Examining the Natto Consumption on Lifestyle-related Disease

7/27/2019 Examining the Natto Consumption on Lifestyle-related Disease

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April 27, 2006

Examining the Effects of Natto (fermented soybean) Consum ption

on Lifes tyle-Related Diseases

- Establishing Natto's Effectiveness in Lifestyle-Related Disease Prevention -

National Cardiovascular Center (Suita, Osaka, Japan)

HuBit genomix, Inc. (Chiyoda-ku, Toky o, Japan; President and CEO: Go Ichien)

NTT DATA Corporat ion (Koto-ku, Toky o, Japan; President and CEO: TomokazuHamaguchi)

Municipality of Arita, Saga Pref ecture, Japan (May or: Masata Iwanaga)

We recently completed a study that began in January 2006. The study , which involv ed

61 subjects , was designed to investigate whether the consumption of natto (f ermented

soybeans) has any ef f ect on the incidence of lifesty le-related diseases.

The primary endpoints in this study were a 10% or greater decrease in total cholesterol,

HDL cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol in the blood; the secondary endpoints were a

10% or greater decrease in body mass index (BMI), waist/hip ratio, abdominal girth,

percentage of body f at, blood pressure (sitting, at rest), and lev els of f asting blood

glucose, HbA1c, insulin, uric acid, adiponectin, and nitrogen oxide. Among these

v ariables, no statistically signif icant diff erence was observed either between the

pre-trial and post-trial levels or between the group that consumed natto and the control

group that did not.

However, af ter subgroup analysis, a signif icant improvement was f ound in the clinical

laboratory test lev els of individuals whose cholesterol or triglyceride lev els were high

[before the study commenced]. Relief f rom constipation and other improvements in

the subjects' quality of lif e were also observ ed when natto was consumed

continuously. Thus it was concluded that reductions in such lifes ty le-related diseaseindicators as hypercholesterolemia and hy pertrigly ceridemia as well as improvements

in quality of lif e could be expected f rom continued consumption of natto.

The authors recently announced the f indings of their joint study with Director Masaf umi

Kitakaze of the National Cardiov ascular Center of Japan at the International

Conf erence on Nutrigenomics & Gut Health in New Zealand (April 30-May 3, 2006).

1. Background


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In response to Japan's rapid transition in the past f ew decades to an aging society ,

reducing health care costs has become an urgent national priority , and with this

change, the focus in national health care is shif ting gradually f rom disease treatment

to prev ention.

In the Municipality of Arita (formerly Nishi-Arita), medical checkups hav e been carried

out regularly by the National Cardiov ascular Center (NCVC) of Japan and Arita

Kyouritsu Hospital (f ormerly Nishi-Arita Kyouritsu Hospital) within the framework of a

health care program designed to manage the health status of local residents. This

program seeks both to detect lif esty le-related diseases early through medical

checkups and to prev ent heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, which patients

are at high risk of dev eloping if they already have a lif esty le-related disease. All this is

being done to support the health of the local populace and to make their liv es more

rewarding.

As part of this health care program, phy sicians f rom the NCVC and the Arita Ky ouritsu

Hospital use the checkup results to giv e patients indiv idual adv ice about their health.

Public health nurses f rom the municipality 's Health and Social Serv ices take a

v igorous proactive stance in giv ing adv ice about ADL (activities of daily living). By

encouraging residents to exercise regularly and improv e their diet, in f our years, the

percentage of smokers has decreased and the number of patients with borderline

hy pertension, borderline hyperlipidemia and other illnesses has decreased. (Findings in

this report were presented at the 70th annual meeting of the Japanese Circulation

Society .)

Based on these f indings, a monitoring trial involv ing residents (all v olunteers) was

conducted with the object of developing prevention policies aimed at improv ing diet.

These policies are designed to meet the challenges of health promotion and medical

cost containment f or the 21st century .

