well, I remember Saccharin... I remember the faces of those poor lab rats when they pleaded with us to stop using the killer sugar substitute... none of those lab rats won a Nobel prize or even received decent funerals, but they saved many lives... and it's happening again (a href=http://www.philkaplan.com/thefitnesstruth/sugar.htm target="_blank">maybe... the following is a bulletin from the [Aspartame Support Group] For Immediate Release: Aspartame Awareness Week, August 26 An epidemic rages around the world from aspartame disease, and endocrinologist H. J. Roberts, M.D. has declared it a world plague. Aspartame is marketed as NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, Canderal, etc. Additives are suppose to be inert but aspartame is a drug and interacts with other drugs including monoamine oxidase inhibitors, alpha-methyldopa and L-dihydroxphenylalanine, for starters. It changes brain chemistry. An FDA report lists 92 symptoms triggered by this neurotoxin from 4 types of seizures to coma and death. See More Info Aspartame is an abortifacient causing abortion, a teratogen, producing birth defects and an adjuvant, forms antigenic tissue. The ability of methyl alcohol/formaldehyde to create antigenicity, especially as combined in aspartame molecules is so great as to cause severe auto-immune reactions to the tissues deformed by formaldehyde polemerization, adduct formation. The immune system turns against the victim's tissues: Lupus! Aspartame destroys the central nervous system and mimics MS. See Dr. Roberts position paper at Memory loss #11 on the FDA list and is escalating Alzheimers Disease. (Defense Against Alzheimer's Disease - H. J. Roberts, M.D. 1 800 814-9800). Surgeon General Satcher says 22 million suffer from mental problems. Psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Walton says |
| "Depression is obviously a highly complex phenomenon, but over the past several years there has been overwhelming evidence one factor in the development of major depressive illness is decreased availability of serotonin. Serotonin is one of many so called neurotransmitters - chemical substances released into the synapse, or space, between brain cells. Information is transmitted from one cell to the other both chemically, via neurotransmitters such as serotonin and electrically. Antidepressants such as Prozac work by increasing the availability of serotonin in the synapse. The synthesis, or manufacture of serotonin in the brain is very much dependent on the availability of an amino acid building block, L-tryptophan. Multiple studies demonstrate that tryptophan depletion is associated with the development of depressive symptoms. Work done in Richard Wurtman's laboratory has demonstrated aspartame decreases the availability of L-tryptophan." |
Dr. Walton also said: |
| "The neurochemical impact of aspartame on the brain is fairly complicated. Not only does it decrease the availability of the building block for serotonin (L-tryptophan), but one of the two amino acids that comprise aspartame, phenylalanine is a precursor for another very important neurotransmitter, norepinephrine. Papers which I published in l986 and l993 discuss what I believe is the clinical impact (accentuating depressive illness) of altering the balance between these 2 neurotransmitters (norepinephrine and serotonin). There is evidence the therapeutic effect of antidepressants can be blocked by parachlorophenylalanine - a form of phenylalanine - one of the major constituents of aspartame. Administration of this substance has also been associated with aggression and binging." |
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Some consumers are mislead into believing that aspartame is a diet product. Dr. Walton says: |
"Food seeking behavior and satiety are driven by an area of the brain known as the hypothalamus. Stimulation of the medial hypothalamus in a lab rate leads to eating. Stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus leads to satiety and cessation of eating. Placing a lesion in the lateral hypothalamus produces an obese rate. The lateral hypothalamus is driven by serotonin. There are many papers in the current literature demonstrating antidepressants which increase serotonin (but not antidepressants which act on other neurotransmitters ) are useful in treating binge eating disorders. I believe consuming large amounts of aspartame decreases the availability of serotonin and is thus analogous to placing a lesion in the lateral hypothalamus. Although much of this work is recent, clinical suggestions that aspartame can lead to a paradoxical increased appetite date back to Blunder's work of l986. An evolving view in modern psychiatry is that although depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, impulse control disorders and eating disorders have historically been viewed as separate entities, in fact they should be viewed as a continuum of disorders all involving some degree of dysregulation of serotonin. I believe at this time there is overwhelming evidence that aspartame contributes to this dysregulation." |
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In Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills by neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D. (505 474-030 or amazon.com) he says the hypothalamus controls hunger and satiety, sleep and waking cycles, the autonomic system, emotions and even our biological clocks. He says |
"Even minor injuries to the hypothalamus can be fatal. It is extremely delicate both physically and biochemically." |
Aspartame can damage the hypothalamus and in a paper by Dr. Blaylock on the subject he says |
