Aspartame Toxicity Information Center http://www.HolisticMed.com/aspartame/ Aspartame / NutraSweet Toxicity Reaction Samples ------------------------------------------------ Aspartame / NutraSweet / Equal / Neotame ^Poisoning^, ^Toxicity Reactions^, ^Health Damage^ brought to you by Monsanto / NutraSweet / Kelco / Benevia ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ IMPORTANT NOTE: Please print out this list and read *ALL* of the way through it over time. I know it's long, but it can help you recognize the various cases of aspartame toxicity and *help others*. Then copy and share this and other documents from the Aspartame Toxicity Information Center web page with as many others as possible. The names have been removed to protect confidentiality, but many of these posts can be found in various archives and WWW search engines. Please note that this document is only a tiny percentage of adverse reactions to aspartame that have been posted to the Internet over the last few years. The toxicity reactions posted to the Internet are only a very small percentage of the total toxicity reactions reported to various groups. Two independent organizations track aspartame- caused health problems: 1) the Aspartame Consumer Safety Network (ACSN), P.O. Box 780634, Dallas, Texas, 214-352-4268, marystod@airmail.net, and 2) Mission Possible International, 9270 River Club Parkway, Duluth, Georgia 30155, 770-242-2599, bettym19@mindspring.com Please contact these organizations for more information. If you have experienced health damage from aspartame and your health improved after removing it from your diet, please forward your aspartame toxicity reaction to: Mark Gold Aspartame Toxicity Information Center 12 East Side Dr., Suite 2-17 Concord, NH 03301 mgold@holisticmed.com Extensive resources for nutrition, general wellness and healing can be found on the main web page: http://www.holisticmed.com/ News organizations looking for information and contacts (local case histories, physicians, scientists, etc.) should email mgold@holisticmed.com and I will put you in touch with the appropriate organizations. HOW TO USE THIS LIST -------------------- The list is now in *reverse* chronological order such that the newest aspartame toxicity reaction is at the top. If you are reading the list for the first time, please print out the whole list and ***read from the bottom up.*** Then SHARE the printout and other documents on this web page with others. For updates, *read from the top down* until you reach an adverse reaction that you have read before. I have stopped updating this list temporarily because it was getting too long for most people to download. ------------------ From: xxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx Sent: Friday, February 15, 2008 1:53 PM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: Diet sodas A few weeks ago, read the atricle on this website: http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/adverse.txt For years I have been drinking Diet Pepsi & Coke at the rate of 4-6 cans per day. Myself and all those around me noticed that I was losing my train of thought to the point where I was having long pauses when speaking within sentences and forgetting what I was talking about. My memory was also being impacted as I couldn't remember things like I once did, I was fatigued (always seemed tired) and my joints in my arms and neck ached. There were times that I felt my heart beating so hard and fast I thought that it was going to explode out of my chest. I did not go to a physician regarding these symptoms, I just thought that I was aging and perhaps there was something really wrong with me that I didn't want to know about. After reading the article, I stopped consuming the above mentioned Diet Colas. This is the only thing that I changed in my diet to see what would happen. I now have been experiencing more energy, my normal speech has returned, my joint aches are almost gone, my heart rate has subsided and my memory has improved greatly!! There should be a way to get these messages to masses - I plan on sharing this with all of my friends & relatives. ---------------- From: xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2008 6:57 AM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: Asparatame/ Headaches Dear Mark, Thank you for your persistance for gathering information regarding the public's welfare. I personally experienced reactions after ingesting asparatame. Prior to having children, I drank diet pepsi occasionally. When my husband and I decided to start our family, I obstained from ingesting anything that contained asparatame for fear that it would harm my baby. However, after giving birth, I found myself tired all of the time as most mothers do, so I started drinking diet pepsi throughout the day. I consumed approximately three cans of diet pepsi each day. I was experiencing terrible migraine headaches, fatigue, insomnia and nausea. In addition, when I worked on the weekend during the night shift as a nurse, I would drink more. My headaches were terrible. I was trying to care for patients, while my head felt like it would explode. I was taking tylenol and excederin migraine medication on a daily basis. Then, I finally noticed that the headaches were being triggered by ingesting asparatame. If I chewed a piece of sugar free gum, eventually, I would come down with a headache. It frightens me that the food companies are still making products with this ingredient. How many people give their children sugar free gum? We are poisoning are children. I want to thank you for your time and enthusiasm regarding this serious issue. I hope that the efforts to rid the artificial sweeteners are a success. ---------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx Posted to: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/WNHO-Aspartame-Information/message/6508 Subject: Re: Information for List - New Zealand Date: 09:48 PM 9/1/2007 Hello Betty, My name is xxxxxx xxxxx. I am 48 and live in Xxxxxxxxx in New Zealand. I have for many years (about 10 or so) had Cardiac problems, they have been diagnosed as ARVD (Arythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia), however this has never been able to be confirmed despite numerous investigative procedures. In addition I have been suffering from joint pain and deteriorating eyesight. Recently I was involved in yet another procedure to investigate my heart. The result was once again inconclusive. I was on a very high dosage of Beta Blockers. My last visit to the Cardiologist recommended reducing them to a minimum dosage. Following the reporting of Abby Cormack's case and your visit to New Zealand. I had reached the point where I was increasingly frustrated in my diagnosis. I was angry and frustrated and so after some investigation I stopped ingesting Aspartame in any form. That was five weeks ago. I also stopped taking my Beta Blockers at the same time. I have now not had any heart palpitations in the last three weeks, I was having five or six each day (heart rate varying between 30 and 160 BPM at rest). In addition, my eyesight has sharpened, my joint pain has decreased and I am sleeping better. I was consuming about 1 litre of Diet Soda a day and in addition was having Equal in my coffee about six times per day. I am very happy with my progress and now read food labelling very carefully. .... P.S. My wife is also very happy with my improvement, to the point where she is much more conscious of food labelling for both her and I. ----------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:17 AM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: Aspartame induced sickness I battled high blood pressure from 1987 until 2006. My blood pressure had become uncontrollable. I had memory lapses where I could not remember someone's name. My joints were hurting and aching and my prostate was enlarged. My doctor just kept increasing my medications and the symptoms kept getting worse. After experiencing dizziness and nose bleeds from excessively high blood pressure, I had to stop eating and only consume distilled water. After several days, my blood pressure went down to 116/65. I started eating only one food at a time and checking my blood pressure at intervals afterward to see if my blood pressure went up. I did not experience a problem until I drank a diet drink with Nutrasweet. My blood pressure soared to 185/100 and stayed high for hours. As a result, I took diet drinks off my consumables list. Then I had a cup of coffee sweetened with Equal and my blood pressure soared again. So I switched to decaf coffee sweetened with Equal and had the same thing happen again. My blood pressure soared and stayed up for hours. After that, I knew that Equal sweetener, (aspartame), was the problem. I drank decaf coffee sweetened with sugar for a solid week, and it had no effect on my blood pressure at all. I even went back to regular coffee sweetened with sugar and had only a moderate blood pressure increase, (131/80), that lasted for about an hour. On top of that, I haven't had a memory lapse since I stopped using aspartame. My joints had been hurting me so bad that I could not sleep through the night. My joints have not ached since I stopped using aspartame - that is not a coincidence! On top of that, my prostate symptoms subsided too. I do not have to take any medications at all since I eliminated aspartame from my diet. I think I had several TIAs as a result of high blood pressure induced by aspartame. I wonder how many people have died of strokes or heart failure from high blood pressure brought on from using aspartame? It is not a coincidence that my high blood pressure and my other health problems started when I started using Equal, back in 1987, and ended when I stopped using it. ---------------------- Mates Up-Over » Forums » The Pub » The Beer Garden » Aspartame Subject: Aspartame From: tayva Date: 03/02/08 10:37 AM [Editor's note: Australian date format translation: Feb 4, 2008] http://www.matesupover.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=139743&fpart=1 Loc: Chicago, IL Ok, so this is a little odd and I thought I'd share in case it helps anyone else. I used to drink a lot (a LOT) of diet coke - it was the only thing that got me through the long days of study. I stopped for a while, can't remember why and felt so much better, and then sometime later started again - at which point I was so sick, I had phenomenal migranes, nausea, exhaustion etc. I didn't link the two at this stage, and then went to the doctor who did some tests. The results? Aspartame poisoning. Oh. My. God. I thought it was a myth created by freaks on the internet but it seems not. So now I have lost my caffine source, and have to avoid lifes little pleasures like low fat jello (I love it!), diet coke and copious amounts of other products. Anyone else ever had a reaction like this? --------------------- Mates Up-Over » Forums » The Pub » The Beer Garden » Aspartame Subject: Re: Aspartame [Re: tayva] From: HomesickInDallas Date: 04/02/08 04:47 PM http://www.matesupover.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=139743 Loc: Dallas, Texas -- from Melb Back in the 1980's, while still living in Australia, I used to work for a very well known worldwide pharmaceutical company (whose name I won't put here for legal reasons). I worked in the Research & Development Lab and we did some lengthy research on Aspartame as this well known pharmaceutical company was considering putting Aspartame in one of their liquid antacid products. The research done in Australia on Aspartame at that time -- along with other research done in Europe -- showed Aspartame to be a carcinogen (cancer causing) and the Australian Health Department would not provide approval to include it as an ingredient in the liquid antacid product (nor anything else for that matter). I imagine those "rules" have been relaxed since the 1980's because Aspartame is a real money maker. But to this day, knowing what I saw in that research, I have never ingested a product that contains Aspartame, and I do everything I can to talk my friends out of any dietary drinks or products that contains it also. Just my 10 cents worth. ------------------ Mates Up-Over » Forums » The Pub » The Beer Garden » Aspartame Subject: Re: Aspartame From: Mad Max Date: 03/02/08 08:42 PM http://www.matesupover.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=139743&fpart=1 Loc: Middle of nowhere I also was a big diet coke drinker, until this summer, when my HAIR started falling out! I went to a natropath, who told me I was really dehydrated, and also told me to google it. That was all it took, I haven't had one since. Many, many people have horrible reactions like you did, I'm glad they discovered what it was so quickly. There are so many problems it can cause. -------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 11:11 AM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: RE: Nutrasweet toxicity Dear Mark, Thank you for responding. Since eliminating aspartame-sweetened products, I have experienced a dramatic improvement in mental clarity, and coordination, and the disappearance of sudden exhaustion, blepherospasms of the left eye, myalgia, depression and anxiety. It was extremely helpful to compare symptoms with other sufferers. Thank you for your website. ---------------------- My own history, by Kim xxxxxx: January 02: My right foot went numb February: First vision loss, holes in my vision, progressed to losing right field of vision for hours March: Numbness increased up to waist, health quickly deteriorating unknown cause Went to primary Doctor for Neurological exam: Abnormal, right reflexes hyper. MRI scheduled. April 2: lesions found on the MRI. Memory loss became significant problem Numbness spread to entire right side of body. Told I did have MS and needed to be followed at hospital of U. of Pennsylvania. Told my friends and family that I had MS. May-March 03: MANY tests run at HUP and Presbyterian Hospital and Sheiy Eye Hospital Symptoms rapidly increased, intermittent field of vision loss, burning in my head, extreme memory loss and fatigue, pain in right arm, joint pain, leg pain, depression, numbness began on left side, eye pain, red eyes, extreme thirst, chest pain, rapid heart beat, hives. I began looking into the possibility of disability through work. In the spring of 2003 was told I had central nervous system Sjogrens and possibly MS as well and needed to begin a 2 year chemo treatment of each immuran or cytoxin and should begin immediately. Told due to the decreased saliva production I should always drink diet sodas to protect my teeth. In May 2003 I informed doctors I wanted to delay my treatment until Sept because I direct a camp in the summers in VA and did not feel I could handle the treatment and face my responsibilities. I also informed the people at camp my health was rapidly deteriorating and that I wasn't sure I would be able to continue at the camp (that I had founded). Doctors strongly encouraged me not to wait for the treatment because the disease was progressing and the damage was irreversible. June 2003 While at camp and drinking a diet coke a dear friend, Jack xxxxxxxxx , asked if I knew that diet coke could cause all the problems that I was having. I explained I didn't believe him but had nothing to lose so I wouldn't drink one for another year and see what happened. The only thing I had to lose was a chemo treatment I was dreading and praying to live without. In Sept. 2003 Returned to HUP neurology. Major improvements and asked by the Dr if my improvements were a result of starting my treatment. I explained my only treatment was stopping Diet Coke. My memory loss had dramatically improved, the burning in my head stopped, extreme fatigue was gone, arm pain gone, eye pain gone, loss of vision completely stopped, numbness never progressed since the day I stopped drinking diet coke and many more...... The Doctor said the only way to prove it was to reintroduce it and see if the symptoms returned. I said NO WAY. Sept 03 to spring 04 I continued to feel good and decided that I was