bionet.neuroscience.not.aspartame

[Betty Martini]

Dear Tom:  Yes, I would like to offer an explanation on multiple 
sclerosis and aspartame.  First of all, the last time I check with the MS 
Assn. they said it is estimated there are over 500,000 cases in the U.S.
However, I didn't ask what it was 40 years ago - maybe you can tell me.

The symptoms associated with aspartame are mostly neurological, and since 
you're an M.D., you might be more comfortable speaking with a physician 
who is the world expert on aspartame and author of books on the subject, 
as well as many, many publications.  He lectures internationally on the 
subject and whenever information is requested of him.  His name is Dr. H. 
J. Roberts and his office number is 407 832-2408.  If you email me 
privately I'll be happy to give you his private, unlisted number.

Dr. Roberts tells physicians never to make a diagnosis of multiple 
sclerosis until the patient is off NutraSweet because methanol toxicity 
from aspartame mimics MS.  One of these cases on our auto-responder 
(Alicia Morris) is one that is classic.  She was diagnosed as having MS 
by two physicians, was almost blind in one eye, was slurring her words, 
cramps and numbness in her legs, hearing loss, headaches, etc.  When I 
met Alicia she told me she thought she had a brain tumor because of her 
headaches and memory loss.  As soon as she mentioned slurring her words 
which is a dead giveaway they're on NutraSweet, I told her all her 
problems were from aspartame. She said she was drinking 3 Diet Coke's a 
day. It was only less than 2 months I believe before her MS symptoms 
disappeared, her vision and hearing returned, her headaches disappeared, 
and the rest of her medical complaints.

Another case you'll see is that of Gloria Collins who thought she had MS 
but was just afraid to go and find out.  She was having nightmares, 
insomnia, equilibrium problems, vision loss, pains in her legs, etc.  Her 
words to me were: "I've just come back from the doctor who doesn't know 
why I'm going blind and I think I have MS, I must be dying."  I see these 
symptoms so often because I'm so familiar with aspartame, that I simply said:
"Gloria, you're on aspartame, get off of it, and you'll be okay."  Sure 
enough a few weeks later she was fine.

The hallucinations come from the phenylalanine.  The methanol, of course, 
converts to formaldehyde in the retina and this is why all these patients 
complain of losing their vision and going blind.  But as soon as they 
tell me they are slurring their words and having equilibrium problems I 
know  its aspartame.  If you want instructions to the auto-responder you 
can read these case histories and I'll be glad to give you their phone 
numbers and you can hear their story yourself. I used these two case 
histories because they are classic of what we see over and over again.

Just a few minutes ago I picked up the mail and received another case 
history from Mary Lynch (again will be glad to give you her phone number).
Here is what she wrote:

"In Dec. 1990, I began having strange symptoms.  I would awaken in the 
early morning hours, sometimes with a feeling of anxiety, and smell a 
strong odor of burning toast.  The first time it happened, I went 
downstairs at 5:00 A.M. in the belief that one of my children was in the 
kitchen trying to fix breakfast.  I was astonished to find no one there.  
My husband was unable to detect this odor.  I had other olfactory 
hallucinations (simple seizures) for a period of a couple of months.  
Sometimes it was the odor of toast, sometime burning rubber, even men's 
cologne.  I had one episode of strong deja vu, which is also considered a 
seizure indicator.  I was otherwise in good physical and mental health.

In January of 1991, I had a complex partial seizure while driving my car 
to work.  This seizure was evidence by feeling the time was slowed down, 
that I could only move my foot from the accelerator to the brake by a 
strong act of will, and involuntary blinking of my eyes.  I managed to 
pull off the road and waited for a while until I felt I could drive.  
When I got to work, I was told by my colleagues that my speech was 
slurred. I had trouble completing sentences.  The slurring resolved in a 
couple of days, but the trouble completing sentences persisted for a 
while.  I also experienced post-ictal "fog" for about a week.  My memory 
for normal work and family activities was compromsied, and I had 
difficulties performing my customary duties.

