The Women Warriors

[Yasmine]

What is aspartame?

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener hailed by the food industry as the answer to everybody’s dreams. A substance 180 times as sweet as sugar that contains no calories and does not add to the blood sugar levels of people that consume it.

It sounds like wonderful news for diabetics and dieters world wide. That is why it originally made its way into the diet as a sweetener for diabetics and slimmers.


If you look at the ingredients listed on food packaging, you will find aspartame listed in diet sodas, “no sugar added” soft drinks, soups, slimmers milk shakes to name just a few. It is, in fact, available in about 9000 products in the U.S.A., and an increasing number world wide. It is replacing sugar in a lot of products aimed at children, too.


The aspartame molecule was discovered in an act of serendipity during the search for a cure for peptic ulcers. Chemists were trying to isolate a particular chain of amino acids commonly found in the human gut. As an intermediary step, they had created a two amino-acid (a dipeptide) chain containing aspartic acid and phenylalanine. As the result of an accident, it was discovered that the substance was sweet.


The subsequent testing of the product and the history of how it obtained its FDA approval is rife with tales of bribery and corruption, and instances where results seem to have been falsified to hide the inadequate testing methods, but it eventually made its way onto the shelves.
In its final form, the product is 50% phenylalanine and 40% Aspartic acid bonded together by 10% methyl alcohol - its full name is L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine-methyl ester.



Why is it dangerous?



There is evidence to indicate that every thing about aspartame is toxic, directly and indirectly.
Under certain circumstances, the methyl ester will convert to methanol, and the dipeptide chain will dissolve into its component parts – aspartic acid and phenylalanine.



The methanol then further breaks down in the body to produce formaldehyde and formic acid.
Each one of these substances is toxic in its own right.
The aspartic acid and the phenylalanine are both highly active toxins that have a profound effect on the brain chemistry. In addition to this, the phenylalanine further breaks down to become a substance called DKP, which is a known tumour inducing agent.


Each one of these is toxic enough when taken alone, but little is known about the effects of two or more of these chemicals working in conjunction with each other, which may make the toxic effects even more devastating and no-one knows the effects of their reaction to other food additives. Trials conducted in 1976 using mice showed that feeding them one food additive had very little effect on them.


When fed on two together, they became ill and when all three food additives were administered together the dose was fatal. Synergy, like gravity, works. But unlike gravity, we have no way of predicting the results of synergy.


What makes it even more dangerous is the fact that once it leaves the factory and is used in various different products, it becomes far less stable, and by the time it is consumed it is a very different cocktail of chemicals than it was when it was first manufactured.


What happenes to cause it to break down?



Once in a solution with water, all it takes is for the temperature to rise to 86 degrees Fahrenheit and the chemical begins to degrade, separating into aspartic acid and phenylalanine, which also begins to break down to form a chemical known as dkp, which is a known tumour causing agent. Another reaction begins at temperatures normally found in the human body, releasing methanol from the molecule. At this kind of temperature it also begins to degrade into formaldehyde. EVEN BEFORE IT IS INGESTED.


When you consider the fact that cans and bottles of diet soda regularly stand in full sunlight in high temperatures during summer months, for unknown lengths of time, slowly, brewing this chemical soup, it makes you wonder about the sanity of those that know the problems, and do nothing about them. The Coca Cola corporation knew all about this.


When you buy a can or bottle of diet soda, you have no way of knowing how long it has been in the package or what conditions it has been stored under. It is not unusual, especially in the summer, for these sodas to have been stood in high temperatures for long periods of time. Do you know what you are drinking?


Studies have shown that the chemical composition of the soda’s can change dramatically in a relatively short space of time. According to information provided by Searle (the original manufacturers of aspartame) over an eight week period of being stored at a temperature of 68 degrees F showed that 11-16% of the aspartame had broken down into aspartic acid, phenylalanine and DKP. Eight weeks at 86 degrees will see 38% of the aspartame degraded.


A separate study showed that over a period of 6 months the amount of aspartame in the drink had dropped from 550.0mg to 155.34mg, while the quantities of the following chemicals had risen by the following amounts: -L- phenylalanine methyl rises from 0mg to 28.62mg DKP rises from 0mg to 135.66mg


There is more than enough evidence available to suggest that some of the servicemen suffering from “Gulf war syndrome” are actually suffering from aspartame poisoning. The “burning tongue” reported by many of them is typical of aspartame poisoning, as are many of the other symptoms.