willing to reintroduce Diet coke for the good of others so the medical field would know the need to promote this FACT. In the spring 2004 I called the Dr and said t I was willing to reintroduce Diet coke and asked how would he like me to do it. He explained it needed to be controlled and I could only have one per day and needed to journal my reactions. After one Diet coke per day for 4 days I already had burning in my head, extreme fatigue, abdominal pain, arm pain, red eyes....the 4th day I left my daughter at school and couldn't even remember I was suppose to pick her up(that had not happened since I had stopped drinking Diet Coke). I told my Dr I cannot continue because it's not SAFE. I never dreamed all the horrible symptoms would return so quickly. In Aug 2004 took my sister Roxanne to meet Betty Martini. Sister was diagnosed with MS 9/11/01. She had tremendous pain in her hand and arm. After meeting Betty took aspartame seriously and within 3 weeks had use of her hand and was pain free. This is a very concise summary. Thank you for all your work and thanks again for taking the time to meet with both Roxanne and I. Keep up the GREAT work!!!!! [Editor Note: Kim and Roxanne appeared in the movie, "Sweet Remedy" (a sequal to the aspartame movie, "Sweet Misery") produced by Sound and Fury Productions: http://www.soundandfury.tv/pages/shopcart/shopcartindex.html .] ------------------ Scoop Independent News http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0706/S00418.htm Chewing gum case strengthens school diet drink ban Thursday, 21 June 2007, 11:37 am The case of a Wellington woman who became seriously unwell after consuming excessive amounts of the controversial additive aspartame in chewing gum underlines the urgent need for consumer information and warnings about potential side effects, Green Party MP Sue Kedgley says. "This case also leads me to repeat the call for fizzy drinks containing aspartame to be removed from schools," Ms Kedgley says. Abigail McCormack began suffering crippling muscle cramps and tingling in her hands and feet, heart palpitations, anxiety attacks, depression and skin rashes, she thought she was dying after consuming excessive amounts of chewing gum containing aspartame. Ms McCormack is concerned that there were no warnings to alert her to the fact that aspartame could cause harm. These health problems stopped when Ms McCormack stopped chewing aspartame sweetened gum. .... [Video Interview: http://www.tv3.co.nz/News/HealthNews/tabid/191/ArticleID/29322/Default.aspx ] ---------------------- Discussion Group: WNHO Aspartame Information From: xxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx Re: Canderel!! - E951/ Aspartame/ NutraSweet, Equal -- Diabetes Message #6219 of 6240 http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/WNHO-Aspartame-Information/message/6219 Hi Betty, Some months ago, Anita, told me what she had experienced with the horrible pain she was in and that the "doctors" couldn't do anything for her. lets face it, if the medical proffesionals told there patients, they would lose money. That's the way I see it. I have suffered from fibromyalgia for more years then I care to think about. Horrible, debilitating pain that just wouldn't let up and the feeling of being a "pest, hypochondriac, or any other "problems"?, that I might be told, and was!!! There was nothing wrong with me, according to the doctors and in respects to doctors that I saw about my back pain, I was told that I better get use to, and learn, to live with it! But that's a different problem. Back to the fibro. I believe it was in March, this year, that Anita told me about the aspartame and gave me some information in regards to it. To tell you the truth, I didn't really go along with it at first, BUT, after more research she had my attention. I haven't had one diet soda since then. I drank it because it was suppose to be safe and therefore, no sugar. I have lost more weight since I stopped using any kind of aspartame. It's been nearly three months and I cannot believe the relief I am having!!! My whole family is amazed. One time I, without giving it a second thought, ate some Yogurt, and within hours I hurt so bad and after I was having such relief and then to have it hit me that fast really made a believer out of me. Anyway, I've taken up too much of your time but thank you for being there for us. ------------------ From: xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 6:28 PM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: Asparatame Wanted you to know that I get very ill within 45 seconds of ingesting Aspartame, I cannot believe it is still on the market. People have tricked me with chewing gum saying it is made with real sugar. Soon my stomach starts to hurt and my tongue feels like it has a film on it. .... -------------------- From: xxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 11:41 AM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: aspartame neurotoxicity You guys are doing an excellent job of getting the word out on this subject. However the physicians I have talked to are either neutral, uninformed or state they need research studies to confirm the existance of real dangers of this substance since so many substances have this ingredient but so few of their patients report or demonstate side effects. As a R.N. with a Master's Degree in Nursing and a person who has recently experienced severe neuro side effects as a result of drinking 700-1000 cc of Crystal Lite per day x 5 days for a period of about 2-2.5 months I can stay with 100 percent certainity that I had neuro damage and if had continued drinking this tea would have probably either been in a wheelchair or more likely dead. I had ataxia, gait difficulties, tremors, decreased left leg reflexes, total loss of appitite with a 8 lb. weight loss over a 2 month period and other neuro related side effects. I recently returned from Mayo Clinic in MN. They could not confirm or deny this relationship.Apparently they are not doing any studies on this substance but several on the effects of coffee!!. I met several peple there and one stated she knew of a 12 year old boy who had stopped growing and finally it was attributed to Crystal Lite, another gentleman was there for neuro related issues but his doctors at home and Mayo could only say is weakness was probably a virus( as he sat drinking his diet coke there in the airport waiting as I was for our flight to Chicago.) I shared the info I had received from the interne on aspartame side effects and his wife stated they drank "lots of diet coke" but would stop aspartame intake andwould inform their PCP and their neurologist. I have refered many people to the web site and warned others of this danger. The gentleman in the airport had not been on a statin as I had been so my MD thought my side effects could have been related to the known effect of leg weakness even in the face of a negative CPK he contined to believe all my reports were either statin related or who knows just what he thought.My home phone number is xxx-xxx-xxxx. How can I help? I am much better but it has taken 60-90 days. ------------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2007 2:58 PM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: My Story Regarding Aspartame My name is xxxx xxxxxxxx and I live in xxxxxxxx, Alabama. I am 51 years old. Last year, I was feeling so much pain and stiffness in my legs (especially my knees), that I had gotten to the point I could barely get out of my car and walk into a store. I would literally have to get out of the car and stand beside it for 3 or 4 minutes before I could start walking. I got really scared, because my job is in sales and I was starting to have trouble making sales calls. I remembered an article I had ready years ago in Oxygen Magazine about Aspartame, as well as a story in Readers’ Digest about a woman who was about to take her last vacation because she thought she would be unable to walk in the near future. Her brother (I believe) had read an article about Aspartame and told her about it and, within a month after discontinuing its use, she was able to walk on her own again. I was drinking several diet drinks every day, as well as using Aspartame to sweeten cereal, etc. I decided to just try going without it, and within 2 days I could feel a difference. After a month, I was totally pain free. At the time, I was going to a Rheumatologist at the Kirklin Clinic in Birmingham because I have Raynaud’s Syndrome. I had told him about the pain in my legs and knees, and he put me on Mobic and 2 Tylenol Arthritis Strength every six hours. Although it did help, it didn’t completely alleviate the pain. He had done a series of tests because of the Raynaud’s, and because my father had severe rheumatoid arthritis, but found me to be arthritis-free. When I got off of the Aspartame, I went back for a checkup and told him about what I had done, and he said I was certainly not the first person to tell him this same thing. He totally believed I had “healed myself” -- his words. Now, I am off of the medication and doing great. I have told several others who have gotten relief by going without Aspartame. I try to tell as many people as I can, because it has made a tremendous difference in my life. ----------------- From: xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 10:10 AM To: mgold@tiac.net Subject: Aspartame I am responding to your article/web page on aspartame. I am 44 years old and have been suspecting aspartame as a major health hazard since it hit the market. I have been "dieting" all my life to stay thin and because of all the hype about saccharin causing cancer, as soon as Nutrasweet hit the shelves I was all over it. I ate everything they had with it and added the packets to my numerous cups of tea on a daily basis. As soon as it was in soft drinks, I drank that too. In 1982, I had a child born with a major heart defect, and then in 1985 I had another child born with cranial-facial deformities. Even at only 23 years old, I was beginning to suspect the product as a possible cause of the completely unrelated birth defects my children had and wrote to the governor of Ohio (Celeste) explaining my suspicions. The governors office wrote back saying they were not aware of any problems with the product but did not give me any advice on how to persue the issue. The rest of my family and friends convinced me that the government would not allow a product on the market if it were not safe so I continued to drink it. By my late 20's, early 30's I was sick of the daily headaches I was having. I hate taking any kind of drug (go figure) and I hated having to take pain reliever all the time. At that point I had read some serious articles about aspartame which made me truly believe I was right all along. I stopped using it completely (mind you I had still been adding it to my numerous cups of tea daily) and my headaches stopped. I still have blood sugar problems (insulin sensitivity?) to this day which cause me not to be able to eat large portions of carbs at a time or I become completely dysfunctional. I maintain a lower-carb diet (1/2 cup of carbs at a time mostly) to control it. On occasions where I can't take it and have to have a donut or something, an hour or two later I become extremely irate, shaky, hungry, can't think straight or barely have a conversation without wanting to kill everyone. I think this is permanent damage as I have been off aspartame for about a decade and I still have problems with that. .... ------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 5:20 PM To: aspartame@holisticmed.com Subject: ASPERTAME My son is 11 and has ADD and is very sensitive to anything with aspertame in it. He will go from a loving little boy to someone who just flies off the handle. and has tantrums uncontrollable. He says he doesn't know why he does this and says that he doesn't feel right. I took him to his pediatrician and she ran tesets and concluded that it was the aspertame he was reactin to. we have cut everything out of his diet that has this in it and he is a totally different boy. What I don't understand is why the FDA is allowing this to be put in our food and drinks? ---------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2007 12:57 PM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: Thanks you for saving my life My life has totally change !!! I have been drinking diet coke for many years , thinking I was not consuming sugar , so I must be doing something right, WRONG!!!! I begin to get sick several years ago with symptoms that compared to MS. I have suffered for years but last year was the worse. I have seen 3 nero . my family physician sent me because of my symptoms and my blood test !! I was experiencing muscle weakness ,vision problems, speech problems, depression and I was expecting any day to wake up and not be able to walk. I underwent every test know to man!!! Lumbar puncture horrible!!! Vision test !!!! Doctors puzzled!!! I did not get better. A friend of my sisters ask did I drink diet drinks, my sister said that is all she drinks. They refered me to the web site! I thought what do I have to lose so I quit diet drinks. My life changed within a week I could tell a huge difference. I could walk again !!!! My vision totally has improved !! My speech is totally normal !!! I can read again!!!I truly believe that diet coke was killing me!!!! I have told everyone I know to STOP!!!!I have been off any aspartame for about 4 months ! WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!! If there is anyone who doesn't believe this is happening just quit and see what happens!!!! ----------------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx To: Dr. Betty Martini,D.Hum. [Bettym19@mindspring.com] Subject: aspartame and seizures Date: 09:17 PM 10/17/2006 Hi Dr Martini, I have been fighting the war of aspartame for the past 13 plus years! Diet coke started my s/sx.... I would pass out after drinking diet coke, my Dr's say it is not related and that is has to be something else, but I stopped using diet coke and no more passing out, that was 13 yeasr ago, But then now everything has artificial sweetners in it ! and low and behold when ever I consume something with aspartame in it wham I pass out! I get a terrible headache, and very sick after a episode, memeory loss, confusion, just a terrible feeling my entire body goes thru, my eeg shows iam having migraine headaches even when Iam not, but yet my nuerologist and family DR both say its perfectly safe to consume, when I know what it does to me but all the medical tests they have done , blood work,echo cardiograms....halter monitors, except the eeg which shows iam having migrains when iam not have all been normal, HELP what does it take to prove this is poisin to me what can I ask the DR to test for to hepl me prove my case? Iam affraid that the aspartame will one day kill me! Please help ME! ---------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 12:14 AM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: aspartame and mood disorder. I don't know if anyone else has drawn the same conclusions as i have, or maybe it hasn't even be suggested yet; but i have found that nutrsweet had caused my mood disorder. I had been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder (who hasn't) and had been medicated for years. within the last year i had stopped consuming diet soda with nutrasweet and noticed a considerable improvement in my mood. on occasion when i did ingest nutrasweet a mood swing would follow within 72 hours. the swings were hardly noticable from 1 soda, but, with multiple sodas the mood swings increased. .... -------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 8:03 PM To: mgold@tiac.net Subject: reaction to aspartame Hello Thank you for the information on aspartame. I tried Columbo LIGHT yogurt and I had severe panic attacks that were so horrible. .... ------------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 12:59 PM To: mgold@holisticmed.com; marystod@airmail.net Subject: Aspartame, from the beginning..... .... I'd like to share