After more than four decades on the touchline of British football — managing some of the country's biggest clubs and lifting the FA Cup along the way — Harry Redknapp is now in his late seventies. These days, his attention turns to the daily decisions that support his cardiovascular health and overall wellbeing.
One of those daily decisions: a single capsule of Natural Foundation Supplements' nattokinase, taken every morning.
"I take it for cardiovascular health," Harry tells us, simply. "I'll keep taking it."
A Closer LookWhat is Nattokinase?
Nattokinase is a naturally-occurring enzyme extracted from nattō, a traditional Japanese fermented soybean food consumed daily across Japan for over a thousand years.
First isolated by a Japanese researcher in 1987, nattokinase has since become one of the most extensively studied natural compounds in modern wellness research, with published research spanning Japan, China, the United States and Europe.
Today, it's the daily ritual of choice for a growing number of people — including Harry — who want to take an active role in supporting their cardiovascular health as they get older.
- ✓ Cardiovascular health
- ✓ Improving the function of the heart
- ✓ Strengthening blood vessels
- ✓ Increasing the elasticity and strength of blood vessel and capillary walls
- ✓ Normalising blood pressure
In Harry's RoutineOne Capsule. Every Morning.
Harry takes one capsule of Natural Foundation Supplements' nattokinase each morning. A simple addition to his daily routine — a single, considered choice in support of his cardiovascular wellbeing.
It's perhaps the quietest kind of endorsement, but in many ways the most powerful: a man at the top of his game, choosing this every day.
It was supposed to be a routine round of golf with his son. The kind of relaxed afternoon that footballing royalty earns after four decades on the touchline. But as Harry Redknapp walked up the modest hill to the first green, something happened that would change the rest of his life.
"I just couldn't breathe really," Harry tells us, sitting back in his chair, the memory still vivid more than a decade later. "I was struggling. My son said to me, 'Are you okay? What's the matter?' I said, 'I can't get my breath.'"
There was no chest pain. No dramatic collapse. Just a 64-year-old man, who'd managed Premier League clubs and lifted the FA Cup, suddenly unable to climb a small hill on his local course.
"We finished playing golf — that was one hole — and I told my club doctor at the club I was at. He immediately got me into hospital to see a heart surgeon. All my arteries were blocked. It was lucky really that I got in when I did, like most heart cases."
Within days, Harry Redknapp was undergoing major heart surgery.
Chapter OneThe Warning Sign That Almost Wasn't
What's chilling about Harry's story isn't the surgery itself. It's how easily he might have ignored what his body was telling him.
"I didn't have pain," he says. "I just was short of breath. Couldn't get my breath. And my arteries all got blocked up — and they needed sorting, obviously. That's what happens."
He pauses.
"I knew nothing about my heart health before that incident. Nothing at all. I thought it was fine. And then suddenly — very short of breath. That was the first warning sign."
It's a story cardiologists hear week after week. The British Heart Foundation estimates that one in eight men in the UK will die of coronary heart disease — and many will get no warning at all. Some don't get the chance Harry got. They never make it to the hospital.
"That was 2011," Harry says. "I had the surgery, and I've been around to tell the tale. A lot of fellas my age, with what I had — they're not that lucky."
Chapter TwoThe Discovery That Came Too Late
It was years after his recovery that Harry first heard about an ingredient that had been quietly transforming cardiovascular health in Japan for decades.
An enzyme. Naturally occurring. Extracted from a traditional Japanese breakfast food called nattō — fermented soybeans that the Japanese have been eating for over a thousand years. The enzyme, called nattokinase, was first isolated by a Japanese researcher in 1987 who was investigating why the country had such remarkably low rates of heart attack and stroke despite an aging population.
What he discovered was extraordinary.
Nattokinase appeared to support healthy circulation in the bloodstream — gently helping to maintain the flow that keeps arteries clear and the cardiovascular system running smoothly. Decades of research followed. Today, nattokinase is one of the most studied natural compounds in cardiovascular science.
For Harry, learning about it years after his surgery hit hard.
I wish I'd have known about this 20 years ago. It would have saved me having surgery.Harry Redknapp
What nattokinase is shown to do inside your arteries
Plaque, fibrin and cholesterol buildup restricting blood flow.
Daily nattokinase
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Plaque reduced. Artery walls strengthened. Flow restored.
It's a sentiment that anyone with a family history of heart disease — or anyone who has watched a parent, sibling or friend go through cardiac surgery — will feel in their bones.
Chapter Three30,000 People. One Remarkable Result.
Harry isn't a scientist. He's the first to admit it. But when he started reading the research, one study in particular stopped him in his tracks.
"There was a study in Japan where 30,000 people tried natto," he tells us, "and the results came out that they had a 25% less chance of having a heart attack than people who didn't take it."
He shrugs the kind of shrug you can only do when you've already had your chest opened up.
"I've got to be honest — if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me."
What the research suggests about nattokinase
Multiple peer-reviewed studies have explored nattokinase's role in maintaining healthy blood flow, supporting normal blood pressure, and helping to maintain arteries that are already healthy. The Japanese population — among the world's longest-lived — consume natto regularly as part of a traditional diet linked to remarkably low rates of cardiovascular events.
The bigger picture: Japan vs the United Kingdom
Zoom out from one study, and the contrast between the two nations is impossible to ignore. The Japanese live longer than any other major population on earth — and die from heart disease at less than half the rate of Britons.
Japan has held the world's highest life expectancy for decades. Britons live, on average, more than three years fewer than their Japanese counterparts.
Despite an older average population than the UK, Japan records one of the lowest age-standardised rates of ischaemic heart disease mortality in the developed world.
Sources: WHO Mortality Database; Imperial College London / NCD-RisC Collaboration; Japan Ministry of Health, Labour & Welfare; ONS
The mechanism, as Harry puts it in his own characteristically plain-speaking way:
Chapter FourBeyond Arteries — Blood Pressure & Cholesterol
While most of nattokinase's reputation rests on its support for healthy circulation, the research suggests a wider effect on cardiovascular health.
As Harry puts it in the plainest terms possible:
It's a simple statement, but it sits on top of considerable research. Why does blood pressure matter so much? Harry summarises the science as cleanly as any cardiologist could:
That figure — the 10mmHg / 20% relationship — comes directly from large-scale meta-analyses published in The Lancet. It's one of the most robustly established findings in modern cardiovascular medicine. It's why doctors and pharmacists work so hard to bring elevated blood pressure down, even by modest amounts.
And it's why a daily nattokinase capsule — the same one Harry now takes every morning — is generating so much interest among people who, like him, want to do something proactive about their cardiovascular health before something forces their hand.
