- 1n a letter from acting FDA Commissioner Andrew Von Eschenbach,
MD, to New Mexico state senator, Gerald Ortiz y Pino and 11 NM legislators'
concerns about aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet) toxicity assures Senator Ortiz
y Pino aspartame is safe. Considering the millions of people, all over
the world, ill and dying from this lethal drug, Von Eschenbach's
response is chilling.
-
- Conveniently, Dr. Von Eschenbach forgets, in 1993,
under the Freedom of Information Act, the FDA, itself was forced to reveal
92 symptoms of aspartame use. Symptoms range from No. 1, headache,
to No. 77, death, (yes the FDA considers death a symptom). Memory
loss is No. 9 and change in heart rate is No. 15-think of athletes, all
ages, collapsing on the field. Since the Wrigley Co. put aspartame
in all of its gums, not just those labeled "sugar-free", the
number of deaths during exercise is soaring.
-
- The titles of these books tell the story. Neurosurgeon
Dr. Russell Blaylock ("Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills"),
Dr. Janet Starr Hull ("Sweet Poison"),
- Dr. H.J. Roberts ("Aspartame Disease: An Ignored
Epidemic").
-
- Here are four personal stories from victims of aspartame
poisoning, proving exactly how aspartame is devastating the patients
of a generally clueless medical profession.
- The letters were originally posted on the 1,000 member
"Aspartame Victim's Support Group" list, at yahoo.com.
-
- Matthew is from Yorkshire, the UK
-
- "I Was Accused Of Using Crystal Meth. My Life Was
So Bad, I Just Wanted To Die."
-
- Hello Everyone,
-
- Aspartame ruined my relationship with my family and I
wasn't trusted at school, now I hate them for what they put me through.
-
- The school decided that sugar soft drinks were bad for
the students health so decided to remove all but the diet products from
the cafeteria. I personally enjoy a sugar infused cola that has a taste
that diet drinks lack, they taste too artificial.
-
- I started to drink the diet cola, I had no bad effects
for a couple of days. Then, by the next week, half an hour after lunch
I would get severe itching in my legs and arms, so much so that it left
blood marks in scratch lines across my limbs, I tried so hard not to start
scratching as I couldn't stop for about an hour if I started.
-
- To make matters worse, I would also slur my speech,
still unaware of what the hell was going on. The second week my parents
were called in and I was told that I would be under supervision at all
times in school and my parents were not going to let me leave the house.
My parents proceeded to rip apart my room and had me sleep on the floor
in their room.
-
- Why? I was being accused of using Crystal Meth!!! I
hope you can even imagine how I felt about all this, I huddled up in a
corner crying at one point wishing I wasn't born.
-
- I spent lunch in the corner of the staff room with a
bag of crisps and my diet coke, again as soon as I left the room for lesson
I itched like crazy.
-
- I'm going to have to miss out some details here because
they upset me so much. After being drug tested for a couple of days, police
interrogated me, asking me who the dealer was and referring me to a shrink
which I saw for another week, all this was going on, my life was so bad
I just wanted to die.
-
- This is where I met someone I will never forget, The
Janitor. He saw me and said, "Are you alright there, son?"
I just started crying, so he took me to the supply room, sat me on a box
and I poured out my heart to him. I clicked the ring pull on my drink
and took a large gulp. He just stared at the can for what seemed like
forever. He snatched it off me, grabbed my shirt and pulled me up to the
headmaster's office. He kicked in the door and started screaming at the
headmaster. I was all over the place, I felt so dizzy, emotional, tired
and out of it and I still didn't really know what the hell was going on.
-
- He smashed down the can and the diet coke sprayed all
over the head's desk. I caught bits of the conversation,-- it's the shit
in these drinks-It doesn't take a genius to work that out for god's sake.
Don't you know what's in this. From here on he started on about his daughter
having PKU and aspartame, he finished with reminding the head in front
of about 20 staff surrounding outside the door (where I was, too) that
the school in fact was responsible for my problems by removing sugar drinks
from the cafeteria and was liable, and should expect to be sued. When
he calmed down, he gave me his phone to ring my parents who then came to
the school.
-
- The rest is history!!! I would like to thank Mark Winslow,
The Janitor who actually saved my life, god knows what I would have done
if he hadn't stepped in.
-
- We did gain a settlement from the school and gave a generous
sum to Mark as he did lose his job and was unemployed for a couple of weeks.