something with you and (if you would like) your readers. I hope the following helps you to get people to "think before they consume". Plus, I'd love to find out if others recall the news program. I certainly cannot be the only person alive who remembers this! Back in the '80s, when "Nutrasweet" had first been approved by the FDA, I was in the process of going through tests, and it was right around that time I was finally, after a life time of seizures, definitively diagnosed with epilepsy originating in the temporal lobe. My neurologist, the man who persevered, went to bat for me, and finally made the diagnosis, was Dr Michael Weintraub of Briarcliff Manor, NY. I'd been back and forth to Dr Weintraub's office so many times, his face and voice had become a part of my regular life. And "Nutrasweet" was all the rage, being toted as the new "safe" artificial sweetener, to replace the carcinogenic substance "saccharin". I was sitting at home one evening, watching the Eyewitness News program on ABC Channel 7 out of New York City (everyone must remember Roger Grimsby and Bill Beutel?), when to my surprise, a very familiar face appeared on the screen. It was my own doctor, Dr Weintraub. The report was on ... aspartame. Dr Weintraub had the papers in his hand, the study results, and the letters, from the neurologists who had been on the FDA review panel of those studies, strongly recommending that aspartame NOT be approved. He went on to explain how aspartame can cause seizures, and if a person has a personal or family history of any kind of seizure condition, can increase and seriously complicate existing symptoms. He showed the data, he discussed the studies, all of the facts where there. He then expressed his great dismay that, despite all of the medical professionals' strong recommendation that approval be denied, the FDA approved it anyway. He warned that anyone with any history, or family history, of any kind of seizure condition stay away from anything with "Nutrasweet" in it. After the interview, the Eyewitness News Team stated that, the next night, a follow-up program would be aired on the same subject. I tuned in the next night ... nothing about aspartame was mentioned. There was not even any indication that they'd done the show the night before. For some reason, the newsroom had shelved the story. I've tried searching old archives of Eyewitness News, and can find no mention of the story, and yet I clearly remember it, as did my Mom (who passed away several months ago). I have wished, many many times since, that I'd had the clarity of mind to give Dr Weintraub a call. I had been drinking diet soda for a brief time before seeing the report -- and had been having terrible trouble with my seizures (which are "simple partial" seizures) at that time. I'd have seizures that would literally come and go non-stop for days, and they would not only be extended in time, but of a severity that I'd never experienced before. I threw out the rest of the Diet Coke and gradually the seizures went back to "normal". Today, if I even accidentally get a few sips of aspartame in diet soda, as has happened a couple of times when someone in a restaurant gave me the wrong beverage, I'll launch into a prolonged and intense seizure episode. This is bad stuff, and I've had "Eyewitness" evidence that the substance was approved against all medical recommendation. Not only that, but now food manufacturers no longer have to put obvious labels on their products. Did you know that it's become difficult to find a pack of gum, even the gums that are not labeled "sugar free", without getting aspartame? Even good old "Juicy Fruit", which has been around for as long as there have been teeth to chew it, now contains aspartame! It supposedly "makes the flavor last longer"! There is poison hiding everywhere! When Sucralose/Splenda came out, a friend was gung ho on it, and bought me a box, claiming it was perfectly safe, just "modified" sugar, and had no aftertaste. I gave it a try. Well, to start with, it does have an aftertaste (though not as bad as aspartame's). After the first use, I waited ... no seizures that day. Wow, could it really be true? So, I used it for a few days. The build up was slow, not like aspartame, which hits me right away. But within three days of using Splenda (and not even a lot of it ... just a little sprinkling on my oatmeal, etc) the seizures began. I also experienced horrible gas and stomach pains, and then diarrhea. I stopped using it, and the symptoms cleared up. Not wanting to judge the product, which this friend to this day still raves over and thinks I'm "imagining things", I've given Splenda several other chances, with the same results (only the symptoms begin faster) every time. Poison is poison, and packaging it in a sunny yellow box doesn't change that. I don't know if you'd be able to track down that old Eyewitness News story, or even others who witnessed the report. I'm not even sure where Dr Weintraub is today ... we moved far out of the area almost twenty years ago, and I haven't kept track of him. All I have is my own memory, and my own word for you on the story ... but I swear I was not imagining it, it was real, it was there, and I couldn't have been the only one who saw it. Good luck in your fight! I'm definitely lending my hopes and positive thoughts to your success. Below this letter, please find my copy of your adverse reaction questionnaire as found on your website. Name_xxxxx xxxx_____________ Age_49__ Sex: _F Address__xxxxxxxxx_____ City__xxxxxxxxxx________State__x_____ Zip__xxxxx____ Tele xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Q. Medical problems that you believe are caused from using aspartame: A. seizures Q. Why do you believe aspartame caused these problems? consumption of A. aspartame increases the severity and duration of my seizures, and I have other evidence as stated in the above letter as to aspartame's influence Q. Did the symptoms go away when you stopped using the products? A. yes, they went back to 'normal' Q. Did you see a Doctor about symptoms? A. not specifically the aspartame influence, no Q. Did Doctor think it related to aspartame? Q. Did you report your symptoms to the FDA (Food & Drug Admin.) or any other group? A. no, just to you, I didn't know where they could be reported Q. What specific products(s) containing aspartame were you consuming when you experienced these symptoms? A. diet sodas, mostly diet coke, but any aspartame will trigger the reaction Q. On the average, what quantity were you consuming (how often, how much each time, etc.) A. a small amount, maybe one soda every few days, when I first noticed them, but even a tiny amount of aspartame can trigger the response Q. How long had you been consuming these products before you experienced the symptoms? A. not long, and I now avoid the product completely FOR THOSE CONCERNED ABOUT WEIGHT: Q. Did you begin using products with aspartame when you began a restricted calorie diet? A. yes Q. Did you use aspartame products only for some of your meals to save calories? A. initially it was drinks rather than solid food Q. Did aspartame seem to help you lose weight at first? A. no, I didn't use it long enough Q. What were the long term weight loss effects of using aspartame. A. none --------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx To: Dr. Betty Martini,D.Hum. [Bettym19@mindspring.com] Subject: Claritin (hayfever - sinus medicine) contains Aspartame Date: 03:16 PM 1/7/2007 First of all, Doctor,let me say how much the community at large owes you for your tremendous research and energy on MSG and Aspartame. Secondly, as time goes on, more and more people will hear your message and begin to feel appreciatvie of you. But in the meantime, people are continuing to make themselves and their children ill with these awful food additives. I want to tell you about a personal experience. For years I have suffered with terrible allergies and hay fever. One day a doctor gave me a sample of "Claritin" and the next time my allergies bothered me, I took one tablet. Well, for the rest of the day, life was difficult. I could not get my brain to tell my muscles what to do. It's as though there was a disconnect between the brain and the nervous system. Of course I resolved to never take this product again. (It did relieve my allergies but at what a cost!) Then recently a friend suggested that I take Loratadine. She offered me one of the OTC tablets she had with her. It was amazingly effective. I remarked on that - and added "I wish I had known about this - I cannot use CLaritin because of the side effects it causes me." I then explained to her about the weird brain-nervous system disconnect that I felt when taking Claritin. She repleied "Well, they are one and the same thing. If Claritin bothered you, I imagine that later today Loradatine will affect you too." As it turned out, it did not bother me at all. And later when I got to the store and checked out the respective labels of the two products -I found out that in the version of Loratadine I was taking, the manufacturing company did not add in Aspartame. But in Claritin, guess what? Aspartame is added - and you pay extra for that as well. ---------------------- To: bettym19@mindspring.com From: xxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx Subject: Joint Pain Date: 8/21/2006 10:07 AM Dr. Martini, I've come across some of your work as I am investigating my own strange "illness". I am currently an M.D./Ph.D. student at xxxxxxxxx xxxxx University and have been having these weird symptoms that no one can seem to get to the bottom of. It began back in January. While studying I started having trouble gripping my pencil. My right thumb (DIP joint) almost needed to crack into place before I could write. I didn't think anything of it. It persisted. Slowly the joint began to swell and was quite painful. My mobility was nearly completely lost. I had trouble doing almost everything with that joint. I took plenty of NSAIDS and finally after months took the time to go to a doctor. I have since been in 5 times, always told to take Ibuprofen and come back if not better. X-rays are basically normal but there is clearly a large "lump" of some sort on the joint. A recent visit to a hand specialist left him stumped. He too tells me to wait. I thought about what this could possibly be due to and the only thing I can come up with is Splenda. I eat it like crazy. I put it in everything. When they came out with the large bags (for cooking I guess) I started putting it in so many of my foods. I finally decided that I would quit eating it about a week ago. (I couldn't quit, but cut WAY down and my thumb has already gotten smaller. Not normal, but better.) I thought things were improving until yesterday I woke up with bad knee pain. This morning it is completely swelled up and has limited mobility. ???? There has been no trauma. My question is....in your experience have patients with Splenda toxicity had joint problems? If so, why would a new problem arise once I cut down. ???? If you had any thoughts, I would love to hear them. [Continued] To: bettym19@mindspring.com From: xxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx Subject: Joint Pain Date: 8/21/2006 12:45 PM Thanks for your quick and informative reply. I can't tell you how many of those symptoms I have/had. The skin reactions in the past, chronic dry eye, doctors have looked into Sjogren's a few times, dramatic visual changes with no cause found, unexplained joint pain....... I can't believe it. No one ever asked about artificial sweeteners, I never thought about a connection until recently. I thought I was really healthy. I exercise daily, eat very healthy, diet soda and Splenda were my only vices. I didn't think they were great for me, but I had no idea. I didn't consider it to be the cause until no one could figure out my thumb. When my plans to become a surgeon were jeopardized with the immobility of my dominant hand, I started looking into possible causes myself. Thank you so much for your time and your knowledge. I really appreciate it! [Editor's Note: Diet soda with aspartame.] [Continued] To: bettym19@mindspring.com From: xxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx Subject: Joint Pain Date: 9/12/2006 1:01 PM Dr. Martini, Again, thanks for sending me this information. I have quit all artificial sweeteners and my thumb is almost 100% back to normal!!!! I am so amazed!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! ------------------ From: xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 12:58 AM To: Mark Gold Subject: Re: Aspartame Poisoning ok mark here we go. In Aug. of 2005 i had a real bad operation on my tummy. It took 100 days to get over the operation. After the 100 days i was better a few days i thought. In Dec i got up one morning fell to my knees i tried to yell for help and could not get the words to come out. People around here could not understand what i was saying i was slobbering and slurring when i tried to talk. I got up with help and would run in to the walls and my feet tried to go faster than my body. I was so scared.went to the hospital here er 3 times 1st thing they did was a drug and alc. test all 3 times they could not find what was wrong.... A couple weeks later i went to another county hospital er same thing. A week later went to another county hospital er. They did and said the same thing. The 1st 2weeks i went to a walk in clintit they gave me meds for enter ear that i really did not have. I had no health ins. at all. The last er i went too they told me to go to my reg doctor. I did he ask me how many diet drinks a day did i drink..I said at least 2 or 3.. Because i did drink at least 2 or 3..he sent me to a nero doctor.. I went they did a spinal tap and mri and other things he really found nothing they did some guess work and said it was rare that he thought it was ataxiay cerebilitis ( http://www.umm.edu/ency/article/001397sym.htm ) but i would be better in a couple months.. OK months went by and was no better then i had lost all my moter skills could not write talk much and walk like a drunk. I fell all the time if i stood up very long or go to the store i had to have a wheelchair.. I pulled to my left. They did test to see if i had a stroke. I could not remember nothing. I would forget where i put something i put up 5 mins before. The past year and a few months my Arthritis that i have had for a few years did not get twice as bad but like 4 times as bad. My kidneys got real bad like i was going every 10 mins to let go of a few drops. A few months ago went to er here in so much pain after they gave me something in a iv for pain. I pasted at the hospital 3 kidney stones 1 was about the size of a jelly bean 2 others was real small. While all this time I had no common sense at all. I could not comperhen nothing i had only a 1 track mind.. I know that i am not telling all this in order but i am not over it yet and i am doing the best i can do.. But i am much better. My nerve's got real bad and still is but i will not take nothing to control them.. I got so depressed that i took and ordered a pretty leopard room rug and nailed it over my living room windows and made a frame around it made a pretty picture. But there was no lite in there and could not see out side.I wanted to be in the dark.I had told my kids this last christmas that this would be my last christmas here. I really felt it..each day i felt i was getting worse.. I never felt any better. About 6 weeks ago my best friend that lives here was listen to a radio with Dr.Blalock talking about aspartame and he gave a website about it. we went to it read it and about all the simptons fit me to a t.all the things the other doctors thought i had was just picking out like maybe 1 or 2 things. But this site about aspartame had all of them. So i went back to my family doctor and told him this. Dr. Lewis i did not lie to you but you ask me how many diet drinks did i drink a day i said at least 2 or 3 which is true but i drink 6 to 12 a day i craved them. He had did a research on aspartame before cause of his wife had