ASPARTAME: A SAFE SWEETENER?
by Helen Lawler, MA and Leanne Wylet, BA
Would you knowingly buy soft drinks containing methanol, formaldehyde or formic acid? Would a Naturopathic Physician recommend soft drinks containing diketopiperazine (DKP) - a known cause of brain tumors, or phenylalanine - which depletes brain hormones such as serotonin?
The National Soft Drink Association had written to the FDA in 1983 that Aspartame was breaking down in warm climates.
Aspartame and Misdiagnosis
Aspartame (ASP) may cause or mimic various diseases including MS, Epstein-Barre post-polio symptoms, Lyme disease, PMS, carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis, Menier’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), Epilepsy, Multiple Sclerosis, EMS, and anxiety/phobia disorders, panic attacks, PMS, Graves’ disease, False memory Syndrom, brain tumors, fibromyalgia, stroke, heart disease, Hypothyrodism, attention deficit disorder (ADD) and other difficult-to-diagnose diseases. For example, an Aspartame-caused imbalance in the ratio of amino acids in the blood stream can be diagnosed as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
“Mary Nash Stoddard, who heads up the Aspartame Consumer Safety Network, Inc. (ACSN), has been diagnosed with that devastating EMS (Eosinophilia Myalgia Syndrome) because of here severe generalized aches and an elevated eosinophil count. When she stopped the ASP the disease disappeared”.
Aspartame and Brain Tumors
Dr. John Olney of Washington University in St. Louis analysed cancer statistics of the equivalent of 10% of
the US population since 1975. “(Olney and his colleagues) found that the introduction of Aspartame into the USA into dry goods in 1981 and soft drinks in approximately 10% in the reported incidence of brain tumors....They also found a change in the incidence of two particular types of brain tumors, with a reduction in the proportion of a relatively less aggressive (and often preliminary) type of tumore (astrocytomas) and a sharp increase in the incidence of a far more aggressive (and all to often terminal) type of tumor (globlastomas)”
Aspartame and Brain Function
According to Dr. Russel L. Blaylock, prof. of Neurosurgery at the Medical University of Mississippi, aspartate from aspartame kills neurons in the brain by allowing to much calcium into the cells. Infants, children, pregnant women, and the elderly are among the most vulnerable to this type of brain damage. Phenylalanine (Aspartame is 50% phenylalamine) interferes with normal serotonin levels in the brain. Low serotonin levels cause depression and other emotional
problems. According to Dr. Lendon Smith, “...serotonin is the neurotransmitter which tells the thyroid what to do...(Aspartame) may not actually case mental problems but can certainly trigger them by interfering with the ration of the various brain neurotransmitters.”
A study by Dr. Ralph G. Walton, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, on the effects of Aspartame on people with mood disorders was cut short because “some of the symptoms were so serious....”Dr. Walton concluded that individuals mood disorders was cut short because “some of the symptoms were so serious....Dr. Walton concluded that individuals with mood disorders are particularly sensitive to Aspartame.
Aspartame and Diabetes
Aspartame can be deadly to diabetics because formic acid - a by-product of Aspartame decomposition - causes metabolic acidosis. “According to Dr. H. J. Roberts, a diabetes specialist,... Aspartame: 1) Leads to the precipitation of clinical diabetes, 2) Causes poor diabetic control in ...
3) Leads to the aggravation of diabetic complications such as retinopathy, cataracts, neuropathy land gastroparesis. 4) Causes convulsions.
If you use Aspartame and have any of these symptoms, it’s advisable to discontinue use