He and his family now regularly meet up with us in the summer for BBQ's
and we couldn't ask for better friends.
-
- I hope my experience is of benefit to others. I think
my reaction must have been very severe, but if can do that to you then
it shouldn't be in our foods.
-
-
-
- In a note dated12/15/06, Matthew writes:
-
- Dear Carol,
- I'd be glad for you to share my story with others. As
for my "Recovery"-the effects fully wore off after a week or
two without diet colas; furthermore my family proceeded to remove any aspartame
containing food and beverages from the house, this was also the advice
of my doctor who helped diagnose aspartame as the problem.
-
- Carol's note: Well, that's one doctor who is not clueless.
-
-
- Claudia is from Cuernavaca, Mexico
-
- "I Was Diagnosed With MS"
-
- Hello, my name is Claudia. I am 35 years old and currently
live with my mom and my sister. Before I started to feel bad (and before
the medical exams) I was living and working in Cancun, a life that I adored,
and that I had to give up because I was physically and emotionally feeling
terrible, and had to leave all behind and move near Mexico City to have
those exams taken.
-
- About two years ago, I was diagnosed with MS. (Before
that, I looked for private specialists and heard things like: brain
tumour, Lateral Amyotrophic Sclerosis, and some other suppositions doctors
had.
-
- Right after the first diagnosis (that actually took six
months between the awful exams, and the horrible diagnosis), I was advised
about the toxic effects of Aspartame by a good friend, but paid not real
attention to it, because a professional neurologist already had given me
a diagnosis, and MS was what was wrong with me-or so I thought.
-
- I have to say that the Public Health Services in Mexico
are so lousy, that sometimes the patient prefers to stay sick, than spend
a whole day waiting for a 15 minute (max) doctor's appointment or consultation.
We had to drive for an hour, there are people in other parts of the country,
that have to ride the bus for very long hours, because all of the "good"
hospitals are in Mexico City. Anyway, I also consulted private doctors
and they had the same opinion, even though one can see they were at times,
doubting.
-
- Recently, in a new medical study (Bio-Meridian), practiced
by a Chinese Medicine Specialist, high levels of Arsenic and other hard
metals appeared in my body. The doctor said it was because of the Aspartame.
-
- Right here, is when I started looking for further information
on the net, and found so much regarding this matter that the whole story
turned up-side down and had a very different meaning; everything was so
clear now!
-
- I started going back in my thoughts and remembered that
when I was working in Cancun,--the Sales Department of a very big hotel-sometimes
I would take a Diet Coke from the fridge we had in the office. There were
mainly diet pops because of our clients' preference and I would drive home
drinking the soda. You can imagine that half-way to my destination, the
can and content would be hot, but I still drank it. (Gosh, if I only knew!)
-
- Suddenly, the symptoms began: numbness or tingling of
extremities, slurring of speech, chronic fatigue, depression, insomnia,
irritability, nausea, tremors, sometimes confusion and panic attack among
others, but the most serious one was that my legs were becoming very "heavy"
and at times did not respond! Then it was suggested I drink Omnilife Products,
because-I was probably under a lot of stress and these would also help
me with my "fatigue"-So I took the advice and started taking
them-they were highly recommended for the "Good Health". First
one pack a day; then, the worse I felt, the more packs I drank. Finally,
I felt so bad, I had to quit my job and felt like it was necessary to take
a break (and, of course, keep consuming this stuff).
-
- It came to a point that my friends got scared and asked
a couple of doctors to visit me at home, and they recommended that I have
some medical exams taken in Mexico City, because at that time, there was
no MRI in Cancun.
-
- So, with my heart broken (and feeling awful) I sold everything
and came home with mom, which was my only choice since I didn't know what
was going on and felt something very bad was happening since I was advised
to get rid of everything.
-
- What happened after leaving Cancun is a series of unfortunate,
fatiguing, misleading things that left me (and my mom) without hope and
strength. The thing is, after the MS diagnosis, I kept drinking diet Coke
and chewing "sugar free" gum on a daily basis and of course,
taking Omnilife Products quite openly. No wonder I was feeling awful;
now I know that I was actually "poisoning" myself!
-
- Currently, I'm having acupuncture and using herbal therapy.