trouble with it. He told me to stop it so i did all at once.. 2 weeks later i was thinking a little better my doctor has now took me off 1 of my sugar meds. Lower my hb meds and cholesterol meds.. I am more clear headed not dizzy. Walking straighter, not falling, nerve's is not as bad, i am typing this, my memory is coming back to meand i am not forgetting as bad. I forgot to say since i have been sick i have trouble staying awake...That is not much better yet..my pain is getting back to like it was before. oh yes let me tell you about my kidneys...2 weeks after i stopped aspartame at 3 am i got up and went to the bathroom and i stopped and stomped the floor something did not feel right. For the 1st time since i had been sick my dancing feet was gone. I was walking right. And i went to the bathroom and my kidneys acted a qt. or more.and ever since then i would go and each time do a lot at a time and i only go 3 or 4 times a day where i was going every 10 to 15 mins .. at night i would go 5 to 6 times now maybe 1 time. All i have done to help me is stop taking in aspartame. I do not buy anything with aspartame in it..I am trying to open other people eyes too. Each day when i get up i do feel something is better. Now when i lay down to go to sleep I do not think that i problem will not wake up in the morning. I am no longer depressed and now i tell my self that i am getting better and going to over come this and live. .... [update] From: xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 12:12 AM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: oh yes I am almost 99% now except i have narcolepsy and can not drive. Doctors think it was caused for the posion i never had it before. My sugar has went nuts in the last few months i am up to 8 to 10 shots a day 3 diff insulint. I have lost some wait after getting off aspartame. Everything else is about gone and back to what it was before i got aspartame posion.. Thanks so much for asking.. -------------------- From: xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2006 7:53 PM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: Aspartame Use Dec. 30, 2006 I came upon your website and found the information interesting. I am an ICU RN for 30 of my 33 years as a nurse. I used to drink Diet Coke all day long. At least a 6 or more pack a day. My internist told me to stop drinking it because I was having such leg cramps especially at night. It was worse with increased activity at work being on my feet. I stopped for a while, and my cramps got somewhat better. I then started to drink Flavored water when I went swimming in the aqua therapy pool at the YMCA. I used to drink at least 2 liters of that stuff. It was delicious. But my leg cramps came back again. I then realized that the sparkling flavored water had Aspartame in it. The cramps I had were not the usual uncomfortable walk it off cramps. They were severe almost called 911 severe cramps. Like someone took molten broken glass and was ripping my legs from the groin muscles to my inner leg. They would also come in my calf's and in my feet. It was like someone took a ratchet and was cranking up the muscle and the pain. You could feel it tightening. It would last for 15- 20 minutes, crying in agony. Then it would start to go away. when you think it was gone you could feel the muscles cranking up again. This would go on for 3-4 times a night. The next day you legs muscles would be hurting from the tightening process. When I stopped all aspartame products the cramps mostly went away. I rarely have them and not the extent as when I was drinking the drinks. I can only assume that the cause was from those drinks. xxxxxxxxxx, RN, BSN, CCRN -------------------------- To: bettym19@mindspring.com From: xxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxx.xxx Subject: Aspartame - joint pain and irritable bowel syndrome Date: 9/12/2006 10:19 AM I began to experience back pain associated with sitting down about six years ago (2000). The pain became progressively worse as time went on. Because I sat at my job all day, the situation was becoming unbearable. I went to a back specialist who arranged for an x-ray, which showed no significant problems with my spine. Nonetheless, I went to physical therapy, which provided limited relief. About a year ago, I began to experience symptoms of colitis. I again went to a specialist and had a colonoscopy. The doctor reported that there was no apparent damage, but that the colon was swollen over its entire length. He could offer no explanation for the swelling. The diagnosis was therefore “non-specific colitis”. Later, I began to notice that the pain in my back seemed to correlate with the amount of diet Pepsi I was drinking. So, I decided to stop drinking it for a while. To my surprise (and great joy) the pain in my back began to subside and is now nearly completely gone. As an added bonus, the symptoms of colitis also subsided. I have celiac (allergy to gluten ­ e.g., wheat) and I learned that aspartame might cause symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). I think that the aspartame caused my colon to swell significantly, which caused the symptoms of colitis. In addition, the swelling must have put pressure on some nerves in my back. When I stopped drinking diet Pepsi (aspartame) the swelling went down, the pressure was relieved and the back pain went away. This allergic reaction to aspartame may be linked to my celiac or it may be just something that happened to me. If it is related to celiac, it is important to note that celiac is under diagnosed. Approximated one in 130 to 150 Americans has celiac. It is also important to note that I drank a lot of diet Pepsi for many years (about four 12 oz cans per day) before these symptoms emerged. -------------------- From: xxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx To: Bettym19@mindspring.com Subject: Aspartame ..should be illegal for innocent children PLEASE help protect the kids Date: Sat 9/9/2006 10:31 PM I am VERY upset about the legalization of this horrible substance,I do believe my very severe migraines ,borderline narcolepsy (even falling suddenly asleep while driving)weight gain, depression,depression about my weight gain, low thyroid,food addiction,memory loss,and while having severe migraines my eyes were so blurry I litterally couldn`t see,stress from the beleif that my migraines were going to KILL me,and poor night vision (inability to see distance and very dry eyes). I seriously believe all of these things listed have been directly caused by ASPARTAME that was in my Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper,I drank these things thinking they are "ok" since they ARE legal totally unaware of the horrible effects,I even allowed my daughter to chew gum and drink soft drinks with aspartame . I beleive this not only because of learnign about what it REALLY is but also because I did NOT have any of these problems until after I started drinking Diet Coke ,I know exectly when I started drinking diet coke because I had a step-grandmother who drank it (she was lead to believe it is Good for her since she was a diabetic) when her son married my mom ,we started buying Diet Coke and I started drinking it,not knowing any of the TRUTH about aspartame I kept consuming this poison that is brand named ASPARTAME. .... ------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 11:48 PM To: marystod@airmail.net; mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: Aspartame questionnaire Aspartame Consumer Safety Network Questionnaire Name xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx___________________ Age_32___ Sex: M__F_X_ Medical problems that you believe are caused from using aspartame: Seizure disorder, hypoglycemia, numbness in limbs, paresis in limbs, ringing & numbness in right ear, heart arrethmias, migraine headaches, arthritis. Why do you believe aspartame caused these problems? I use to drink 24-30 diet coke sodas daily. I had gastric bypass surgery and gave it up. I lost the weight and started drinking diet soda again. I started having problems that they doctors were unable to pin point the reason for. Spent several days in hospital. I stopped drinking soda again and was symptom free during that time. I started drinking the diet soda again and the symptoms started again. Did the symptoms go away when you stopped using the products? yes Did you see a Doctor about symptoms? yes Did Doctor think it related to aspartame? I haven't told the doctor about my find yet. Will do so this week. Did you report your symptoms to the FDA (Food & Drug Admin.) or any other group? No, this is my first bit of research What specific products) containing aspartame were you consuming when you experienced these symptoms? Diet Soda, ( Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke) On the average, what quantity were you consuming (how often, how much each time, etc.) Before the Gastric Bypass I was consuming 18-30 diet cokes daily for years. I stopped for 2 years and started back up about 6 months ago. Average consumed 6 to 8 daily. How long had you been consuming these products before you experienced the symptoms? Before the bypass, I didn't have many symptoms but obesity, headaches, arthritis. After bypass, within 6 months. FOR THOSE CONCERNED ABOUT WEIGHT: Did you begin using products with aspartame when you began a restricted calorie diet? Yes Did you use aspartame products only for some of your meals to save calories? No mostly in drinks Did aspartame seem to help you lose weight at first? NO What were the long term weight loss effects of using aspartame. Gain FOR THOSE WITH DIABETES: Any trouble controlling blood sugar while using aspartame? I do not have diabetes.. But I am hypoglycemic. My blood sugar drops reactive and fasting. Did using products affect the types of food you selected to eat? NO How? Did aspartame affect your desire for sweet tasting food or drink? I have a serious chocolate craving and other sweet or salty cravings. I have them more when I am drinking sodas -------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 8:47 AM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: Aspartame withdrawal symptoms I am a 38 year old diabetic woman (been diabetic since giving birth to my seven year old daughter). I have been drinking diet pops, mainly diet coke or pepsi max, for most of the last 25 years. I started drinking diet pop when my mum used to tell me about the ill effects of ingesting sugary drinks. I must admit that I drank up to 2 litres of pop daily for a lot of years, containing both aspartame and coffeine. I heard of an Italian research into the side effects of aspartame, and desided last year that I would reduce the intake of diet pops to be only for festivities. Then in about April this year I started feeling quite depressed, nauseated, irritable and I felt that my heart seemed to be beating harder, and went to the doctor. She suggested that because of my last few years,- loosing my husband, father-in-law and grandparents, breaking up with my new partner, desiding to move back to Norway to my own family etc. would all be contributing factors of my feeling "down". But I am not the depressive type, so when I went home, I looked up on caffeine on the internet, to see if that could have anything to do with it, which it had in a big way. I'd stopped drinking it approximately 3 weeks previous. But to my horror it also stated that aspartame as a sweetener could also make me feel this bad. I asked my doctor about the effects of aspartame in the body a year ago after reading about the Italian research, but he laughed at me and asked where I'd heard of that, and said anything in moderation is fine. I went home and continued drinking diet pop, but not as much as before. However I stopped drinking that and coffee at the same time,- went cold turkey, and got the withdrawal from both at the same time. I went through hell, but i made it through to the other side feeling on top of the world, and I only have small periods of "depression" if I drink big amounts of pop in one day. A few days after drinking a lot of pop, I get one or two days feeling a little down again. But the biggest proof I could get came when I had my 6 monthly diabetes checkup. Every time before the nurse asked me if I drink a lot of alcohol which I do not. Nevertheless the liver tests they do has showed up that my liver is abnormal, and showes symptoms as if I drink a lot. Every test that is, apart from the one taken approximately 3 months after stopping drinking diet pop. Now my liver is normal. I told the nurse I have stopped drinking diet pop, and she agreed with me that it could well have been the aspartame, and that the doctors don't know everything. The Italian research showed among other things that aspartame could turn into some form of alcohol in your liver...!!! I think that just prooved it in my case. I also had a lot of problems loosing weight before when I drank diet pop, but when I stopped I lost nearly 5 kiloes in 2 months. I also feel like I have a lot more energy, I don't snap at my daughter as much, I am over all a lot happier and feel great about life in general. So aspartame really played a big role in my life making me feel lethargic, out of puff and short tempered, and also gave me a lot of tummy problems. I've got IBS, but sinse I stopped taking aspartame, my symptoms have reduced a lot. I say "taking" on purpose, as I now class it as a type of drug. But be aware all you people out there, there are other sweeteners on the market which can be just as harmful as aspartame, so be very careful what you switch over to. The only one that I have found so far that can seem to be safe at the moment is STEVIA which is an old plant which the Japanese have used for nearly 20 years, and people in Brazil and Paraguay have used it for hundreds of years. I have a sister who is a homeopath, and she recommended stevia to me a little while ago, as an alternative to aspartame and other sweeteners. ------------------ From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxxx Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 11:33 PM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: Affected by Equal I have had many of the same symptoms as listed in the other letters including headaches, muscle weakness, short term memory loss, depression. But what really gave me a wake up call was the Bells Palsy. Bells Palsy is the unexplained paralysis of one side of the face. I started using Equal when it first started getting popular. I started with the headaches, then the short term memory loss and depression but not wanting to link it to Equal. Then the muscle weakness started with tingling in the back of my head and I started thinking it may be linked to the use of the equal but still continued to use it. Then (about 5 years ago) I woke up one morning with no control of the left side of my face. The Doctors diagnosis was Bell Palsy. They said they don't know what causes it. Since then I stop using Equal and the headaches stop, my short term memory has improved, the depression has stopped, the muscle weakness has stopped, the tingling is gone and the facial paralysis is 95% recovered. Unfortunately the facial paralysis will not 100% recover. After some time had passed since I had stopped using Equal I was curious if it really had something to do with the things I was experiencing so I started using it to see if it was all in me head. Within a few days I started having the headaches and tingling in the back of my head again. I know it's not in my head now it definitely is the Equal. ------------------ From: xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2006 2:12 PM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: Severe reaction to aspartame Hi my name is xxxxx xxxxxx, I'm a New Zealander that has recently moved to xxxxxxxxx to persue my accounting career. I have had severe reactions to aspartame over the past 6 years (since I was 21 years old) and have always wanted to contact an authority to let them know of my reaction but was unsure about who to contact. I have just been doing some research