"When the hypothalamus is exposed to excitotoxins early in life, the neural connections are often misdirected. Something I have called, miswiring of the brain. What this means is that a miswired hypothalamus will not react normally to the internal and external environmental cues that normally control our endocrine system. This could lead to infertility, hypothyroidism, adrenal hypoactivity, growth retardation and even emotional or intellectual problems later in life. All of these have been reported in studies using excitotoxin models. " |
He also says: |
"Many other problems have been traced to excitotoxin damage to the hypothalamus. For example, it is known that exposure of infants to high dose excitotoxins can result in immune system impairment throughout life. This would translate into more infections, cancer and auto immune disease." "Recently, Trocho and co-workers discovered that the methanol in aspartame appears to attach to the DNA of cells, after it is metabolized to formaldehyde and is not only very difficult to remove, but results in numerous DNA deletion injuries. This could increase cancer risk as well as risk of other degenerative diseases, such as lupus, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease." |
Dr. Blaylock writes on the effect of excitotoxins on the sympathetic nervous system-controlling centers in the hypothalamus: |
"Over stimulation could result in cardiac electrical abnormalities leading to sudden death. This has been demonstrated by hypothalalamic stimulation experiments. There have been clinical reports of cardiac related emergency room visits following a meal high in excitotoxin additives. Sudden deaths following such meals have also been reported. Since most hospitals rarely consider this in their differential diagnosis, we have no accurate data as to the number of ER visits and deaths related to this event. I suspect the numbers would be quite high." |
Dr. H. J. Roberts in a position paper on www.dorway.com on Cardiac and Chest Complaints Attributed To Use of Aspartame (NutraSweet) products also writes about sudden death: |
"More than 200 individuals in my series experienced a detectable change in their heart rate or rhythm after consuming aspartame - including gum and products that did not contain caffeine. this consisted of "fluttering"(palpitations), skipped beats, and rapid heart action (tachycardia) with associated weakness and faint. A number even under-went heart rhythm (Hoiter) monitoring and other studies." "One patient developed a slow pulse and complete heart block within hours after consuming an aspartame drink for the first time. His attack spontaneously subsided within a day without requiring a pacemaker. There has been no recurrence with continued abstinence from aspartame." "This subject has obvious relevance to reports of UNEXPLAINED SUDDEN DEATH in persons who had been consuming large amounts of aspartame products, including drivers and pilots." |
Dr. Roberts also mentioned patients who had been treated for hypertension could not be adequately controlled on their maintenance medication as long as they continued using aspartame. He said: |
"This reflects its interaction with various drugs. (Aspartame was originally devised as a drug for treating peptic ulcer.) In addition,the rapid heart action and elevation of blood pressure could be attributed to the effects of phenylalanine (an aspartame component)and is metabolic products - dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine. " (Dr. Roberts web site) |
Even the Communicable Disease Center investigation on aspartame complaints (See Dorrway.Com) includes cardiac arrest and death. James Bowen, M.D. who wrote Male Sexual Dysfunction Triggered by Aspartame on DORway says |
"Aspartame damages the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus produces gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GRH). The GRH goes down the stalk between the hypothalamus and pituitary and causes the pituitary then to produce gonadotropins." |
Dr. Bowen also says |
"When you're causing hypothalamus destruction with neuroexcitotoxins like NutraSweet you're suppressing the formation of male hormone without which there is no sexual drive or pleasure for either. In original studies aspartame triggered atrophied testes and testicular tumors. It is by this route." |
Aspartame hardens the synovial fluids and triggers agonizing joint pain, many times misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia. Dr. H. J. Roberts has coined the phrase "diagnostic wastebucket" for fibromyalgia. Some of the symptoms triggered by aspartame are blindness, comas, weakness, memory loss, anxiety, cramps, joint pain, insomnia, spasms, rashes, palpitations, diarrhea, fatigue, numbness, irritability, dizziness, fainting, panic, weight gain, depression, nausea, headaches, death, burning tongue, chest pain, tinnitus, 4 types of seizures, slurred speech and impotence. Additional disabilities triggered by aspartame are brain tumors, Graves Disease, Alzheimer's,tremors, MS symptoms, lymphoma, epilepsy, infertility, Parkinson's, retardation, Epstein Barr, Psychosis, fibromyalgia, diabetes, miscarriages, Lou Gehrig's, lupus, chronic fatigue, breast tumors, and loss of diabetic control! Monsanto has now sold NutraSweet and with it the rights to an even more potent aspartame called Neotame. Boycott, Boycott, Boycott any manufacturer who uses aspartame in their products. Warning flyers to distribute for Aspartame Awareness Week can be found at Aspartame Awareness Week Flyers Regards. Betty Martini, Mission Possible International 770 242-2599 Website Take aspartame products back and demand a refund! Related Reading: subscribe to the Aspartame Awareness Email Group Aspartame Group's Website Aspartame Kills More Info Take our latest survey "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad." Aldous Huxley ODD END INDEX CROSSROADS MORE ODD ENDS  EMAIL
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