This may seem ridiculous to some, and trivial to most, but this week my ability to sense hunger, by means of hunger pangs, returned, after being missing for over 10 years. Most people take ordinary, everyday hunger pangs for granted, but mine disappeared at some point just prior to my recovery, and ever since then, I have been eating out of habit, not because I was hungry. If I didn't check the clock, or be reminded by someone else that it was time to eat, I would never know that it was mealtime, because my digestive system would never even give me a hint. Skipping meals was as easy as falling off a log.
I have always blamed the loss on neurological damage caused by years of untreated gluten sensitivity, and I give credit to Metanx for the restoration of this ability. Metanx, as most of us are aware, is a balanced combination of the active forms of vitamin B-12, B-9, and B-6. It's available by prescription only in the U. S., but it can be replicated by taking certain combinations of the respective vitamins in OTC active forms. It's mostly prescribed to treat the peripheral neuropathy that sometimes develops with diabetes. But of course it appears that the actual mechanism by which it works, is to treat methylation problems.
I also have significant peripheral neuropathy that causes balance and gait issues, loss of knee and ankle reflexes, and poor sense of feeling in my feet and lower legs. But now I'm not so sure that gluten is solely responsible for the loss of hunger pangs, or the other neurological damage. Apparently it's possible that it may be at least partially due to methylation issues (and my 23andme results do show that I have a couple of MTHFR gene mutations). But whatever the cause, I'm pretty sure that the Metanx has provided the recovery, because my balance and gait are much better (after taking Metanx for over 5 years now), and my lower leg reflexes are much improved, along with my ability to feel pain in my feet.
And the icing on the cake is the return of my ability to feel hunger pangs. I thought that it had been restored a year or so ago, when I felt a sensation in my gut that could have been considered to be hunger pangs. But after a few days it disappeared again. This time it seems to be sticking around, and tonight (for the first time in over 10 years) I actually heard a characteristic belly growl that clearly said, "I'm hungry". So I believe it's safe to say that my enteric nervous system is functioning normally again. I had already given up hope about 5 years ago.
So now I'm wondering if untreated gluten sensitivity can trigger genes that affect methylation, or if the timing was just a coincidence.
At any rate, regardless of whether the cause of these problems is due to gluten damage or methylation issues, Metanx definitely can be used to effectively treat them. The recommended dose is 1 or 2 capsules per day. I only take 1, so that may be why it took so long.
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Gee, you don't suppose that could have had anything to do with my leaky gut problem do you? 
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