on the internet as I have recently bumped into an old friend who also has severe reactions to aspartame, this prompted me to do some investigating re how many people this effects and to what severity. I have accidently ingested aspartame twice since my initial reaction - as I was unsure about what caused it untill I narrowed it down to Diet Coke (and equal). The reactions I have had have been severe and life threatening and combine seziure, tachychardia, heart arrhythmia, sudden drop in blood pressure, chills, vomiting, nausea, dizzyness, surreal feeling, shock, severe sleepiness/drowsiness following attack, as well as headaches, inflammation and fatigue. I on constant guard when eating any processed food as I feel that I may not be lucky enough to survive the next reaction. I would like to know if it is compulsory for food manufacturers to label any products containing aspartame? I avoid any sweet food that I have not made myself from raw ingredients but would like to be able to eat out more. Prior to these reactions I had no history of bad health or any health problems and had no food or chemical allergies. Since the reactions I have become quite sensitive to some chemicals, things like petrol. ------------------ From: xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2006 10:03 PM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: aspartame Good evening. I was on the web searching for something not even pertaining to Aspartame. I know that i was meant to read your article,and testimonials from all of those men and women. Oh my gosh! I am not a pop drinker diet or other wise. But i consume a lot of yogurt. I was eating regular yogurt,no fat free etc.. When i came down with double pneumonia this past January,i had to go home with someone to take care of me. I have ill health due to some illnesses. My daughter eats Yo plait,fat free so i started eating that instead. I continued when i returned to my home. About a week ago, i realized that i was having headaches which i never get. And i had gone to my Dr. a couple of weeks before that, and they detected an irregular heart beat. I was shocked. I have a good heart. So i tried to figure out what i was eating that was different. And after reading the ingredients on the yogurt,i knew it was from the Aspartame. I immediately quit the yogurt. I haven't had a headache since which is a relief. When i go for my Dr. check up,i will find out about the irregular heart beat. Thank you for having that web site. A relieved reader. ----------------- Case from United Kingdom newspaper http://www.shropshirestar.com/show_article.php?aID=40475 December 19, 2005 Eve walks again after diet change A Shropshire woman who spent a year without the use of her legs has said she can now walk again after cutting the artificial sweetener aspartame from her diet. Eve Terry, 24, of Main Road, Pontesbury, is convinced that avoiding certain food and drink that contain the ingredient — such as low calorie yoghurts and soft drinks — has led directly to her remarkable recovery. In April 2004, Mrs Terry's face swelled up and drooped and she often felt tired, but doctors were at a loss to tell her what was wrong. "I looked like I had had a stroke and people kept coming up to me to ask me if I had," she said. "Then about three months later I woke up one morning and my legs just felt as if they wouldn’t hold me up." But in April of this year, Mrs Terry was referred to Dr Sarah Myhill, a GP based in Knighton, Powys, who immediately told her to cut aspartame out of her diet. Within six weeks, she had regained the use of her legs and her face was almost back to normal. Dr Myhill diagnosed Mrs Terry as having Bell’s Palsy, which is a disorder of the facial nerves. She was also found to have Gillian Barre Syndrome, which causes nervous system problems. ----------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx Date: 02/24/2006 02:37 PM To: Subject: Thank GOD, I am alive! Dear Mr. Jacobson, IF I live till March 7th 2006 I will be 71 years old! I will not attempt to hold you for too long, but PLEASE listen to my TRUE story. ASPARTAME, EQUAL, and NUTRASWEET is not safe for human consumption! I started to use EQUAL in early 1990's. 6 months into using Equal as a sugar substitute, I started to have seizures, somtimes twice a day. I went to 3 different doctors and had all kinds of tests run. All the tests came back that I was in good shape! I asked the last doctor, Dr. Xxxxxxxxx at the xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx Clinic, If I was in such a good shape, why was I having seizures, my hair falling out, my eyesight gone bad, and to make matters worse, I was losing my memory! I did not drive my car for over a year...for two reasons, I was afraid of having a seizure and hurting myself or someone else or killing one or the other, and because my memory was so bad I was afraid of leaving my home and not knowing where to return to my home! After three different doctors told me "I was in fine shape". I am a saved by the GRACE of GOD person and I began to pray to the LORD to help me solve this problem. My idea came from GOD by installing in what little brain I had left from using Equal, to start eliminating my foods one by one to see IF I could tell what was wrong! I told my hubby I was taking something into my system that was not agreeing with me....or I had cancer and not one test was finding it! So, the elimination started. I kept having the seizures, and etc.. I had been using Equal for 4 years by this time. In the process of elimination I only had one other to eliminate and that was Equal. I did not believe the FDA would approve something like that so destructive to mankind untill I quit using EQUAL and I quit having seizures! Never had another seizure....my hair quit falling out...my eyesight returned, and THANK GOD my memory returned. I called the consumer 800 number on the back of the Equal box and told the lady what I had lived through! She said " well you can't prove that because it (Equal) don't show up in the blood work". Well...I knew then that tests had been made to see if all the chemicals that makes up Equal would show up! Monsanto Chemical Company made sure when they put that chemical out to the public as a sugar that they would be protected! I know that when I quit using that "horror" called sugar substitute I got well again!!! You, the FDA and all that is involved will answer to The GOD of heaven one day and give an account for all the people that has suffered and died from the lies that you tell. Do you know what would be nice....IF YOU could help take it off the market!! Start telling the truth...what would you give in exchange for your SOUL???? There are 3 things MONEY can't buy HEALTH, HAPPINESS, and HEAVEN. My health has returned to me and I am not on any type of medication. THANK GOD, I am alive today to tell you my story. Won't you please help others? ----------------- Sierra Sun Readers write: aspartame http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20060223/Opinion/102230006/-1/OPINION Beware of aspartame February 23, 2006 I just read Henry Kliebenstein's article ("Steer clear of those artificial sweeteners" Sierra Sun page B2 Feb. 17) on artificial sweeteners and thank you for getting the word out. Just Google aspartame and poison and you will have a lot to write about. A year ago I thought I was going to die. I put everything in my wife's name and I had been feeling sick for a few years. I was getting allergies I never had before and highly sensitive to formaldehyde, which is in plywood and I work around. I could smell it across the street and had to stay away from it or have allergy symptoms. Last November I was starting to have debilitating pains in my hands. I thought I would have to stop working all together. I had poisoning symptoms so I Googled formaldehyde to see how bad it was in the products I work around and aspartame came up. I had been using aspartame in my coffee and everything you would put sugar on for four years and I was floored to find out it metabolizes into formaldehyde. I also saw stories that paralleled mine. I stopped taking this drug (aspartame) and all the symptoms went away - thank goodness. But I still couldn't get away from it. I was chewing gum with it and I found out we were giving chewable vitamins to our child that also contained the poison. Do you know there are about 500 products that have this in them? So do some reading online and get the word out please. ---------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2005 4:53 PM To: aspartame@holisticmed.com Subject: Fwd: Are you going lite? 92 symptoms on aspartame! I wanted to let you know that I was totally addicted to the "blue stuff." this year! It felt like my head was going to just EXPLODE! I have been on the stuff, for 10 years I realized. I went COLD TURKEY, and got to exerance withdrawls. I know I should not drink coffee, but I still do. I don't smoke, drink or other silly things. I also consider myself not to be to extreme "HEALTH NUT," because I try to make it all work together, my herbs and my modern times life style. I was raised on a farm, and could not get to the store. So we did everything we could on the farm and went to the store when we could. We lived a healthy life except when we got to buy stuff from the store which was a treat! Junk food to me is still a treat! I know a lot about herbs, such as STEVIA, and Pau d'Arco and Uva Ursi. Those are my three favorite herbs! I have since switched to Stevia. (http://www.owlsnestplantation.com/stevia_herb_stevia_powder_stevioside_bulk_stevia.asp) (I bought a pound, which is really lasting me!) I was in MAJOR PAIN, just shoot me kinda pain! Why do I blame the "blue stuff" because I took the blue stuff right in the middle of the worse of the withdrawls to see if that was "really it," IT WAS! I felt better! I won't touch that stuff anymore! I think took me nearly 3 weeks to really get over it! Maybe because I did see if it was the "blue stuff." ------------------------ From: xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx Subject: Please Help Ban Aspartame from New Mexico's Foods To: xxxxxxxxx@state.nm.us January 23, 2006 Dear Respected Person, I am a xx year old Middle School Counselor that works with youth ages 11-14 here in xxxxxxxx, New Mexico. I see an average of 30 students a week in individual counseling sessions dealing with issues ranging from peer conflict, effects of family's drug use (methamphetamines in particular), all the way to suicidal ideation and clinical depression. The last two issues are the ones I would like to emphasize in this letter, as they deal directly with the effects of aspartame ingestion. Aspartame Suppresses the Levels of Serotonin in the Brain Serotonin is a naturally produced brain chemical that is necessary for healthy functioning and emotional well-being. We know that low levels of seratonin correlate with depression. When interviewing students on the circumstances surrounding their depressive symptons, I inquire about the ingestion of sugar-free gum and diet sodas, both of which contain aspartame. 9 times out of 10 the students indicate regular aspartame ingestion... I inform them on the effects of aspartame ingestion, and ask for them to discontinue use of products containing aspartame. During follow-up, all complying students report a significant reduction in depressive symptoms. According to one recent report, 5 suicides have been linked to aspartame ingestion. Please do all you can to pave the path to ban aspartame from our food, drinks, candy, and gum. We must look out for the well-being of our unsuspecting youth (as well as others). It is our moral, ethical and legal obligation to do so. As a person of power within our govenmental structure of our great state, please do your part to protect our citizens. --------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: 08:19 PM 12/26/2005 To: WNHO-Aspartame-Information@yahoogroups.com Subject: Atypical Facial Pain Hi Everyone, My name is xxxxx. New member. I've been consuming NutraSweet for 2 1/2 years and suffer from Atypical Facial Pain (one of the 92 side effects of Aspartame. After reading an article online about Aspartame and my condition I stopped drinking diet pop 3 weeks ago. The pain is decreasing. I take 1/2 of the medication that I was for pain. I haven't been able to locate any information on how long it takes to recover from the side effects of Aspartame or if the condition I have will be permanent. Has anyone in the group recovered from their side effects? Any information would be very helpful to me. Thank you. --------------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2005 3:01 AM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: Aspartame Testimonial From Los Angeles, CA In 1985, I was a sophomore at the University of California, San Diego. That's when I began drinking diet coke regularly. I didn't drink coffee. By the spring of 1986, I was starting to notice that my health and mental abilities were deteriorating. My illness escalated rapidly one evening when I was struck with a strange high fever, unlike anything I had experienced previously. My neck was swollen out to my jaw line, and I was shaking all night. In the morning, I went to the student health center. The nurse who saw me said, "It looks like you have a healthy case of mono." However, the mono test came back negative. Next, they tested for strep, and that was negative, too. On a third visit, they sent me away with a diagnosis of tonsillitis. I knew it wasn't tonsillitis, but I did not seek further treatment at that time. I never really got better. Over the next several months, I continued to grow increasingly ill in some alarming ways. What I noticed first was that I had a constant sore throat. I also had chronic severe headaches and low-grade fevers. I was profoundly tired all of the time. One morning, I woke up with a stabbing pain in my eye. It was bright red. Again, I sought treatment at the student health center. They gave me drops for conjunctivitis, despite my insistence that this was not pink eye. A few days later, the pain was unbearable, and they referred me to a specialist who diagnosed iritis, a condition in which the body's immune system attacks the iris. Untreated, it can lead to blindness. My eye responded to treatment, but I began having unusual eye infections and irritations fairly regularly after that. In the fall, I had a painful outbreak of shingles at the base of my spine. It felt as if my body were falling apart. I slept much more than my friends, but I rarely felt rested. I started having one strange complaint after another. My hair would come out and my toenails would fall off. I was sensitive to bright light. I developed mild mitral valve prolapse (a type of heart murmur). I had one vaginal infection after another for no apparent reason, and my urethra was frequently irritated. My bowel movements were never "normal." I either had diarrhea or constipation or strange ribbon-like stools. By early 1987, I was starting to experience severe depression and memory problems. I had always been a top student, with strong verbal skills. I was a literature major, and I knew something was going horribly wrong when I began having difficulty retrieving words. Thinking I might have pms for the lack of any other plausible explanation, I went back to the health center. They referred me to the on-campus psychological counseling office, where I was diagnosed with depression. I had sensations that my body was not quite solid, as if I were dissolving. However, I knew that was I was experiencing was not primarily a mental health problem. It's as if I had suddenly gone from being a 20-year-old active co-ed to getting stuck in a 90-year-old's failing body. I was an athlete in highschool and had always been quite physically active. I had been an honor student since junior highschool, and was always involved in lots of extracurricular activities. However, as my physical deterioration continued, even light exertion could cause me to drop to the floor from dizziness and exhaustion. As things progressed, I developed