The doctor told me that every time I take Aspartame, it is like taking
a sip of "rat killer". Just this week, started an "all natural-no
meat diet", and of course, NO ASPARTAME intake. This is making me
feel better (slowly), but better. I'm aware that I have to detoxify my
system from all the junk I took for years, and now I have a responsibility
to let others, that like me are sick, and have no idea of what is
going on. In less than a month of learning about this, I have become an
activist, and now I'm spreading the word to let everyone around me
know about the deathly effects of this "skull and cross-bones"
stuff. Regards, Claudia.
-
- Carol's note: Aspartame poisoning symptoms imitate the
symptoms of MS. In particular, No. 2 on the FDA list of symptoms is dizziness
or problems with balance, No. 11 is other neurological, No. 17 is change
in sensation (numbness, tingling), No. 50 is muscle tremors,
-
-
- SABBY is from Alabama, USA
-
- "I Admitted I Might As Well Drink Rat Poison As
To Drink NutraSweet"
-
- Hi, I am new to the group and I guess I will jump in
with my experience. I am really slow and really dumb, I guess because
it took me years to figure out what was going on and years more to accept
it. Let me tell you about it.
- Several years ago I woke up one night feeling like I
needed to scratch the skin off my arm. It was something so far beyond
an ordinary itch that I can't even describe it. Let me just say that it
felt like the only way to get to the place that I needed to scratch was
to peel back the skin and go underneath it somehow. It lasted several
hours and I put ice packs on it till I probably had frostbite but it still
did not kill the itch. The area involved was about half the size of my
palm but there was NO RASH. Nothing. This happened repeatedly and I tried
everything over the counter I could find to help it. There would usually
be a really hot spot when the itch was going on but that was probably from
my scratching it. It was really more pain than itch and it would move
from one arm to the other, always on the backside and no more than half
the size of my palm. I searched for something that might be biting me,
nothing was there.
-
- Every time I tried to go to the doctor about it, it would
go away, by the time my appointment rolled around. Sometimes it went away
for months or maybe just weeks, but it would be gone and I would never
know when it was coming back. Sometimes it lasted a few minutes, sometimes,
days. Still no rash. I began to think it was in my mind because whenever
I went on vacation it disappeared completely (who diets on vacation??).
I worked in a very high-stress daycare center and I tried making them
order me the powder-free gloves and bringing my own soap. I changed every
shampoo, soap, washing detergent, etc. that I could think of. Threw out
towels and sheets and got new ones. Same with clothes. EVERYTHING. I
am ashamed to say that a couple of times I considered burning my arm to
see if that would somehow stop it.
-
- I gave up and kept my appointment with the dermatologist
finally, feeling foolish because it was not happening and there was nothing
going on when I went. I tried to describe it to him and he seemed to understand
it and called it by some long name I should have written down that has
to do with the nerve endings. He said it usually happened on the shoulder
or the tops of thighs, though, for some reason but it was undoubtedly the
same thing. He then told me about the only thing he could recommend was
to use arthritis cream containing pepper that would burn. He said
the burn would mask the itch. Right. Twelve bucks for a tube of stuff
that burned my skin but didn't touch the itch/pain.
-
- As I said, I wasn't itching at that time and I had begun
to notice that it happened whenever I was dieting-which is on and off,
never lasts. I actually asked him if it could be my Diet Coke. He said
no, NutraSweet didn't stay in the system or something to that effect, can't
remember his exact words. Nevertheless, I started cutting out the Diet
Coke and eventually other diet stuff with aspartame and the itching stopped.
-
- Brilliant me, I figured out that I could drink a certain
amount of this stuff and if the itching started up again, I would just
back it off. Also, the caffeine free varieties took longer to bring on
the itching. In short, I worked it out so that I was drinking Diet Dr.
Pepper once a week or so and no itching.
-
- I have also, during the same amount of time, been plagued
with depression and horrible mood swings. I would go to visit a family
member once a week in a nursing home and on the way down I would get a
big cup of diet soda at the gas station. They don't have anything non-caloric
without aspartame, of course, but since it was once a week it didn't cause
the itch. It's a self-serve situation and I always hit the syrup button
a couple of times because it is stronger that way and diet fountain drinks
taste yucky anyway so that helped the taste.
-
- I started to notice that I would leave home in a great
mood and by the time I reached the nursing home I was ready to break down
and cry or pick a fight or crawl into bed and die, if not all of the above.
I thought I was depressed from going there, but I got curious and quit
the diet soda completely.