I underwent an EEG that day which showed slowing on one side of the 
brain. I later had another EEG (sleep-deprived) with the same results.  I 
also had an MRI of my brain, which was normal.  Dr. Don Smith, a 
neurologist in Englewood, Colorado, evaluated me, and asked me to keep 
track of any seizure activity.  He restricted me from driving.  After a 
few more olfactory hallucinations, he decided to put me on medication to 
control my seizures.  He started me on a low dose of Tegretol, which I 
was instructed to increase over a period of a few weeks until I was at a 
therapeutic dose.  I became ill before the therapeutic dose, with severe 
sore throat, swollen glands, fatigue and fever.  Blood tests revealed 
that my bone marrow was depressed from the Tegretol.  My WBC was 2.0.  He 
told me to stop taking the Tegretol and recover from the illness, and 
that we would evaluate medication later.  I spend the next two weeks in 
near seclusion waiting for my immune system to recover so I could go out 
in public without being abnormally vulnerable to disease.

Meanwhile, my friend and colleague Kathy Goebel, who was Clinical 
Coordinator of the Epilepsy Center at Colorado Neurological Institute, 
told me about an article she had read in a neurological journal.  The 
author stated that aspartame is a neuroexcitotoxin, and that it could 
lower a person's seizure threshold.  At that time, I was using 
approximately four packets of Equal a day, in tea, coffee and cereal, and 
also consuming NutraSweet in dessert products such as diet Jello and ice 
cream.  Kathy suggested that I give up all products containing aspartame 
to see if it had an effect on my seizure activity.  I did this 
immediately.  My olfactory hallucinations stopped, and I was greatly 
relieved.  Dr. Smith was skeptical at first and wanted to put me on 
another seizure medication.  I convinced him to wait and see if I had 
more seizures.  I never had another one until recently when I unknowingly 
ate a popsickle that had NutraSweet in it.  I had an olfactory 
hallucination in the early morning hours.  This happened recently, after 
I moved to Georgia, so Dr. Smith doesn't know about that one.

Dr. Smith was convinced that my seizures had, in fact, been caused by 
aspartame.  He testified to this effect during a trial concerning a later 
automobile accident.

The seizures I experienced and the sequelae were terrifying for me.  As a 
Clinical Research Associate at Colorado Neurological Institute, I was 
very aware of the implications of a diagnosis of epilepsy.  I did, in 
fact, lose my job at CNI, although any connection to my seizure was denied.

Dr. Smith can be reached at 303 781-4485.  His address is:  Don Smith, M.D.,
701 East Hampden Avenue, Englewood, Co 80110.  .. My medical records are 
in the name of Mary L. Post."   Signed Mary H. Lynch

Tom, notice part of her complaint was "slurring of the words"!  Dead 
giveaway its aspartame!  On Connie Chung they were talking about Annette 
Funicello who has multiple sclerosis, the famous Mouseketeer!  A friend said:
"In the beginning it was strange - she slurred her words but she didn't 
drink alcohol or take drugs.  Then she started losing her vision, and 
then she was diagnosed with MS!"  She may be too far gone by now although 
I tried my best to get to her and get her off of aspartame. 

Dr. Roberts and I attended the Conference of the American College of 
Physicians here in Atlanta in March.  He wanted me to see this has been 
kept from the medical profession.  Monsanto pays off the American 
Diabetic Assn. and the American Dietetic Assn (the dietitians are 
Monsanto's media flacks!).  The Epileptic Institute also recommends 
aspartame as safe for those with seizures - and aspartame is a seizure 
triggering drug that triggers epilepsy.  Pure insanity.  I have someone 
in my family who has epilepsy triggered by NutraSweet.  She drank diet 
soda warm in the California sun.  First it caused manic depression 
(depletion of serotonin from the phenylalanine which also breaks down the 
seizure threshold of the brain.).  But she didn't know that was the 
culprit. Cost her family 1/4 million to keep her from committing suicide.
Then it triggered epileptic seizures.  Now that we found out that 
aspartame is the culprit the seizures have about stopped but so much 
damage has been done to her brain she may never be normal.

Dr. Roberts and I attended workshops in Neurology.  One neurosurgeon said:
"Please, somebody tell us where all these seizures are coming from!"  I said:
"Doctor, they are coming from aspartame which breaks down the seizure 
threshold of the brain."  He said: "But isn't that in rare cases of phenyl-
ketunuria?"  I said: "We all have a seizure threshold and its so 
prevalent that a pilot hotline has been set up in Dallas just to take the 
complaints of pilots, many of whom have grand mal seizures in the 
cockpits of commercial airliners sipping diet soda or coffee with Equal."
Another physician raised his hand and said he too was a pilot and he did 
have a friend who flew commercially also having grand mal seizures on the 
stuff, and he was thinking of reporting him.