fibromyalgia. I remember telling my mother, "I feel so tired that my bones ache." I had recurring laryngitis, conjunctivitis, yeast infections, bladder infections, and fairly severe irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). My throat was nearly always painfully raw. I started having outbreaks of eczema and strange rashes that no one I consulted could diagnose. I continued drinking diet coke and chewing gum with aspartame throughout college, but I never suspected a connection with my illness. In graduate school, I would attend classes in the evenings, but I had no energy for anything other than struggling to keep my grades up despite the "brain fog" that was almost always present. I was a member of Mensa, and had always been a top student. However, by this point, it was a real struggle for me to string two thoughts together. Under stress, I'd stammer and struggle to say what I was thinking, which was a dramatic change from how I'd been previously. My roommate attended class, held a part-time job, and had an active social life. Whereas, I'd sleep in 14-hour stretches and wake with barely enough energy or focus to complete my studies. Writing was excruciating because I so uncomfortable, tired, and mentally slowed. My frequent visits to the on-campus health services continued for persistent infections, inflammations, and other mysterious complaints. I graduated in 1990, and started my career. When I saw the first reports on television about Gulf War Syndrome, I told my mom, "I know this sounds crazy, but I have what those guys have." Their testimonials matched what I was experiencing so closely. I felt strongly at the time that there must be a connection. A couple of years later, as my aspartame consumption was tapering off, I had a bout of episcleritis. It's similar to iritis but less serious. The ophthalmologist took a health history and recommended strongly that I consult a rheumatologist. After an extensive round of tests, she diagnosed me with CFIDS and fibromyalgia. The only lab results that came back abnormal on a regular basis were my sed rate tests. She assured me that my symptoms were not "all in my head." Upon receiving the IBS diagnosis from a gastroenterologist, I stopped drinking sodas. From that point on, my health started to improve. For years, I wondered what had made me so sick for most of my twenties. I thought I might have been accidentally exposed to an experimental pathogen or toxic weapon because that sort of research was conducted in the area where my college campus is. I even had a titer drawn for brucellosis because they manufactured a weaponized version of it near where I lived. (They sold some of it to Sadam Hussein, so I took this possibility seriously.) However, my test came back negative. I turned 40 this year and now enjoy excellent health. I feel ten times younger than when I was in my twenties. I attribute this improvement to cutting out aspartame entirely when I started working with a naturopathic physician three years ago. I sleep, exercise, socialize, work, think, and feel like a "normal" person again. I feel as if about 95% of my mental capacity is restored. NOTE: I think it's interesting that La Jolla, the location of my college campus was when my illness started, has been identified as a "hot spot" for the CFIDS epidemic. We would get our diet coke in cases from the Price Club (before it became a Costco). Is it possible that diet coke sold in the area sat in some hot warehouse to a point where the beverages became toxic? I'll be glad to answer any questions or provide more information in support of raising public awareness of the severe threat aspartame poses to those of us who have adverse reactions to it. ---------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx To: Dr. Betty Martini,D.Hum. [Bettym19@mindspring.com] Subject: aspartame and other poisons Date: 02:41 PM 4/5/2006 sorry, but i'm not very good at computer mail yet.in the spring and summer of 2004 i became very sick.after doctor and er visits and an overnite hospital stay, i found the cause of my illness.thanks to you and my computer i learned about aspartame poisoning. i dumped the poisonous garbage and got immediately relief.now i have a very severe sensitivity to the poisons (i'm not going to be politically correct and call them toxins) in all products containing fragrance. apparently aspartame opened the door and renuzit air freshener was the trigger. i'm writing a book that could possibly blow the lid off the callous, despicable disciples of satan who put these debilitating concoctions on the market. if it's as good as the people who've read some of it, it'll certainly have people talking. it will not be like anything written in the past, not even close. hopefully my health will allow it to be finished in a month or two.it will be titled xxxxxxxxx. i truly believe GOD put HIS hand on your shoulder and told you to do everthing in your power to alert people to the dangers of aspartame. i also believe HE put HIS hand on my shoulder and told me to write my book. i'm not a "writer" and never in my wildest dreams did i think my little world would come to this. they poisoned me the first time and i let them slide. now, after they poisoned me again, it's high time they were made to pay up. i won't close with GOD BLESS YOU, because he already has. ----------------- From: xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx Sent: Sunday, February 5, 2006 04:58 PM To: Dr. Betty Martini Subject: Aspartame and New Mexico Glad to hear you are also aware of this problem. I have am allergic to aspartame also. I have to be so incredibly careful what I eat but unfortunatley I injested diet pop in an alcoholic beverage a few weeks ago sending me into emerg at a local hospital. Seems each time my reaction is more severe. My parents heard that Mexico is going to ban it so if you have any information on this please forward it to me. People need to know what it does !! ---------------- Home » blogs » Paula P.'s blog Can Diet Soda and Sugarless Gum Cause Cancer? http://www.progressiveu.org/150845-can-diet-soda-and-sugarless-gum-cause-cancer I've been avoiding aspartame ever since I figured out that it was giving me migraine headaches. I had heard that there were thousands of complaints of adverse effects almost a decade ago. My daughter developed a blister under her tongue after chewing sugarless gum. Thank God this gentleman in Italy researched the use of aspartame more thoroughly. He very well may be saving thousands from suffering and death. Aspartame is made from toxins. Avoid it like the plague. Read it here for yourself and you decide. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12sweet.html?_r=1&oref=slogin --------------------- From: xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2005 12:16 PM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: nutra sweet poisening Dear Mark, i found the site on the internet and just need to share my story. About 6 weeks ago, my boyfriend came home from the grocery with a box of 100 packets of Nutra sweet for our coffee. Usually I use Splenda and have had no adverse reaction to it. Closing in on Thanksgiving, i noticed i was developing lower back pain, joint hip pain and an overall sense of not being able to get out of bed in the morning. I related it to shoveling snow...maybe i strained muscles...but it continued and began to scare me. Was i sick? Right before Christmas day it occurred to me it was getting worse...deep, arthritic pain (i'm 46) and although i do have some degenerative arthritis...the onset was so sudden and strong....i knew it had to be something else. It came to me just after Christmas day....the nutra sweet. I immediately stopped drinking it in my coffee and with in TWO DAYS the pain was completely GONE....i am convinced it was the nutra sweet poisening me....just wanted to share this with someone who is aware of it's dangers. thank you, ---------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx Subject: Tumor, memory and vision problems Date: 10/15/2005 12:10 PM I'm new to the group and still trying to learn how to communicate with other members. Please forgive me if I am posting this to the wrong address or in the wrong place. (My email is xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) I recently reported my memory loss and vision problems caused by asprtame to the FDA Medwatch. I wanted to thank you for all of the good work you've done to educate the public about aspartame. I'm still learning how to comm I've consumed high levels of aspartame for years became I believed it wouldn't have gotten FDA approval if it wasn't safe. About a year ago I started to notice that I was having word finding difficulty and frequent lapses in short term memory. As this became progressively worse I became worried about my ability to remain gainfully employed. While researching memory problems I found various articles written by you and others about the dangers of aspartame usage. As an experiment I stopped using aspartame for 2 months. Within the first 2 weeks my carbohydrates and sweet cravings started to diminish. But the biggest surprise was the drastic improvement I've seen in my short-term memory and visual acuity. I've had various health problems since I started ingesting aspartame. I developed a non-malignant cranial nerve brain tumor in 1990. It was growing inside the cranium at the root of the 7th cranial nerve. The excision caused the left side of my face to be permanently paralyzed. My question is...Is there a connection between heavy aspartame use and non malignant neurolimas, neuromas or crainal nerve tumors? Thank you for all the work you've done to spread the word about this poison. You've greatly improved the quality of my daily life! ------------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Saturday, December 10, 2005 6:21 AM To: aspartame@holisticmed.com Subject: Re: Aspartame I too experienced joint pain in my elbows and my thinking and eye sight were greatly effected by Aspartame I used to drink six cans of diet Coke a day and could not figure out what was happening to me I could not sleep at night I was making alot of mistakes doing order picking at work I could not remember things very well, now I don't even want to touch a diet soda. ---------------------- From: xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 1:09 PM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: Aspartame Use I was a person that used aspartame regularly in everything as a sugar substitute. Coffee, soda, cakes, pies, even gum. Over time I became very very ill. I didn't know what was wrong with me , doctors didn't know what was wrong with me. I was slowly increasingly getting sicker. I had extreme joint pain I could barely walk from the parking lot at work to my desk. I'd have to leave 30 minutes earlier than usual just to allow the time to walk in. Elderly people at the stores would pass me. I was slowly deteriorating. Some doctors thought it was fibromalagia in which there is no cure. I had no energy, I was always feeling nausea I am only 37 years old and I knew there was something wrong but I didn't know what. I began feeling very sick instantly after drinking or eating aspartame. I decide to stop using aspartame because that was the only change that I had made previous the onset of my condition. I began to drink detox tea and went back to using sugar. I immediately felt better and as time passed the joint pain has stopped. Still to this day if I accidental consume an aspartame product I feel the effects immediately after ingesting the substance, so quick that I don't even have time to finish the product before I discard it because of feeling ill. I was feeding these products to my at the time small children and I'm so devastated to know that I may have hurt them. I thought that I was doing something healthy for them. I didn't know that this substance was unsafe. I believed that if it was being used in a product that it was tested and approved to be safe. Our lives were definitely touched by aspartame and it will effect our household always in the way we eat, drink and buy products. We will always use sugar from now on. I hope that my feedback is not overlooked and that action would be taken to remove aspartame from the market. I may have very well continiued wih the consumption of this product without second guessing my diet decisions. --------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx To: bettym19@mindspring.com Date: 01:58 PM 11/18/2005 Subject: Aspartame and MS Understand you are compiling a list of aspartame victims - my husband spent most of last hear flat on his back , had tons of tests with all convinced he had ms until he had clear mris...eliminated aspartame and he has had only one more "bout" in 8 months - which we think we can track to accidental aspartame ingestion. If you know of anyone doing anything to combat the sale and use of this horrible drug in America, please let me know. ----------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Sunday, October 16, 2005 4:26 PM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: Toasted my brain on aspartame Hello, I'm a former National Merit Scholar and University Student. I say "former" because aspartame has utterly butchered my brain. That's right. I was a 21 year old with a bright future and an even brighter mind. Traditionally, I've scored anywhere between 130-150 on IQ tests with ease. On a recent exam, I nailed just 98 -- with difficulty. My mental capacity has been severely, dramatically, and -- perhaps -- permanently altered due to excess consumption of this chemical disaster. In the midst of a severe depression, I swilled the stuff in ridiculously extreme amounts. Three 44oz drinks a day were not uncommon. Looking back, it's easy to conjecture that Diet Coke actually instigated and aggravated my psychological problems. As a statistic of one, I offer the following observations about my experiences, written as honestly as I can muster. In the beginning, I was an extraordinary skeptic. Diet Coke was my favorite drink, and I trusted the industry funded studies above all alarmist "nonsense". People I knew warned me about how my habits could affect me, especially given my talents, but I shrugged them off. "MIT dosed people with 14,000 grams of the stuff," I'd say, "it's safer than water!" How wrong I was. I thought my addiction was merely caffeine, but caffeine never satiated me. I always craved the sweet fizzy brew; a chemical junky, always on the hunt for my next brain fix. Over the months, as my appetite and consumption of aspartame increased to absurdist levels, I noticed the following: 1. It caused me to stop thinking. I recall having an exceptionally clear mind -- sharp, precise, and swift. After drinking aspartame, I noticed a very clear annihilation of my memory. I could not broach topics or relate ideas. People would ask questions like "What was your favorite movie with actor X?" I simply could not link those words to a face or picture in my mind. It's as if someone were speaking Spanish. You do not know how disconcerting this is until it occurs. 2. It gave me neurological and heart disorders. At the height of my consumption, the ring and pinky fingers of my left hand went COMPLETELY NUMB FOR TWO WEEKS STRAIGHT. Simultaneously, I experienced a discomfort and thudding sensation in my chest, as though my heart were overworked and on the verge of failure. As is usual with these circumstances, physicians could find "nothing wrong with me". I've NEVER had conditions like these in the entirety of my life, and WHAM. 3. I became profoundly forgetful and dissociated, as though I were walking through a dream or under heavy medication. Daily events and situations ceased to have any personal meaning to me. It's as though I'd taken a novocain shot to the cranium. 