-
- The depression and mood swings stopped completely. Then,
a couple of months ago, I had parathyroid surgery. Several of the symptoms
for that condition matched mine and so on Thanksgiving I decided to give
it a try and drink Diet Coke for a few days. The nurses at the hospital
had actually looked at me like I was nuts when I told them I was allergic
to NutraSweet and wanted to know why I thought that, so I figured what
the heck. I spent Thanksgiving and the day after (my birthday) in bed,
bawling my eyes out and swallowing Benadryl trying to calm down the itching
on my arm.
-
- It took me years but I have finally accepted and admitted
that I might as well drink rat poison as to drink NutraSweet. I will never
swallow a mouthful of the stuff again. Sorry for the long email, but it's
been a long, terrible experience.
-
- Carol's note: Unfortunately, Cabby's thyroid problem
was probably an aspartame poisoning symptom, too. Dr. Janet Hull, in her
book, "Sweet Poison" writes about how she cured her "Grave's
Disease", a thyroid condition, in six weeks, when she abstained from
aspartame.
-
- Itching is No. 16 on the FDA's list of aspartame symptoms.
No. 3 is change in mood quality or level, the FDA's euphemism for
"depression.")
-
-
- Joy from Florida
-
- "I Went Back To The Idiot Who Put Me In The Nut
House"
-
- Dear Carol,
-
- I so did not get through. He said, "What should
I have done?" I answered, "Well, I don't know Dr.-How do you
treat acute methanol poisoning?
-
- My story is 3 years of torture and loss followed by horror.
-
- I am a 47-year old female with Cerebral Palsy (spastic
athetoid left hemiplegia). Despite that, I went to public schools and
graduated from NYU. I held responsible jobs for many years.
-
- When Equal (aspartame) first came on the market years
ago, I had a severe neuromuscular reaction to a dose of 3 packets so I
knew to stay away. At the time, I checked all of the foods that I ate
and made sure they were safe.
-
- A few years later, I started having some spastic problems
and the doctors treated them as though they were part of CP so, in 2000,
I was put on many meds including Percocet, Valium and Baclofen, a muscle
relaxer. I call it an antispastic cocktail.
-
- About 2 and 12 years ago, I started to deteriorate-sweated
profusely at the slightest movement, increased pain, and in my good side-carpal
tunnel (one doctor even invented 'post cerebral palsy syndrome' to cover
it all) so that by 2005 to handle all the symptoms, added to my daily meds
were albuterol sulphate for wheezing, Singulair for allergies and asthma
and amitriptoline for chronic pain for carpal tunnel.
-
- Things only got worse and worse-more pain, more injuries
and almost constant yeast infections, -you name it, and Drs. kept asking
me if I have MS. Recently I got ringing in the ears, so that by Nov. 20,
2006, I was taking 8 different kinds of medication, daily. One of the
new drugs was Ambien, 1 time a day for serious insomnia and the stuff didn't
even work.
-
- Carol's note: Sleep problems are No. 13 on the FDA list
of aspartame symptoms.
-
- In November, I started to do something proactive and
added 8-ounces of yogurt a day to my diet to protect against yeast infection.
One day, I noticed that the yoghurt I had just eaten had aspartame-the
bad neuromuscular reaction I remembered from years before started the next
day with pain and tears.
-
- I went to my regular doctor and TOLD him about the aspartame
and he totally dismissed it-I started to cry about everything. I spent
that night in the hospital and the next in a mental hospital. Never tell
anyone working in a hospital you must want to go to sleep and not get up-even
if you think they know you better.
-
- As hospital food is awful, I spent those 2 days with
no food at all-and I did feel a lot better. The mental hospital released
me to go straight to my pain Dr. and HE explained what the aspartame
had done and the fact that the yoghurt binge made it worse because it broke
the aspartame down before I even ate it.
-
- We came home and checked everything in the house-everything
that was safe when we had checked before now has aspartame we got
rid of it all. We researched it and discovered that every thing was changed
over in 2004 (gee, that's about 2 and 12 years ago-just when I started
to fail).
-
- After a week, the ringing in my ears stopped and pain
was less and I have learned with the help of my friends here on the list
about other food additives such as MSG and that the aspartame poisoning
has made me so sensitive that even one bite will make my ears ring.
-
- I am now being very careful about what I eat-the more
organic the better. Only 28 days into detox and I am walking better and
further, not sweating, pain is much less, I don't wheeze and I can sleep
(and type long notes)
-
- As of yesterday I am only taking 5 meds a day.
- Thanks very much.
- Have a nice day.
-
- Joy
-
-
- carolguilford@sbcglobal.net
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