Degrades the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein
- Soy Foods Do Not Increase Breast Cancer Risk
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