bionet.neuroscience.not.aspartame

[Betty Martini]

Dear Andy:  You ask me to explain how someone who does have MS who uses 
aspartame can escalate his disease.  The answer to that is that aspartame 
causes symptoms of MS, so if they already had MS it wouldn't help to take 
a drug that causes equilibrium problems, vertigo, joint pain, blindness, 
memory loss, etc.  Many times as Dr. Roberts said patients are diagnosed 
with MS when in reality that don't have it, but methanol toxicity from
aspartame.  Just this afternoon a woman was telling me a friend read our 
warning flyer and seeing that it said aspartame triggers MS (symptoms) she
quit using it because she had MS.  A couple of months later she realized 
she could walk again and her vision was coming back, and her other 
medical problems had disappeared.  There is a case like this on our auto-
responder.  We see this constantly because we get people off of aspartame.

After the FDA published a list of 10,000 complaints in April, 1995 they 
said they were not going to compile any more complaint files.  We've 
written Congress about it and I have personally spoken to Newt Gingrich 
about it because he lives in my city.  I don't know if there has been a
change in this but for some reason the FDA just put a list of documented 
symptoms that occur from aspartame.  They say it is based on 6583 records 
and 9781 symptoms.  It is dated August 8, 1995 - THIS MONTH.

Please notice how many of these symptoms they list are neurological, and 
are symptoms that multiple sclerosis patients present with, and perhaps 
you can understand why people are constantly being diagnosed with MS when 
their symptoms are caused by aspartame.  Pay particular attention to how 
many people are having seizures even though they separate them into 
different types.  Also Dr. Kessler of the FDA said only 1% report serious 
problems.

It says that distribution is based on 6583 records and 9781 occurrences 
of symptoms.  

Headache, dizziness or problems with balance, change in mood quality or 
level, vomiting and nausea, abdominal pain and cramps, change in vision, 
diarrhea, seizures and convulsions, grand mal seizures, simple partial 
seizures, petit mal seizures, memory loss, fatigue, weakness, other 
neurological, rash, sleep problems, hives, change in heart rate, itching, 
change in sensation (numbness, tingling), local swelling, change in 
activity level, difficulty breathing, oral sensory change, change in 
menstrual pattern, other skin, other, localized pain and tenderness, 
other urogenital, change in body temperature, difficulty swallowing, 
other metabolic, joint and bone pain, speech impairment, other 
gastrointestinal, chest pain, other musculo-skeletal, fainting, sore 
throat, other cardiovascular, change in taste, difficulty with urination, 
other respiratory, edema, change in hearing, abdominal swelling, change 
in saliva output, change in urine volume, change in perspiration pattern, 
eye irritation, unspecified, muscle tremors, change in appetite, change 
in body weight, noctural, change in thirst or water intake, 
unconsciousness and coma, wheezing, constipation, other extremity pain, 
problems with bleeding, unsteady gait, coughing, blood glucose disorders, 
blood pressure changes, changes in skin and nail coloration, change in 
hair or nails, excessive phleghm production, sinus problems, 
hallucinations, lumps present, shortness of breath on exertion, evidence 
of blood in stool or vomit, dysmenorrhea, dental problems, change in 
smell, death, other blood and lymphatic, eczema, swollen lymph nodes, 
hematuria, shortness of breath due to position, difficulties with 
pregnancy, (children only) developmental retardation, change in breast 
size or tenderness, anemia, change in sexual function, shock, 
conjunctivitis, dilating eyes, febrile.

You know, Andy, if there were this many reactions to a drug it would be 
removed from the market instantly.  Furthermore, there wouldn't be enough 
space in the PDR under Adverse Reactions.  Notice how they stuck death in 
there.  Great little sweetener that causes death, hallucinations, coma and 
seizures! Barbara Alexander Mullarkey, a journalist in Chicago, once 
wrote about the way FDA lists symptoms on aspartame.  It was titled: DEATH;
THE ULTIMATE SYMPTOM!

If you would like instructions to the auto-responder you can read some of 
the case histories.  

You want to discuss organizations?  I told you to notice the seizures 
reported from aspartame, and remember Dr. Kessler said only 1% of serious 
problems are recorded.  First of all, in one of the first studies by Dr. 
Harry Waisman they studied the effects of aspartame on primates.  Seven 
infant monkeys were fed the chemical in milk.  One died after 300 days, 5 
others had Grand Mal Seizures!  They kept sacrificing monkeys until they 
finally decided to use rats.  The rats just had brain tumors!

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology surveyed 80 people 
who suffered brain seizures after eating or drinking products with 
Aspartame.  The Community Nutrition Institute said: "These 80 cases meets 
the FDA's own definition of an imminent hazard to the public health, 
which requires the FDA to expeditiously remove a product from the market."

There are so many seizures from aspartame that a Worldwide Pilot Hotline 
was set up in Dallas just to take the complaints from pilots.  Today over 
700 pilots have called the pilot hotline, many of them because they were 
sipping diet soda or drinking coffee with Equal and had grand mal 
seizures in the cockpits of commercial airliners.  We constantly get case 
histories on people using aspartame that have seizures.  In fact, I have 
someone in my own family who was drinking diet soda warm in the 
California sun, first she became a manic depressive (phenylalanine in 
aspartame breaks down the seizure threshold of the brain and depletes 
serotonin).  Then aspartame triggered epileptic seizures.  She had them 
constantly because she was always drinking this toxin.  They didn't stop 
until I found out about aspartame and told her that was the culprit.