4. I sunk into the darkest depression I've ever known. My emotions were so out of control I'd get dry heaves, have suicidal ideation, sit motionless for hours, lock the door and stay in bed, etc. etc. Had this happened before? Did I have a history of mental illness? No. All of this and I hadn't even hit the ADI! My doc says many of my cognitive difficulties were probably due to the huge amounts of caffeine I was consuming. Bullshit. Ladies and Gentlemen, I've imbibed every caffeinated concoction on the planet in copious quantity: coffee, tea, regular cola, cappucino, hot chocolate, whatever, and NONE of them have given me symptoms like this. On the contrary, they usually offer a temporary nootropic affect, giving me better focus. If you're considering drinking the stuff, consider this: if any ONE of the three deadly toxins in this hell-molecule lives up to its potential, you're causing slow, irreparable damage to yourself. Not just your body but to YOU, your mind. Aspartame wears things away, erodes them at a level you can't perceive. One day, you could conceivably wake up and feel 75%. Or 60%. Or 20%. After four months without, I still feel as though I'm recovering from a traumatic head injury. My physical symptoms are long gone, as is my depression. My slowness of thought and memory have markedly improved. Overall, I can only pray that my mind will completely recover with time... if not, I'm purely thankful to have abstained when I did. I very much appreciate life now. There's a humble old adage that applies very, very well here: "Where there's smoke, there's fire." And there's a good damn deal of smoke around. BURN MONSANTO! [Followup] From: xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2005 10:26 PM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: Re: Toasted my brain on aspartame Mark, .... Thanks for your reply and your work. :) My memory and mental clarity continue to improve on a day-to-day basis. I simply cannot express how disturbing my inability to think was... and how utterly pleased I am that a road to recovery has opened. --------------- From: xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 8:13 AM To: aspartame@holisticmed.com Subject: Aspartame symtoms Hello. Great Website! People need to be made aware of the dangers of aspartame. I am 25 years old and reside in England. I used to drink bottles and bottles of aspartame sweetened cooldrink, eat aspartame sweetened yoghurt ect. Ha, ha, I thought I was helping myself lose weight. The worse of my problems was symptoms of diabetes. I was certain that I had diabetes and had myself tested. According to my first test results I was diabetic, then I learned about the dangers of aspartame, cut it out of my diet and everything returned to normal. The symptoms I had was: * Excessive depression * Extreme hunger (resulting in a 12 kilogram weight gain) * Symptoms of diabetes (drastic drop in bloodsugar levels making me shaky untill I eat something sweet) * Extreme, unexplained, tiredness (I used to get up at 6 am, I worked part time untill 13h00, then came home, had lunch and go to sleep untill 17h00, had dinner and went to bed around 20h00, many times even earlier) * Uncontrolled Uretera infections * Drastic drop in body temperature, making me shake with shivers in the afternoons even though the heating in the house was running. At 24 I thought that my life was basicly over, because I had no normal life anymore. Untill I learned about aspartame. Now that I have cut it out of my diet all these symptoms have disappeared. I am living a normal life now, keeping up with a full time job and other activities. I am not controlled by hunger anymore, have lost all the weight I gained and I don't feel depressed anymore. No more shakes and shivers! What a difference it made! ----------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxxx Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 10:50 AM To: aspartame@holisticmed.com Subject: My experience Recently my sister forwarded to me an email about the dangers of using artificial sweeteners. I wanted to share with you my recent experience. I have been using artificial sweeteners for many, many years...but in moderation. Recently however I starting drinking 4-6 glasses of Crystal Light, plus drinking diet pop in the evening. I was attempting to lose weight. However I started to experience severe vertigo, stomach aches and some other symptoms. Vertigo runs in my family so I didn't think too much about it except that it seemed different from other times. THEN, I read the article that had been sitting in my in basket. I was so surprised about the dangers of aspartame and what I was doing to my body. Coincidently I also had run out of my Crystal Light so I went back to drinking bottled water. All of my symptoms, the vertigo, stomach aches and asthma went away. I will now try to completely eliminate this poison from my diet. I am now spreading the word to my co-workers and friends. Thanks -------------- I didn't read the email but..... xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx HealthyMOM Forum http://www.teachingmom.com/boards/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=5&msgid=8409 Posted at 1:12 pm on Feb 17, 2006 I do know that I get very sick when I have aspartame and that I'm not the only one. Of my own personal friends I know *at least* 8 of them have serious health problems if they have it. Some of them have seizures, others vomit, some just have minor symptoms. I avoid it as much as possible and I won't touch diet pop. xxxxx ------------------------- To: bettym19@mindspring.com From: xxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx Subject: Email To all xxxxxxxx residents Date: 12:54 AM 8/4/2005 Please find below a copy of the email I sent to a very wide xxxxxxxxxx based audience earlier this evening . The response in the last hour has been incredible. I hope many will take the opportunity to research for themselves further the issues on aspartame. -- .... Just four days ago I received an article in an email from a close friend. The wife of a former Army Air Core Helicopter Pilot who served during the 1982 conflict. The report was about the use of sweeteners that is found in many food and drink products. Because of my ongoing search for answers as to why my wife Mandy developed a life threatening brain tumour which required urgent surgery to remove and why our daughter Rachel has suffered from epilepsy since she was just 3 days old, I decided to check out the information given to me. I was horrified at what I discovered. I have since become a member of "Mission Possible International" and will begin to inform my fellow country people of the serious potential risks associated with Aspartame. Now I do not wish to bore you all with personal grievances, but the following might surprise you. Since we learned about aspartame and its deadly toxins, we did a search of items in our home and was amazed at just how many products contained aspartame. We decided to stop using any products immediately, that was four days ago and the results have been quite striking. Rachel as mentioned has regular night time seizures and until four days ago I personally do not remember a single night in the past 18 years that I have not had to attend her, usually several times in a single night. Well since we removed the aspartame products, especially the instant chocolate and diet mineral water. Rachel has not had a single attack in four consecutive nights. This is short of a miracle. I learned that aspartame can seriously affect the ability of regular prescribed drugs and it is highly probable that Rachel's medication was being affected. It also makes me wonder if Mandy's tumour was in fact directly linked to aspartame, it is certainly something we have to consider. .... ----------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx.xxx Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2005 04:13 PM To: Bettym19@mindspring.com Subject: Re: Personal Aspartame Story - Has to use epipen Hi Betty my name is Teresa France, I have had an known allergic reaction to aspartame since 1991. I stop breathing withing 6-10 minutes. Because of this I always carry an Epipen with me. everyone including my 5 year old son knows how to use the Epipen. If you would like more information, from my first black out in 1991 to me almost losing my life in 2002 from acciedently getting a diet drink from a major fast food place please contact me and I would be happy to share my story with you in an effort to get it off the market. I have been telling people for years that if they knew what I knew about it they would not touch it with a 10 foot pole, much less put it into there bodies. ---------------- The Willits News http://www.willitsnews.com/Stories/0,1413,253%257E26912%257E3053840,00.html?search=filter Richard Larson: At war with ASPARTAME By FaeWoodward Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - Staff Writer Struggling with his diabetic diet, Richard Larson, Willits resident, discovered a diet root beer that appealed to him and there were times he would drink a six pack in a day. That has all changed. I began having terrible headaches, he says. Finally, after seeing his physician and then checking out aspartame, a sweetener used in diet drinks, he eliminated what he calls a serious poison from his diet.. To say I was scared was the very least, he says remembering going for a CT scan to see if there was a brain tumor. Larson came to Willits 10 years ago with his father, the late Glen Larson. The two loved to hunt and fish. Glenn was a widower and son, Richard, had experienced a divorce. Arriving here in 1995, the pair settled on Pine Mountain and shared the outdoors activities they enjoyed. Today, Richard Larson is producer of redwood planter boxes, hope chests and bird houses, when he is not on the internet researching aspartame. Just call up aspartame (or aspertame) and headaches at Google on the internet, he invites. .... --------------- From: xxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx Subject: aspartame Date: Thursday, September 22, 2005 1:18 PM My husband is a vet and he was told a story by a client about someone who was diagnosed by the doctors with MS. A friend told her about aspartame which she stopped and all the symptoms disappeared. I had been suffering with mild dulling headaches for sometime, I stopped having aspartame and I haven't had a headache since. Not enough people know about the dangers of aspartame, it is all around us, it is very difficult to buy some products eg fruit squash, without aspartame. I will try to raise peoples' awareness of this problem ---------------- From: xxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 5:53 PM To: 'mgold@holisticmed.com' Subject: Aspartame Consumer Safety Network Questionnaire3 Aspartame Consumer Safety Network Questionnaire .... Q. Medical problems that you believe are caused from using aspartame: A. Hair loss, flicker vertigo, panic attacks, SICCA syndrome and chronic eye twitch. Q. Why do you believe aspartame caused these problems? A. I had none of these before Aspartame was introduced to the market. Q. Did the symptoms go away when you stopped using the products? A. They are all improving. No more flicker vertigo, hair is filling in, eyes feel better, decreased panic attacks. Q.Did you see a Doctor about symptoms? A. I was diagnosed with SICCA syndrome between 1985 and 1986. I did not See a Doctor for the flicker vertigo or panic attacks because they came on gradually over ten years and I was becoming accustomed to them until they got so bad I couldn't drive on the freeway. I started taking the canyon roads to work and back commuting 90 miles a day. I felt like I was going to fall off the face of the earth. I feared I'd never get to see my mom or dad before they passed away or go to the beach again and surf. I couldn't even handle being a passenger on the freeway at times. Q. Did Doctor think it related to aspartame? A. No, at the time it was new to the market and I had just used it daily but did not tell the physician. Q. Did you report your symptoms to the FDA (Food & Drug Admin.) or any other group? A. NO Q. What specific products(s) containing aspartame were you consuming when you experienced these symptoms? A. Mostly diet Cola and coffee. More recently Diet Coke from fountains. Q. On the average, what quantity were you consuming (how often, how much each time, etc.) A. In the mid 1980's I used about three packets of equal and drank at least six cans of Diet Cola a day. I quit around 1986 and sometime around 1990 I started drinking it again and had no eye twitch so I kept drinking it. I drink about 12 oz. a day at lunch and on the weekend would drink a 44oz. each day and sometimes get a refill. I would drive to do errands and shop without AC in the summer with the drink in my truck and I would drink it with the ice melted. Q. How long had you been consuming these products before you experienced the symptoms? A. The eye twitch and SICCA Syndrome developed within months of use after it was introduced. A year later I still had the twitch and out of desperation I stopped consuming Nutrasweet since I had heard it cause seizure activity in lab test on animals. The twitch went away and I attributed it to Nutrasweet. My concern was that I do not tolerate sugar. If I have a candy bar or a cola my face will break out with pimples and that will last me a week. As long as I avoid sweets my skin stays clear. In regard to weight, when I quit consuming aspartame (approx. 1 year ago) I was 5' 11" and weighed between 183 and 186. Now I weigh 175 lbs.and I have not implemented an exercise routine although I felt I was able to reduce my consumption on the weekends when I have heavy gardening, lawn mowing, etc. without feeling like I was getting low blood sugar and that is how I felt when I was drinking Diet cokes. I felt as if I ate a little less, I could not perform the work without experiencing hypoglycemic symptoms. I am an LVN so that is why I have used common terminology. The term flicker vertigo is new to me since I have been informed of the dangers of aspartame. If I had recognized dizziness I would have seen a physician but this is much different than dizziness. I developed a fear of heights and the sensation of driving was not too bad but the flickering of shadows passing by at high speed and cars passing, trees passing became like an information overload and it felt like the road and the car were giving me so much sensation I was afraid to turn my head because if I turned it to look behind it meant I had to turn back which added more flicker vertigo and I would start to panic and slow down. When I slowed down more cars would come from behind and pass and I would have to get off the freeway at the very first chance I had. That is why I stopped using the freeway. My wife was having a problem with hair loss and when she went to GNC to find something to help with her hair, their salesman told her about aspartame. I was lucky to hear from my wife what she was told because it made me curious and I looked it up online. When I read the common effects of Aspartame toxicity I immediately realized what was wrong with me and quit all Aspartame consumption. I no longer experience flicker vertigo and I do have some left over anxiety pangs in certain situations on the freeway. I was shocked I could drive from one onramp to the next offramp without an attack. I drive on the freeway now with confidence, but I'm not quite the same as I used to be. I am seeing improvement much of the time and I hope to forever lose the freeway phobia aspartame toxicity has burned into my memory. I have restored hope in a future of being with loved ones and having fun going places again. I used to worry about my career being destroyed over my transportation dilemma and losing my house and wife and nobody knew what I was going through. Now I tell everybody I can about this. ------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2005 3:40 PM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: aspatame poisoning Dear Mr. Gold, Several years ago I was doing a Weight Watchers diet program. I developed terrible abdominal pains, as intense as labor. My doctor did all aorts of tests and found nothing except my wallet. He kept asking me what I was doing different and of course not realizing it was aspartame I could think of nothing. Eventually I quit