The pilot hotline is confidential because once a pilot has a grand mal 
seizure he loses his medical and is grounded for life.  But when he finds 
out its NutraSweet he no longer has seizures.  They also have terrible 
vision disturbance because of the methanol.  You may remember that the 
American Airliner that fell out of the sky in December was reported as due 
to pilot error - tunnel vision.  According to Dr. Woodrow Monte 
(Aspartame: Methanol and the Public Health - Journal of Applied 
Nutrition, Volume 36, Number 1, 1984) tunnel vision is caused by the 
methanol in aspartame.  I can't help but wonder if all those died because 
the pilot was sipping diet soda!

Mission Possible flies packets around the world to air traffic control to 
keep the planes in the skies by alerting all pilots.  

I should tell you that in the original studies on aspartame the monkeys 
had grand mal seizures and the rats had brain tumors.  Dr. Roberts report 
on the brain tumors has been peer reviewed: "Does Aspartame Cause Human 
Brain Cancer?"  Journal of Advancement in Medicine, Volume 4, Number 4, 
Winter 1991.  U. S. Attorney Sam Skinner was asked to indict Searle for 
their fradulent studies.  In the Bressler Report when some of the rats 
died they resurrected on paper!  Sam Skinner instead of indicting Searle 
went to work for Sidley & Austin, Searle's law firm defending the case, 
as did the U.S. Attorney that came after him!

Sam Skinner went on to become Secretary of Transportation and squelched 
any help we could have gotten from the FAA.  Monsanto bought Searle in l985.
They have deep pockets.  This is the reason there is a Mission Possible.  
We are a volunteer force in 50 states distributing a warning flyer on 
aspartame which you will find on the auto-responder.  We distribute it 
worldwide and other countries are pleading also for help.  Norway is 
trying to make an antidote!!!!!  

I hope you can see the seriousness of this problem.  The neurosurgeon 
that wrote the article that alerted the above patient was probably Dr. 
Russell Blaylock who wrote EXCITOTOXINS; THE TASTE THAT KILLS!  He says 
that the ingredients in NutraSweet literally stimulate the neurons of the 
brain to death!  That's what Dr. Roberts also says.  He has been doing 
research on Alzheimers for 30 years.  He said that when aspartame was 
approved he noticed a big difference in his diabetic patients.  They 
presented with memory loss and confusion.  He says that the two amino 
acids in aspartame, phenylalanine and aspartic acid, without the other 
amino acids in protein, go past the blood brain barrier and deteriorate 
the neurons of the brain.  In his opinion this is accelerating 
Alzheimers, a 20th century disease that is now the 4th leading cause of 
death in this country!  4 million victims - 250,000 new cases each year, 
100,000 deaths - and 50% of all patients in nursing homes have 
Alzheimers, including mature babyboomers.  

When I recently gave out flyers in a hospital here a physician came out 
of the operating room, read the flyer and said: "So this is what is 
causing all the seizures - you must get this to every neurosurgeon in 
this city.  You have no idea what this explains."  He then dumped out 
everything in my briefcase, and went and copies every report!  

Even at the Conference of the American College of Physicians a 
neurosurgeon told me: "If we had only known - this explains so very much!"
They are finding out now.  My husband just came in and said someone else 
went to the doctor with problems and the first thing the doctor told him was:
"Get off NutraSweet" - and his problems disappeared.

Tom, I will be happy to email you a list of the 92 documented symptoms 
from coma to death that came off an FDA list, as well as a copy of their 
April report with the 10,000 complaints - the last one they said they 
will ever compile!

A couple of days ago at a press conference I spilled out Diet Coke right 
here in Atlanta, the home of Coca Cola, but first I faxed a note to 
Douglas Ivester, President of Coca Cola and Roberto Goizueta, Chairman of 
the Board and let them know my intentions.  I know it was seen on CBS.  
They know.  The National Soft Drink Assn., wrote a 30 page protest 
explaining that Searle used the wrong test, the wrong solution, didn't 
test for breakdown products (a witches brew - formaldehyde, formic acid 
and DKP (brain tumor agent) from the phenylalanine), and didn't test for 
temperature elevation!  Then they turned around and lobbied for NutraSweet!
Do you think the public ever had a chance.  This poison was kept off the 
market for 16 years before Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes of the FDA over-ruled 
his own board of inquiry who said not to approve it.  He then went to 
work for Searle's public relations firm!

About temperature elevation:  At 86 degrees aspartame liberates methanol 
in the can.  A soldier in the Persian Gulf told me diet soda was sent 
over and was on pallets for as long as 8 weeks in the 120 degree Arabian 
sun!  He said they drank them all day.  It is no wonder they have the 
identical symptoms of aspartame disease:  Chronic fatigue syndrome 
(methanol breaks down the immune system), vision loss, memory loss, joint 
pain, confusion, headaches, depression, etc.  6000 perished according 
the  CFIDS network (Chronic Fatigue and Immunologic Disease)!

When aspartame was only in 600 products Joyce Wilson went blind, and was 
suffering the same MS symtpoms, etc.  She testified before Congress and 
pleaded that this be banned so others would not live her nightmare.  
Today aspartame is in 5000 products and climbing and the patent has expired!

In April, l994 her husband Richard wrote this letter to a local newspaper 
as Mission Possible went into operation:

"Aspartame killed my wife.  No words can express the agony and horror 
sweet Joyce endured.  This poison destroyed her brain, ravaged all her 
organs and blinded her.  She died at age 46 in 1991.  ........Don't 
listen to the paid Judas-goats and TV celebrities who says its safe. Save 
your life and those you love and avoid the grief I endured.  The makers 
of this poison considered her death an acceptable cost of business.  I'm 
a man without a wife because the NutraSweet Company is a business without 
a conscience.  April is anti-aspartame month.  Take dead serious the 
warnings you will hear.  The life you save may be your own."  Richard Wilson

When Joyce Wilson died she had the typical MS symptoms and no memory - 
just like an Alzheimer patient.  But as long as she could speak she tried 
to warn the world!

The late Dr. Adrian Gross, FDA toxicologist, told Congress that aspartame 
violated the Delaney Amendment and if the FDA violated its own laws who 
would protect the people.  We have no protector.

In late September Joyce Wilson's son married and on her empty chair lay 
one long stem rose.  On October 1 we of Mission Possible here in Atlanta 
exposed the American Diabetic Assn. by walking beside 1000 diabetics 
giving them material that told of the deadly affects of aspartame on 
diabetics including Dr. Roberts position paper on aspartame and diabetes 
and hypoglycemia.  We dedicated the day to Joyce Wilson and gave out 
press pack with black lace for mourning, garnished with a single long 
stem, yellow rose!  Many diabetics called back to let us know there blood 
sugar was now under control, their vision had cleared up, their headaches 
had vanished and they were getting well.

The ADA refused to publish Dr. Roberts paper of aspartame reactors, so it 
was published in Clinical Research.  

Tom, I can also forward to you, if you so request it, a copy of a 
research paper that is very lengthy and has some of the case histories 
we've taken off the Internet, including some recently from the mail.  
These are people who were willing to take the "no aspartame test" and 
then watched their medical problems disappear.

Disbelievers book passage on The Monsanto Titanic - you know its iceberg 
proof!  Patricia Craine is another who died of NutraSweet, same MS 
symptoms. Her case was reported on CBN.  Her autopsy was identical to 
that of Christine Onassis, a Diet Coke Addict.   

Betty Martini
Domain:  betty at pd.org
UUCP:  ...!emory!pd.org!betty

On Fri, 18 Aug 1995, Thomas P. Bleck wrote:

> Just when I was going to propose moving the rest of
> this group somewhere else, I log on and see no new
> aspartame arguments!  What will we do for amusement?
> 
> At the risk of prompting a barrage of tangential
> comments, I make the following observation.  Multiple
> sclerosis has been well recognized for over a century,
> and its epidemiology has been studied intensively since
> the 1950s.  There has not been an increase in its 
> incidence or prevalence during the past 40 years.  
> Do those of you who believe MS is linked to aspartame
> care to offer an explanation?  I'd like to think I
> have an open mind about this topic, but if this sub-
> stance causes MS, or disorders misdiagnosed as MS,
> shouldn't there be an increased incidence after the
> introduction of aspartame?
> 
> If this has already been discussed, please forgive
> me for wasting bandwidth.
> -- 
> Tom Bleck    (Thomas P. Bleck, M.D.)   tbleck at virginia.edu
> Departments of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Medicine
> University of Virginia School of Medicine
> ___________________________________________________________
> 
>