Now you want to talk about organizations.  The Epileptic Foundation 
recommends aspartame for epileptics.  Here you have a seizure triggering 
drug that triggers epilepsy and they are recommending it for people with 
seizures.  In fact, in the Chicago Sun Times on March 3, 1993 is an 
article titled:  SKINNER A WINNER ALREADY; EPILEPSY FOUNDATION HONOR.
Yes, the Epilepsy Foundation made Sam Skinner man of the year.  He was 
the U.S. Attorney that was told to indict Searle for their "flawed" 
studies and instead went to work for Searle's law firm defending the case!

An article appeared in the May/June 1994 Natural Food & Farming titled:
ASPARTAME AND FLYING ...THE UNTOLD STORY.  It was written by Mary Nash 
Stoddard and George Leighton.  Mary Stoddard is Founder of the Aspartame 
Consumer Safety Network and Worldwide Pilot Hotline.  George Leighton is 
a pilot who had a grand mal seizure (drinking a diet shake).  They write 
about Sam Skinner:

"The FAA's inaction is very likely politically motivated.  As a General 
Aviation News article points out, Samuel Skinner, the boss of the FAA, as 
Secretary of Transportation at the time, was formerly employed by 
NutraSweet's law firm, and Spotlight, April 6, 1992, revealed that his wife 
is presently employed by that firm.  Later, as President Bush's Chief of 
Staff, Samuel Skinner was in an even more powerful political position 
with direct influence over all government agencies, including the FDA, 
the FAA, and your own DOD.  Through his own past employment and his 
wife's present employment with NutraSweet's law firm, it would seem that 
NutraSweet had a pipeline directly to the top.  It should be noted that 
without the 1977 direct intervention of Samuel Skinner (who was then U.S. 
Attorney for the Justice Department's Chicago office) and his associates, 
a grand jury would most certainly have indicted Searle/NutraSweet 
personnel for fraud and criminal behavior in concealing the deadly 
effects of the drug Aspartame from the FDA.  The drug would never have 
been approved for use as a food additive and I would not be writing this."

And Andy, if Sam Skinner had done his job there would never have been a 
Mission Possible, Aspartame Consumer Safety Network and Worldwide Pilot 
Hotline, or a previous organization called ASPARTAME VICTIMS AND THEIR 
FRIENDS OF THE SOUTH (no longer in existence - Joyce Wilson who ran it 
died in 1991 blind, a vegetable from NutraSweet!).  

Last summer one of these Epilepsy Organizations gave a lecture here on 
seizures.  I gave out packets to the families telling them not to listen 
to their endorsement of aspartame and remove this seizure triggering drug 
from their diet.  A few weeks later a woman ran into me who was at the 
meeting.  Her friend had taken the advice and her seizures had ceased!

If I talk about an organization I talk from research and experience.  
James B. Hays, M.D. (Last Address P. O. Box 878, Brownwood, Texas 76894) 
is a physician that took care of pilots who had grand mal seizures.  I 
have one of his reports titled CLINICAL EXPERIENCE WITH ASPARTAME.  
Consider how he writes about a "sweetener"!!!

He's writing about patients using aspartame: "Six people reported malaise 
or lack of well being.  Five reported irritability and/or personality 
changes.  Five reported indigestion and/or nausea.  Four reported 
temporary visual disturbance, blurred vision or black spots.  Four also 
reported the vestibular-related symptoms of vertigo or dizziness.  Three 
patients reported abdominal pains.  Three reported some memory loss, one 
of which described this as a lack of or an inability to recall memory and 
one described a persistent losing track of memory in mid-conversation."

"Two people reported paresthesias or numbness and tingling and exhaustive 
history taking failed to reveal any hyperventilation syndrome.  Two 
reported loss of consciousness and two reported multiple episodes that he 
or she was about to loose consciousness but they reported that they could 
concentrate harder and "fight it" and could actually avert loss of 
consciousness.  One of these actually did lose consciousness on one 
occasion, and later after three or four years of ever-increasing dosage 
of aspartame had a grand mal seizure."

"One each reported auditory sensitivity, unsteady gait, the inability to 
sense the position of feet and hands, a feeling of imminent loss of 
control of body, shortness of breath, palpitations, significant weight 
gain, depression, insomnia and severe anxiety which was reversible after 
cessation of ingestion of aspartame and not related to previous or 
subsequent anxiety disorder."

"One patient, the oldest, had pre-existing adult onset diabetes mellitus 
and has ha a recent psychotic episode after a long history of psych. 
problems.  She reported the fewest number of symptoms. ..Each patient 
either accidently, of their own volition or asked by myself, discontinued 
the drug and definitely noted cessation or marked abatement of symptoms 
and after returning to consume additional NutraSweet  after a definite 
one to two weeks abstinence all had marked to severe return of symptoms 
within an hour to a few days of exposure."

"It is also suggested strongly that at least in some people, aspartame is 
a significant hazard to transportation safety.  Various physicians in 
the Federal Aviation Administration are aware of this situation, but they 
are bureaucratically linked to the Food and Drug Administration who have 
the charge to approve food additives and drugs."   James B. Hays, M.D.

So you see, Andy, the story of NutraSweet is a story of greed and politics.
Perhaps you can understand why Dr. Roberts has asked Newt Gingrich to set 
up new Congressional Hearings and remove aspartame from the marketplace 
as an imminent health hazard.  Politics have always prevented this from 
happening.  Even Joyce Wilson pleaded with Congress before she died.  And 
she had all the symptoms of MS, and in the end she was like an 
Alzheimer's patient - no memory.  Safe sweeteners do not produce symptoms 
like the FDA has listed - but chemical poisons do.  The approval of 
aspartame by the FDA is their greatest atrocity, and one day this will be 
listed as one of the greatest scandals in U.S. History.

I have posted in neurology because of the neurological symptoms, and any 
patient evaluated for neurological disease should first be asked to 
abstain from this poison.  


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