the diet, lost weight but was always bloated. I figured I was just getting old and losing my shape at 40 something. Out of the blue months later I figured out and I don't know how--that it was the diet stuff. A few years later my son went to the hospital with terrible abdominal pains and vomiting. About a year later he consumed 2 liters of pink diet grapefruit juice and had a migraine so bad he crawled to our family car. He was 16 at the time. They found nothing wrong with him. Since then we realized since I had "allergy" to it, apparently he does also--some allergy--it is just plain poison. He has gotten into it several times at picnics with diet jello stuff and Crystal lite. He gets migraines and his face and tongue go numb. He has to cook all his own food at college because his roommates will not quit using the garbage and he gets terribly ill. When I started studying aspartame more, I discovered that when I was using it I had developed large fibroid tumors resulting in a hysterectomy. I also had blurred vision, a feeling of spaciness, leg twitching, headaches, lip twitching, and bloating. I never realized until later that all those things were most likely caused by "the poison" I was consuming. This is a crime that the FDA does not take this hideous garbage off the market--the health of our American people would improve greatly just by not using aspartame. Seizures and headaches alone would probably come down greatly. .... ------------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Monday, June 27, 2005 1:52 PM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: Poison Mark, Seven years ago I went on a diet and lost a lot of weight one of the things I did was add all diet drinks and sweeteners to my diet. Shortly after starting this new eating lifestyle I started having the following symptoms; Headaches/migraines Menstrual cramps Fatigue Memory loss Tingling hands Heart palpitations Depression Stomach pains Insomnia Gastritis Eye twitching Back pain Joint and muscle pain Allergic to all antibiotics (started 5 years ago almost killed me) Sensitivity to all medications My dr. thought I was a hypochondriac I was constantly in his office with another complaint he tested me for lupus, ms, fibromyalgia, lymes disease, arthritis and depression. They found no positive results. It left me for years just treating the symptoms with medication and then 5 years ago I started have allergic reactions to every medication they put me on. Is this a common symptom? I have been aspartame free for 2 months and feel much better. I tried to drink a new Coke zero this weekend and I have been sick since. I know it’s the aspartame that has poisoned me. ----------------- From: xxxxx@xxxx.xxx To: Dr. Betty Martini,D.Hum. Subject: [Apartame Lawsuit MS symptoms disappeared off aspartame] Date: Wednesday, October 05, 2005 1:00 AM Betty, I am overwhelmed by all the stories on the Internet on aspartame poisoning. I live in the Tulsa area. Is xxxxx xxxxxxx really the attorney for this suit? I believe aspartame made me have MS or appear to have MS. Has it been proven that aspartame causes brain lesions? Within 6 weeks of giving up diet soda, my MS symptoms disappeared. .... --------------- From: xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 12:51 PM To: mgold@holisticmed.com Subject: Aspartame Hello, I just thought I should share my reactions to aspartame with you. At first I would just get headaches from it. Then I would leave it alone and try it again at a later date. Well, my reaction in the past 2 years have been something altogether different. If I have any slight bit of aspartame, I have severe pain in my abdomen. Followed by an hourly vomit session until all of my stomach content is expelled. I seem to have an excessive amount of bile in the vomitus. Anyway, that's been my experience. -------------- Forum: Homesteading Today > General Homesteading Forums > Countryside Families Subject: Another vote against nutrasweet http://homesteadingtoday.com/vb/showthread.php?t=100652 From: xxxxxxxxxxx Date: 10/05/2005, 06:30 PM For a few years, my doctor has told me I have Diabetes type II. I had gestational diabetes with three of my children and they said I basically "kept" it afterwards. After reading some things people posted here about Nutrasweet, I figured I better stop using it. Well, ever since I STOPPED using Nutrasweet, my blood sugar has been totally normal. PERFECTLY normal, not even a hint of diabetic tendency. Its been over 2 years now and its been the same way, no nutrasweet - no high blood sugar. I dont know if that was causing it or not, but I will never use it again! --------------- Forum: Homesteading Today > Country Living Forums > Cooking and Crafts http://homesteadingtoday.com/vb/showthread.php?t=100388 Date: 10-03-2005, 06:33 PM From: tinetine'sgoat Subject: Sugar alternatives??? I need to find some alternatives to white sugar that are lower calorie... I have quit using sweetners because I was feeling awful all of the time. I started reading everything I could get my hands on and found out what these sweetners break down to once they are in your body. It scared me bad enough that I no longer have any desire for a diet soda. And believe it or not my aches and pains are disapearing, my mood is improving and I'm begining to feel really good again. My concern is that I love my coffee with sugar and tea, lightly sweetned, but I'm not wild about switching to sugar now especially since I struggle with hypoglycemia and my families history of diabetes. Do you guys have any suggestions? I've heard that there are products available, but I'm not wanting to waste alot of money trying things that taste nasty. [Continued in another thread] Forum: Homesteading Today > General Homesteading Forums > Countryside Families Subject: Another vote against nutrasweet http://homesteadingtoday.com/vb/showthread.php?t=100652 From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date: 10/05/2005, 08:08 PM I have already posted some of this on cooking, so if you read it there bear with me. I was feeling AWFUL, hypoglycemia, had no energy, headaches all the time, muscle aches and pains, and Galactorreah (unexplained lactation) the whole ball of wax. Anyway, I went to the dr. had to do tons of tests and MRI junk, they thought it was a pituatary tumor, they found nothing, so my doc tried to diagnose me with depression. She gave me prozac, muscle relaxers and Ambien I was astounded that she had prescribed this after just 2 visits with her. Anyway on the way home I thought, I'm not depressed just stressed . I did not fit any of the criteria for depression that wasn't on the list of things for someone needing to relieve stress. So I didn't take any of the meds and would hate to have to start any. ANYWAY, I started reading and came across some articles related to sweetners and how they react in your body . I was amazed at what I was reading. So I decided to quit all sweetners. I feel like a different person. I dont have the sweet tooth that I did before and my "brainfog" is gone, I am sleeping better, the headaches are gone. I cannot believe the changes that I am feeling since I eliminated them. Anyway that is my .02. --------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 5:13 PM To: mgold@tiac.net Subject: aspartame I just read your article on dorway.com regarding aspartame. 9-10 years ago, I was diagnosed with “undifferentiated connective tissue disease” - whatever that is (a big name for something causing me a lot of pain, and no real idea what). Subsequently, I was diagnosed with Reynauds disease and fibromyalgia. I lived on the highest does of every nsaid out there. Had to take Darvocet or Vicodan at night for pain. Lived on antidepressants. My mother read several articles about he effects of aspartame - and knowing that I have drank only diet sodas since she can remember (I am now 41 yrs old), she urged my to stop using anything with aspartame in it. I told her she was crazy, but that I would give it 3 months. I saw my rheumatologist in July of 2004. On that day, he drew blood (as usual) and I told him I was going to give up anything with aspartame for 3 months. I then wanted to redraw my blood and see if there was a difference. He told me it was a waste of time. He had never heard of such nonsense. I went home that day (July 15) and gave it up. By the 3 month mark I had set for myself, I was able to cut my meds in half - completely eliminating my meds at night. I decided to continue since I did see a change. To this day, I am off everything. I have an occasional Aleve for “old age” pains, but no nsaids, no narcotics/analgesics, no antidepressants. I have not been back to me MD to tell him, but plan to soon. I truly believe it was the aspartame. Two months ago, I started dieting. I read labels for aspartame. I never thought yogurt would have aspartame in it, so I didn’t look. After eating this type of yogurt for 2 weeks, I was developing my old pains - hips, knees, neck, shoulders, fingers, etc. I decided to check the label and what do you know - aspartame. I stopped immediately and within one week, I was feeling better. .... ------------------- To: bettym19@mindspring.com From: xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx Subject: Another aspartame statistic vision problems, diabetes, etc. Date: 09:56 PM 5/31/2005 Dr. Martini, I was fortunate to have begun my own internet search for info about aspartame, in early December 2003. It only took a few hours to find enough evidence to convince me to totally abstain from this toxic substance. A recovering alcoholic (drank very heavily from adolescence to age 27), I had developed "reactive hypoglycemia" in 1981 (blood glucose level 34 mg/dl @ 3-1/2 hours into a 5 hr. GTT). To "treat" the hypoglycemia, I eliminated simple carbohydrates and sugars from my diet, and substituted sugar-sweetened sodas with diet drinks. The symptoms of the hypoglycemia abated, but within 7 years I became a very labile diabetic. I continued to use the aspartame-laden products for several years. My diabetes was extremely difficult to control, and other changes took place. After a bout with a bacterial pneumonia in the summer of 1991, with which I lost about 40 pounds, I have never been able to get my weight much above 150 lb. (I am 5' 10"). In 2001, I mysteriously developed high blood pressure, though my cardiac & circulatory condition proved excellent, and cholesterol and triglyceride levels were very good. The hypertension was treated successfully with lisinopril, for about a year, when the blood pressure began to increase again. The lisinopril dosage was doubled, and again the hypertension remained in control for about another year. At that point, my endocrinologist tried an array of antihypertensive drugs, from Clonidine to Lotrel and diuretics. The lack of any logical explanation for the high blood pressure caused me to take a careful look at my lifestyle. I had quit smoking cigarettes (April 1983), and the levels of stress were not significantly changed. The one thing that came to mind was the fact that I consumed moderately large quantities of diet soda, and other products containing aspartame. The aforementioned internet search soon took me to the Dorway website. After reading much of the info on that site, I immediately stopped using everything containing aspartame. At 3 months, one unexpected benefit was a complete disappearance of shoulder pain, formerly diagnosed by an orthopedic surgeon as "diabetic frozen shoulder". I can now actually shoot baskets with my daughter, and the range of motion has returned to almost normal. Also, my vision has actually improved, documented by semi-annual visits to my ophthalmologist. 20/55 left eye and 20/50 right eye has improved to 20/25 and 20/20! My intraocular pressure (22-23 in 2003) has dropped (17-18 in Feb. 2005). My complaints of "bright spots" diminished to almost nothing, but the Dr. is monitoring "background retinopathy" and a nevus near the optic nerve of the left eye. I shared with him my certainty that the improvements in vision are a direct result of stopping the use of aspartame. Other effects, unfortunately, have not subsided. At age 50, I suffer from moderately severe ED. The new drugs for treating this disorder have not been effective, nor was a trial of transdermal testosterone patches. My diabetes is still difficult to control, but better with an insulin pump (I am considered type 1, as there is no evidence of pancreatic function). The blood pressure continues to fluctuate at times, and I have difficulty with fatigue and inability to focus on my work (I am a manufacturing engineer). All this said, however, I can only consider myself fortunate to have learned of the dangers of aspartame when I did. I am certain that I would now be in much worse physical condition, perhaps even dead. I would guess that there are many thousands of people who have been permanently impaired and physically compromised by aspartame poisoning. Nonetheless, I am offering use of my information by you, or anyone else who is able to use it, for the furtherance of the cause of banning aspartame. It seems that the love of money truly is the root of this evil! ----------------- To: bettym19@mindspring.com From: xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx Subject: Aspartame Seizures Date: 9/9/05 7:14 PM I am e-mailing you because I don't know who to turn to with my problem concerning Aspartame Seizures. I wrote to xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx and I never received an answer back from him. I AM NOT A SPAMMER. I have had Aspartame seizures off and on since year 2001. I first experienced the seizures when I bought a box of Slimfast bars to eat at work. I am a janitor and I work alone. I felt fine before I ate the Slimfast bars, but than all of my left side including my face and tongue went numb and tingling. I thought I had a stroke until I spoke with one of the ladies who works at the building I clean, and she gave me an article on Aspartame. I also made another discovery with my Estrogen pill "PREMARIN" it also has Aspartame in the dye. I was getting petite mals in the stomach until I quit taking it. I didn't my doctor know any of this until I spoke to a lawyer. When I didn't receive an answer back from xxxxxxx xxxxxxx I went to see a lawyer in [Location] where I live, and he said, " I have to let my doctor know about this and be tested." My doctor knew nothing about Aspartame. He didn't know Aspartame causes seizures and brain tumors. Thoughts were running through my head, "OH G-R-E-A-T here I go educating another doctor!" I have an appointment set up with a Neurosurgeon for September 22, 2005, and all the research I have done on Aspartame I made sure I dropped copies of information off at Dr.Bakkers office ahead of time. On August 10th 2005 I went to see a diatition, and she knew "NOTHING" about Aspartame. I took a binder of information in with me, and the Diatition replied,"It's better for you to rely on the computer for your information than to talk to me because I know nothing about Aspartame. I sharply replied, "So it's better for me to go All Natural than to take my chances on the food industry? The Diatition said,"All her clients respond with the same attitude as mine when they leave her office also." i buy only ORGANIC FOOD, and I do not eat in restaurants anymore. Since I have gone all natural I have been seizure-free. I would like to file a class action lawsuit against the Aspartame Company. My Family Doctor said if I go through with this Aspartame test and have a seizure I could lose my driver's lisence, and than there goes my live-li-hood because I operate my own Janitorial Company myself. I need all the advice you can give me including on How To Deal With The Doctors Here In [Location] Concerning Aspartame. Having to deal with Aspartame Poison has limited me to the "Do's and Don'ts." Could you please help me with the class action lawsuit or give me some guidance on how to go about taking action against Aspartame. --------------- From: xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx Sent: Sunday, June 12, 2005 7: