Love for Life

Aspartame (Shorts): Letter for Doctors and Patients
by Julie Klotter
11th January 2003
Aspartame (Shorts): Letter for Doctors and Patients

Aspartame (also known as NutraSweet, Equal) contains ingredients that can cause many of the symptoms found in multiple sclerosis (MS) and other neurodegenerative illnesses. Although aspartame does not cause MS, it can aggravate or accelerate the disease, according to H.J. Roberts, MD, a Board-Certified Internist and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. He recommends that persons who have been diagnosed as having MS and who use aspartame products totally remove aspartame from their diet for several months. According to his letter to Thomas P. Bleck, MD, posted at www.dorway.com/betty/ms.txt, Dr. Roberts has encountered several people who were misdiagnosed as having MS and who spontaneously recovered when they totally avoided aspartame.

Aspartame becomes unstable and breaks down when it is in a solution (e.g. diet soda), and is exposed to high temperatures and prolonged storage, and when it is ingested. Three chemicals that are known to have harmful effects result: aspartic acid, phenylalamine, and methanol. Methanol breaks down further into formaldehyde and formic acid. Adverse reactions to aspartame, according to a Department of Health and Human Services report (Feb. 1994), include headaches/migraines, seizures, numbness, breathing difficulties, slurred speech, tinnitus, memory loss, dizziness, muscle spasms, fatigue, tachycardia, heart palpitations, vision problems, depression, irritability, insomnia, hearing loss, rashes, anxiety attacks, loss of taste, vertigo, and joint pain. Researchers and physicians have found that aspartame can aggravate or trigger several conditions including Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, brain tumors, and diabetes.

Aspartic acid (40% of aspartame) is an amino acid that acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. When taken in its free form, unbounded to protein, aspartic acid causes a significant rise in the blood plasma level of aspartate. Aspartate and glutamate, according to Human Physiology by Arthur Vander, James Sherman, and Dorothy Luciano (McGraw-Hill, 1998), are excitatory amino acids that have been "implicated in epilepsy, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, and the neural damage that follows strokes, brain trauma, and other conditions of low oxygen availability." The referenced article by Drs. J. Barua and A. Bal (Journal of the Diabetic Association of India 1995; Vol. 35, No. 4) states that aspartic acid also has a "cumulative harmful effect" on the endocrine and reproductive systems and can pass through the placental barrier, damaging the fetus.

Phenylalanine (50% of aspartame) is also an amino acid. Like aspartic acid, phenylalanine that is not bound to protein is absorbed and released into the blood very quickly. Drs. Barua and Bal note that too much phenylalanine in the brain causes serotonin levels to drop, leading to depression and other emotional disorders as well as a craving for carbohydrates. In addition, a breakdown product of phenylalanine called Aspertylphenylalanine Diketopiperazine (DKP) has been linked to the development of brain tumors. Two pre-approval studies (E33/34 and E70) showed that a significant number of brain tumors developed among experimental rats compared to the controls.

Nutrasweet-fed rats had an incidence of 3.75%, whereas control rats in archival literature, according to a 1987 statement by neuropathologist John Olney, did not have an incidence that exceeded 0.6%.

The third ingredient in aspartame is methanol (wood alcohol), which accounts for 10% of the product. Methanol, which is poisonous, excretes from the body very slowly, according to the EPA. The liver enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase slowly converts methanol into formaldehyde. Formaldehyde, a neurotoxin and carcinogen, can also damage the retina and optic nerve and interfere with DNA replication, resulting in birth defects. The body stores some formaldehyde in fat cells. Body enzymes also break it down into formic acid. Researchers Jyrki Liesivuori and H. Savolainen found that formic acid inhibits the mitochrondrial cytochrome oxidase causing histotoxic hypoxia (Pharmcol Toxicol 1991 Sept: 69(3): 157-63). In addition, accumulated formic acid resulting from methanol poisoning causes acidosis. Formic acid tends to accumulate in the brain, kidneys, spinal fluid, and other organs because of its slow excretion rate.

The FDA approved aspartame for use in dry goods in 1981 and for carbonated beverages in 1983. The FDA expanded its approval to include aspartame's use in food products that would always be heated above the temperature at which free methanol results (86[degrees]F/30[degrees]C) in 1993. The aspartame industry vehemently asserts that aspartame is safe. Ralph G. Walton, MD, performed an analysis of aspartame studies published in medical literature, using MEDLINE and other databases in 1996. Dr. Walton, who is Chairman of The Center for Behavioral Medicine and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Northeastern Ohio University's College of Medicine found that 74 industry-funded studies found aspartame to be safe. He says that "these studies have severe design deficiencies which help to guarantee the 'desired' outcomes." He also states that these same studies are the ones cited in PR and news reports from industry-supported organizations, such as IFIC and ADA.

Eighty-three of the 90 non-industry funded studies in Dr. Walton's analysis found one or more problems with aspartame. "Of the 7 studies, which did not find a problem, 6 of those studies were conducted by the FDA," Dr. Walton states. "Given that a number of FDA officials went to work for the aspartame industry immediately following approval (including the former FDA Commissioner), many consider these studies to be equivalent to industry-sponsored research." Dr. Walton's analysis, which includes comments about the shortcomings of his findings and a critique of the information provided by the aspartame industry, can be found at www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/100.html.

Analysis Shows Nearly 100% of Independent Research Finds Problems with Aspartame. www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/100.html

Barua, Dr. J & Bal, Dr. A. Emerging Facts About Aspartame. Journal of the Diabetic Association of India 1995: vol. 35, No. 4 www.dorway.com/barua/ html

Martini, Betty. Multiple Sclerosis. www.dorway.com/betty/ms.txt

Walton, Ralph G., MD. Survey of Aspartame Studies: Correlation of Outcome and Funding Sources (Abstract) www.dorway.co/peerrev.html

briefed by Jule Klotter

COPYRIGHT 2003 The Townsend Letter Group
This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.

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