2. Summary

In the f ramework of a joint study on foods with health-promoting properties that might

help to prevent or allev iate the symptoms of metabolic sy ndrome, we chose to study

natto as a ty pical f ood, characteristic of Japan's culinary culture, and to investigate

whether natto has any ef f ect on lifesty le-related diseases. Natto, as indicated by its

English name "fermented soy beans", is a bacterium, Bacillus natto, which ferments

soy beans. With recent advances in analy tical methods, a number of ingredients in

natto have been reported to exert v arious ef f ects. But clear standards f or evaluating

diff erent f oods' health eff ects were lacking, and further scientif ic proof was required

f or the rigorous identif ication of ef f ects.

In this study , premised on published reports of the activ e ingredients in natto, we

monitored volunteers in the community of Arita in Saga Prefecture to determine

whether natto's ingredients have any ef f ect on lif esty le-related diseases and to

establish whether natto is ef f ective in the primary prev ention of lifesty le-related

diseases, known to be risk factors f or cerebrov ascular and heart disease.

* Metabolic syndrome: a condition in which multiple laboratory test levels are abnormal, indicating progression


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to li festyle-related diseases. A diagnosis of metabolic syndrome is based on a waist measurement of 85 cm or

more in men or 90 cm or more in women (obesity due to visceral adiposity), in conjunction with abnormal levels

for two or more of the following: measured lipid metabolism, sugar metabolism, and blood pressure.

3. Method

The subjects in this study were 52 residents (av erage age 65; 14 men, 38 women) of

Arita (f ormerly Nishi-Arita) who had completed their munic ipal medical checkup

sometime during f iscal 2005; their test f indings indicated metabolic sy ndrome

borderline lev els f or blood pressure, blood lipids, blood glucose, and obesity . Af ter they

were f ully informed regarding the trial procedure and methods and their written consent

was obtained, a monitoring study was begun in which they consumed one pack (30 g)

of natto ev ery morning without interruption f or 4 weeks. N ine people who did not

consume natto were additionally enrolled in a control group. Bef ore and af ter the t rial,

blood tests and other clinical laboratory tests were performed; subjects in the natto

group were f urther required to note their daily diet in a notebook to permit the

circumstances in which the natto was consumed to be ascertained and additional

nutritional data to be collected. During the taking of a weekly medical history by trained

staf f , data were collected on the subjects' daily activ ities and the occurrence of

adverse eff ects. These data were used in a comprehensiv e analysis.

The natto used in this study was made by a traditional Japanese method and supplied

by Azuma Food Stuf f s.

4. Results

This study produced the f ollowing f indings.

The primary endpoints in this study were a 10% or greater decrease in total cholesterol,

HDL cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol in the blood; the secondary endpoints were a

10% or greater decrease in body mass index (BMI), waist/hip ratio, abdominal girth,

percentage of body f at, blood pressure (sitting, at rest), and lev els of f asting blood

glucose, HbA1c, insulin, uric acid, adiponectin, and nitrogen oxide; among these

v ariables, no statistically signif icant diff erence was observed either between the

pre-trial and post-trial lev els or between the natto-consuming group and the

non-consuming control group.

When a subgroup analy sis was subsequently performed on the natto consumers, the

f ollowing eff ects were observed:

In subjects with high (greater than or equal to 220 mg/dl) cholesterol levels, natto

consumption significantly lowered total cholesterol lev els. In normal subjects,

howev er, no signif icant diff erence was seen.

(Average decrease in total cholesterol lev el: -7.7% in the high cholesterol group,

-1.5% in the normal group.)

In subjects with high (greater than or equal to 150 mg/dl) triglyceride levels, natto

consumption signif icantly lowered triglyceride lev els. In normal subjects, however,

no signif icant diff erence was seen.

(Average decrease in triglyceride level: -12.9% in the high triglyceride group, -3.5%


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in the normal group.)

The f ollowing additional findings were obtained from the f ace-to-f ace interv iews with the

study monitors:

Of the 25 subjects who had sy mptoms of constipation, 20 observ ed an

improvement in their sy mptoms. (Improved QOL)

No adverse eff ects of natto consumption were observ ed during the study period.

Figure 1: Changes in total cholesterol

levels

Figure 2: Changes in triglyceride

levels

Table 1: Quality of Life ef f ects of natto consumption on constipation sy mptoms

5. Roles of study organizers

The investigators' respectiv e responsibilities in this study are described below:

National Cardiovascular Center of Japan

Evaluation of study design v alidity


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Support f or clinical laboratory testing

Evaluation of cases subjected to analys is

Evaluation of results of analysis

HuBit genomix

Trial design calculations based on the statistical data

Assis tance in c linical laboratory testing and management of anony mized data

Dev elopment of health counseling support sy stems

Determination of appropriate analy tical methods and analysis

NTT DATA

Dev elopment of health counseling support sy stems

Determination of appropriate analy tical methods and analysis

Policy f ormulation on handling of priv ate information, consulting on security policy

during joint research

Dev elopment of diet & nutrition surv ey ing technology

Municipality of Arita

Clinical tests on residents bef ore and af ter the natto consumption period

Anony mization of records

Transmission of study f indings to participating residents f or health maintenance

purposes

Health counseling

6. Future plans

The Municipality of Arita will continue to prov ide local residents with these study results

as well as any other information that may help them to improv e their health. It alsoplans to maintain its ties with the National Cardiovascular Center of Japan.

The National Cardiov ascular Center of Japan intends to apply interventional research

methods to community epidemiological cohorts obtained in this s tudy to v erif y the

ef f ects of such interv entions as diet improvement and encouragement of regular

exercise. Furthermore, it intends at the same t ime to conduct long-term f ollow-up of

this study as a model case of linkage with community health care in order to dev elop

lifesty le-related disease and circulatory disease prevention programs adapted to

individual lif esty les and constitutions.


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Through tie-ups with univ ersities and local communities like Arita, HuBitgenomix will

adopt a serious approach to f uture nutrition-related projects relying both on research

and development in the f ield of pharmaceuticals based on genome epidemiology

research and on know-how related to research into the ev aluation of f ood properties as

obtained through the collaboration exemplif ied by this s tudy . In this way it aims to

generate research f indings targeting healthy lifesty les and to establish tailor-made

medicine as a v iable approach, f rom treatment to prevention.

NTT DATA (Corporation) v iews operations in medicine, health care and other lif e

sciences as emerging growth areas f or tomorrow's IT applications. NTT DATA has

adopted the New Business Pipeline Management and the New Venture Support Fund as

measures f or "activ e creation of new products and serv ices," which is one of the

priority areas in its Medium-term Management Plan, and these measure have been

ef f ectively used in this study. NTT DATA will continue to take steps to improve

information systems inf rastructure f or joint business projects involving medical,

pharmaceutical and health care serv ices to realize tailor-made health care in the f uture.

For more information, please contact:

The National Cardiovascular Center of Japan:

Dr. Kim Jiyoon, Department of Cardiovascular Internal Medicine

Tel: +81-6-6833-5012

HuBit genomix:

Mr. Fuwa, Business Administration Department

Tel: +81-3-5212-3360

NTT DATA Corporation:

For media inquiries:

Mr. Naoyuki Shiote, Publi c Relations Office

Tel: +81-3-5546-8051

For inquiries unrelated to this study:

Ms. Honda or Ms. Kaneko, BioScience Business Unit, Business Innovation

Sector

Tel: +81-3-3503-0360

The Municipality of Arita, Saga Prefecture:

Mr. Okumoto, Heal th and Social Services

Tel: +81-955-43-5065

News Releases.

The serv ices, prices of products and serv ices, specif ications, telephone numbers,

etc. f or inquiries and other information included in news releases are the data

av ailable on the day of the release. This information may be changed at any time

without notice. In certain circumstances, due to v arious risks or unexpected

occurrences, actual results may also be dif f erent f rom the plans or projections in

news releases.

Documents

Examining the Natto Consumption on Lifestyle-related Disease