The Continued Benefits of Natto!

Before I go on a glorified rant on my love for natto, I want to explain a bit about myself. Back in freshman year of college I went on medication, and after about a year or so, I stopped taking it. Shortly after I started experiencing an annoying sensation in my legs and arms when I tried to sleep at night. It made me want to get out of bed and start running. Later on I found out it was Restless Leg Syndrome.

It's hard to explain but it kept me up all night long and I'd lose out on a lot of sleep because of it. I'd wake up feeling super tired because I spent more than half of the night kicking my legs and flailing my arms around so the sensation would go away. Doing this helped but it's hard to fall asleep when you keep having to consciously move your limbs around.

This continued on for about 3 years. It only stopped after a few weeks of being here in Japan. And so it made me curious as to why it suddenly disappeared. So after doing a bit of quick internet research(lame I know) I figured out that for most people, after taking a B-12 vitamin shot, their RLS went away. This B-12 is a tricky vitamin. It's found on a lot of things, and foods, but it can be difficult to find it on a reliable and edible source. Why? because B-12 is a bacteria, which during most cooking and food preparation processes is removed. However, on more naturally (fermented) prepared foods B-12 still remains.

Now I wondered what have I been eating in Japan that contains a reliable source of B-12? Yup you guessed it, natto! I've eaten natto at least twice a day, on a daily basis since being here. I sleep so well at night now, it's just great! I no longer wake up at random intervals through the night tossing and turning.

I'm sure my research methods teacher would yell at me for making such a silly statement without sufficient evidence to back up my theory. Once I get back to America I would like to continue this theory with more official research.

Although it has only been 2 and a half months since my RLS has gone away, it is said that the symptoms are often intermittent and may disappear and reappear after a couple months without reason. But for now, I will enjoy my undisturbed sleep at night.