During the gulf war, thousands of pallets of diet sodas were shipped out to the American service men serving in the gulf. These then stood in the 120degree heat of the desert day, some of them for months before they were consumed.


A high enough temperature to release the methanol from the sweetener and long enough for it to break down into formaldehyde and formic acid. These servicemen and women were drinking formaldehyde cocktails. Is it any wonder they became so ill?


Perhaps as many as 6000 people may have perished from gulf war syndrome. Not all of them will have been poisoned by aspartame, perhaps, but none of them NEEDED to be.


What are the symptoms of aspartame poisoning?


There are 92 documented symptoms of aspartame poisoning, ranging from headaches through to death. These are on the list kept by the Federal Drugs Administration in America and may not be complete because they have only been documenting cases where there is an absolute certainty that aspartame is the culprit.


This is only the tip of the iceberg because many people do not associate their symptoms with the aspartame, and some of those that do will believe their doctors if they are told hat it is not possible.


Symptoms range in intensity from mild to devastating, and in some cases have resulted in death. These are the symptoms gathered from documents available on the internet.


Symptoms

Acne
Allergies
Anxiety attacks (severe)
Arthritic and joint pain*
Asthma
Bad breath
Blindness in one or both eyes
Brain cancer in rats (rats are 60 times LESS susceptible to its effects than humans)
Brain lesions
Breathing difficulties and cough
Blood sugar control problems**
Burning urination***
Chest pain
Chronic diarrhoea and stomach cramps
Chronic fatigue
Confusion
Concentration loss
Decreased tear production
Decreased vision (blurring, bright flashes, tunnel vision, etc)
Depression
Dizziness
Dullness of the intellect
Oedema (swelling, usually of the lower leg and foot)
Excessive thirst and hunger****
Hair loss or thinning
Head tremors
Headaches (cluster headaches and migraines with or without visual disturbances)
Hearing impairment
Heightened blood cholesterol
Heightened PMS
Hypertension (high blood pressure)
Immune system problems ( eg, lupus)
Insomnia
Interstitial cystitis (loss of bladder lining)***
Irritability
Itching
Libido loss
Low blood sugar**
Low energy levels
Memory loss (mainly short term memory affected here)
Menstrual problems (including excessive bleeding)
Mood swings (sometimes as bad and a sudden as manic depression)
Muscle tremors
Multiple sclerosis type problems
Numbness or tingling in the extremities
Pain in the eyes
Panic attacks
Personality changes
Seizures and convulsions (right up to Grande Mal epilepsy)*****
Sinus problems and “nasal drip”
Slurring of speech and drooping lip (very similar to stroke)
Susceptibility to bruising
Tachycardia (rapid heart beat)
Thinning of the lining of the blood vessels******
Tripping and falling
Uterine polyps in rats (See brain cancer note)
Vertigo
Visual shadows
Weight gain****
Word structure reversal



Not everyone will exhibit any of these symptoms, some will only notice one of them some will suffer more of them. The most common symptoms seem to be headaches, including a relatively new kind of head ache called a cluster headache that has been becoming more common over the last twenty years or so, seizures, weakness and loss of mental acuity.


If you suffer one or more of the above, and if you use aspartame in any products that you normally consume, it might be worth considering leaving it out of your diet for at least 90 days to see if there is any improvement in your condition.


If you do not suffer from any of the above, you should be advised that the effects of aspartame poisoning are cumulative and will depend on how much you consume, when you consume it, and how long you have been using it for, so it may only be a matter of time before you are affected.


In addition to these, aspartame has been noted as making the following conditions worse than they need to be:-


Brain tumours
Arthritis
Multiple sclerosis,
Epilepsy
Chronic fatigue syndrome (ME or yuppie flu)
Parkinson’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease
Mental retardation
Lymphoma
Birth defects
Fibromyalgia
Diabetes
Thyroid disorders

*The incidence of joint pain is probably caused by the fact that the aspartame causes a hardening of the fluid in the capsule the joint “floats” on, making it difficult to move fluidly.


**Aspartame has been hailed as the saviour of the diabetic. A sweetener that does not increase your blood sugar, but will enable you to have your food and drink as sweet as you want it.

Many diabetics using aspartame are having extreme difficulty controlling their blood sugar levels because this drug causes blood sugar to drop making it difficult to predict the natural rise and fall throughout the day. Diabetics have totally lost control of their condition, entered comas and died because of this.


***It is not at all certain why this is in all cases, but there is a link between aspartame and interstitial cystitis, which is a condition which occurs when the lining of the bladder is destroyed. There is no clear evidence as to whether or not it is caused by aspartame poisoning, but there is to show that once the condition exists, aspartame makes if worse than it needs to be. The condition is irreversible because once the membrane is destroyed, there are no cells left to regenerate.


****I have not come across an explanation for the excessive thirst, and can only assume that is the bodies’ way of trying to dilute the toxin and flush it out of the system. Drinking diet soda’s to relieve the thirst only makes matters worse. The hunger, however, is probably partially explained by the action of the aspartame which interferes with the normal functioning of serotonin in the brain.


Serotonin is part of the body’s feedback system which tells you when you have had enough to eat. The aspartame inhibits this function, leaving you feeling hungry when, in reality, you have had enough. In addition to this, it causes a craving for carbohydrates, leading to an increased appetite again. It has been noted that a long term user of aspartame can lose up to 19Lb when they cease to use it – without ever taking any other steps to lose weight.



*****It has been known for many years that aspartame causes seizures of varying degrees. The United States Air Force, and magazines catering for civilian pilots, have been warning for some time now that aspartame increases susceptibility for seizures to be triggered by ‘flicker’ to such an extent that pilots have been noticing an increased tendency to have fits of various types and severity, even (on occasion) in the cockpit. Several pilots have lost their ‘ticket’ and had to retire because the cause of the seizures was not found in time and they were considered to be unsafe to fly.



******The reason that diabetics slowly lose their vision is that glucose builds up in the cells of the blood vessels and weakens them. When this happens in the eyes, it is called diabetic retinopathy and can lead to the blood vessels rupturing, damaging the retina. Because one of the effects of aspartame is to weaken and thin the blood vessel, it accelerates the process, causing more damage than the diabetes, but in conditions that make it look as if the diabetes is solely to blame.


Withdrawal of aspartame may considerably slow down the progress – and in some cases may alleviate the condition. Thinning blood vessels can also adversely affect the heart and kidneys.



In addition to the above problems, aspartame can attack the immune system and cause it to turn on your own body, causing a condition known as lupus.

The formaldehyde released from the methanol alters the structure of the proteins in your body, which the immune system then labels as a being foreign and begins to dismantle the body from the inside out. Usually the attacks stop once aspartame is no longer challenging the system – but any subsequent ingestion of aspartame can trigger another attack.
The news just keeps on getting worse!!


Research carried out in July 1973 suggested that there was a correlation between phenylalanine passing through the placenta and causing birth defects – in this case cleft lip and palate.


This is by no means conclusive, but it does indicate that we may be going to see an increase in the number of birth defects, both physical and mental as the use of aspartame continues to rise and more and more potential mothers are using it in more and more products.


The worry here is that not only will the dose be carried through the placenta and effect the physical development of the foetus, but the dose of phenylalanine concentrated in the baby’s brain will cause a change in the way the brain wires itself up during the learning process.



The effects that are being noticed in thousands of American children right now are:-



Irritability
Hyperactivity
Depression
Antisocial behaviour
Deterioration of intelligence
Poor school performance.


It is coming to England right now. America has been living with this trend for the last twenty years.
And just when you thought it had got as bad as it could, there is a new sweetener in development and testing called neotame. It is several thousand times as sweet as sugar and is based on the same formula as aspartame – with the addition of a chemical called 3-di-methylbutyl, which is reputed to be on the EPA’s list of most hazardous chemicals. This I have no way of checking though, so cannot be certain.



Aspartic acid.


Aspartic acid is a non-essential amino acid. It is not necessary to ingest ANY of it, as the body can manufacture all that it needs in the liver. Any aspartic acid that is ingested is normally part of a long chain of amino acids (a protein) and is released slowly into the body during the process of digestion. Once the bond with the phenylalanine is dissolved, the aspartic acid in aspartame is in the free form.


It is not actually bonded to anything, and so it hits the bloodstream in a rush, all at once, in a far higher concentration than is normal. When you drink it dissolved in water (as in a diet soda) this process is even faster, causing the levels of aspartic acid in the blood and the brain to spike to potentially toxic levels.



In its defence the manufacturers have said that aspartic acid is a neurotransmitter, and as such is essential to the healthy functioning of the human brain.


The truth of the matter is that while aspartic acid does stimulate the neurones in the brain to fire, it does so in an inappropriate manner.
Along with glutamic acid (found in monosodium glutamate), aspartic acid is one of a group of chemicals called exitotoxins. What these substances do is to stimulate the brain cell to fire repeatedly and with such frequency that the neuron becomes swollen and may eventually rupture, killing the cell.


While low levels of these chemicals may not cause a significant number of brain cells to die, it is impossible to know what dosage you are actually getting because of the number of different sources that now exist.


Aspartame and monosodium glutamate are only two of these substances, and they are available in so many products that it might be impossible to avoid both of them altogether. It is estimated that aspartame alone is in about 9000 different products in the USA and Britain is rapidly catching up. Do you know how much aspartame and MSG you are consuming?


Because of the particular areas of the brain that are most affected by the action of exitotoxins, it is possible that exposure to them during gestation and childhood may be implicated in a range of learning difficulties, emotional problems and endocrinological abnormalities.


My own nephew has recently been deprived of aspartame, and after a period of about three weeks, he has calmed considerably and is a much nicer child altogether.



The brain is normally partially protected from a lot of damage by the blood/brain barrier, but this is not well developed in infancy, making children up to four times more susceptible to damage. This protection is often weakened by fever, stroke, heavy metal poisoning, head injury and infections. It can also be weakened by age.


Some parts of the brain are not protected at all. One of these is the hypothalamus, which controls the pituitary gland, leaving the body open to imbalances in the hormones produced there.


Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is another of these toxins that is available in almost any savoury food you can buy.
“Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” is well know in America and is most likely to be caused by the amount of mono-sodium glutamate used in Chinese restaurants. While the amount of aspartic acid in the diet is probably still far less than that of MSG, when it is dissolved in water it can enter the bloodstream far faster and cause a spike in the levels present, raising them to toxic levels for up to two hours. MSG is an ingredient in a vast number of savoury products. Check it out sometime.


In addition to which, it is very likely that formaldehyde (released from the aspartame in the gut) will act synergistically with the aspartic acid to worsen its effects.


Causing the brain cells to fire with this frequency is not only capable of killing individual brain cells; it also stimulates them to form connections with other brain cells.

This is what happens when learning takes place, but in the normal learning process, connections are made in along pre-determined pathways. Under these circumstances, the connections are made in a totally random manner, and no-one can predict what effect this could have on the brain – particularly a child’s brain which is actively making new connections all the time as a process of its normal developement. Studies show that in guinea pigs it can interfere with the development of the part of the brain that deals with smell. In rats it has been shown to interfere with the learning process.


MSG is marketed as a flavour enhancer, not only making the food more flavourful, but also MASKING UNDESIRABLE FLAVOURS SUCH AS SOURNESS AND MUSTINESS. The irony of it is that it does absolutely NOTHING to the flavour of food at all. What it does is to get your brain all exited about what you are eating – so you enjoy the flavour more, even though it is exactly the same flavour.


Why have I mentioned MSG here?


Somewhere in the literature I came across a note that the aspartame is “bulked out” with a substance called maltodextrin – and that maltodextrin has MSG as one of its breakdown products during the digestion process. This means that a double dose of delight is released into the body on the digestion of aspartame.


If aspartame is 180 times as sweet as sugar, you should need 1/180 th of the amount to sweeten with. Approx. 179/180ths of your spoonful of aspartame is likely to be maltodextrin. Sweet, huh?
Look out for MSG – it also goes by the alias of E621.


Phenylalanine



The situation regarding the ingestion of phenylalanine is similar to aspartic acid in as much as it is also found in “free form” in aspartame. To eat this particular amino acid as part of a much larger, more complex protein slows down the speed at which it is released into the blood stream and therefore also the concentration at which it reaches the brain.
Dissolved in water (as it would be in a soft drink) it enters the bloodstream rapidly and in a concentration large enough to ‘spike’ the levels found there.


Once in the brain, the phenylalanine breaks down the seizure threshold, making the brain far more susceptible to all forms of fits up to and including Grande Mal epilepsy. It also raises anxiety levels and triggers anxiety and/or panic attacks.


The effect has been noted in several magazines for civilian pilots and the American Air force has warned its pilots against the use of diet sodas. Several airline pilots have lost their licence to fly after having started to have seizures. It is not unknown for a pilot to have a seizure in the cockpit. It has long been noticed that some forms of epilepsy can be triggered by flickering lights like strobes or the pattern of light falling through leaves. Phenylalanine lowers this threshold, making people more susceptible to the ‘flicker’ inducing a fit.


It is also noted that it interferes with the production of serotonin – which causes depression, rage and paranoia. Serotonin IS a neurotransmitter, and as such is vital for the healthy functioning of the brain. Many of the drugs prescribed for depression are based on Serotonin.


Because serotonin levels can fluctuate according to the levels of phenylalanine present, it can cause an effect similar to manic depression. Also, because serotonin is part of the mechanism that tells you when you have had enough to eat, it can also result in a feeling of still being hungry even after eating a large meal.


This is extremely bad news for dieters and diabetics, who both need to eat reasonable amounts, and not be constantly thinking that they are hungry when they are not. On average, people who stop using aspartame after a long history of usage lose about 19lb without having to do anything else.



The liver converts phenylalanine into tyrosine, but there is a group of people who have a genetic defect called Phenylketonuria (or PKU) and these people are not able to do this. Sufferers of PKU convert the phenylalanine into other chemicals that are excreted in the urine, but this process is less efficient and toxic levels of the amino acid can build up in their systems. This is why anything containing aspartame has to be labelled “contains a source of phenylalanine”.


Even with a fully functioning liver able to metabolise phenylalanine, people not affected by this condition can experience symptoms very like those of a PKU sufferer, and can sustain brain damage and convulsions, especially at the levels achieved by drinking more than two litres of diet soda a day – a amount easily achieved by a surprising number of Americans.



Another chemical that forms within this broth of chemical activity is called, rather grandly, aspartylphenylalanine diketopiperazine, known as DKP for short. This is a substance which has been known for some time as a cancer causing agent, specifically linked to a specific kind of brain tumour - Astrocytoma.



This type of tumour was detected in early trials conducted on rats, along with ovarian and mammary cancers and atrophied testes. It is now being detected in approximately 14,000 Americans each year, 700 of them children. This figure could now be out of date, as most of the data I have been able to find predates the year 2000.


Rats are 60 times LESS susceptible to the effects of aspartame than humans.
Are we noticing an increase in breast cancer in the last 20 years?
According to Dr. Louis Elsas at Emery University, the phenylalanine can concentrate in the placenta to twice the levels of the mothers’ blood. It is then further concentrated in the developing brain another 2-4 fold, causing toxic levels and interfering with the normal development of the brain, which can result in mental retardation.



This effect has not been tested in humans as yet and there is no conclusive proof that it happens, but tests with rats and guinea pigs suggest that it is definitely a possibility.


The overall prognosis for a society consuming relatively large doses of aspartame would indicate a general lowering of intellect throughout the generation that has grown up with it as well as a noticeable increase of aggressive, anti social behaviour, ‘hyperactive’ or ‘attention deficit’ problems, depression and resultant suicide. Is this a familiar trend? It is in American schools. Aspartame cannot be responsible for all of it, but is it ‘cranking up the pressure’ and causing much more suffering than is necessary?



Methanol


L-Aspartyl-L-Phenylalanine-Methyl Ester. That is the full name of the chemical marketed as aspartame. It has been claimed that there is no Methanol in Aspartame, but there it is, it is in the methyl ester at the end there.



At temperatures found inside the human body, the methanol is released. Considering the poor storage arrangements given to soft drinks particularly in hot weather, there is probably already a proportion of the methanol found free in the can before it is drunk.
Any food that is subjected to heat during preparation is going to react the same.



Have you ever wondered why aspartame seems to lose its sweetness when used in cooking? The temperatures it is exposed to cause the breakdown of the chemical bond and the length of the exposure effects how much of the aspartame disappears. Even the heat that sugar free jelly is exposed to will be enough to release the methanol – and anything cooked using aspartame is exposed for longer. How much extra do you think they need to add to ensure that it is still sweet when the product cools down?



Methanol has long been known as an extremely toxic substance. Back in the days of American Prohibition it was widely known that Methanol in the cheap alcohol available to the drunks on ‘skid row’ was responsible for so many of them going blind and even dying.




The manufacturers of aspartame have said that there is more methanol in fruit and vegetables than there is in aspartame. What they do not tell you is that when you ingest methanol from a natural source, or when you drink it in an alcoholic beverage, there is usually ethanol present as well.
The human body has a far better affinity with ethanol than with methanol and will set to work on the ethanol, effectively ignoring the methanol which passes through the body to be excreted with relatively little damage. Methanol poisoning can be treated by administering ethanol for this very reason.



Methanol ingested from aspartame is different. It is not accompanied by ethanol and therefore there is no defence to block the metabolisation of the methanol, which hits the bloodstream in a concentrated rush.


Within the human body, the methanol breaks down to formaldehyde, which is an exceptionally toxic substance used in embalming, and which further breaks down to become formic acid – the venom in ant bites.
Ten percent of aspartame will convert to methanol in the right conditions.
This is especially bad news for diabetics.



Not only does the methanol increase the likelihood of going blind, but it also causes a condition called hypoglycaemia, or low blood sugar.
Diabetics using aspartame to avoid high blood sugar are finding that instead of helping them to stabilise their blood sugar, it is making it more and more difficult, and the more aspartame they use in an attempt to replace sugar in their diet, the more difficult it will become. Some diabetics changing from saccharine to aspartame have found difficulties controlling their blood sugar levels and many have eventually slid into a coma. Some have died.


Methanol poisoning is known to mimic the symptoms of MS. as it destroys the nervous system. It is also known to cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, buzzing in the ears, weakness, vertigo, chills, memory lapses, numbness and shooting pains, behavioural disturbances, neuritis, misty vision, tunnel vision, blurring vision, conjunctivitis, insomnia, vision loss, depression, heart problems and inflammation of the pancreas.
Stringent guidelines are in place to restrict the exposure of people working with ethanol, even in fairly low levels. It is often used as an industrial solvent.

And we are eating and drinking it voluntarily?



Formaldehyde



Formaldehyde has long been known to be toxic. There are extremely stringent guidelines laid down for use in industry to limit the amount of exposure to formaldehyde and also to deal with accidental exposure to it. The list of the effects of exposure is long and includes damage to the lungs, stomach, circulatory system, liver, kidneys, heart and brain. The first organs attacked are usually the lungs, eyes and skin.



Formaldehyde is found in the environment in a number of different sources including the fumes from methanol combustion, new carpets, plywood and new caravans.



It is probably most often associated with undertakers, where it is used as an embalming fluid, but is also used for the following: - as a disinfectant/antiseptic, in tanning and preserving hides, as a germicide and fungicide for vegetables and plants and as an intermediate in the manufacture of pesticides.



Industry guidelines for first aid in the case of formaldehyde ingestion read as follows:-


“If the victim is conscious and not convulsing, give 1 or 2 glasses of water to dilute the chemical and IMMEDIATELY call a hospital or poison control centre” It then goes on to advise against trying to make the victim vomit because of the danger of the vapour being drawn into the lungs.



The above is just an indication of the respect with which the substance is meant to be treated in industry. No-one is suggesting that aspartame can deliver in a single dose anything even remotely close to this quantity of formaldehyde, but it does indicate the level of the toxicity of this substance.



10% of aspartame is the methyl ester that bonds the two amino acids together and that methyl ester releases one molecule of methanol into the system for every molecule of aspartame. This then breaks down inside the body to form formaldehyde.



It is the formaldehyde component of methanol that causes the blindness, retinal tissue is very active in the metabolism of methanol, and so formaldehyde builds up in the eye and the optical nerve, effectively embalming the tissues while they are still alive, eroding the vision in the process. The damage, if treated appropriately, can be halted in the early stages, but is irreversible once it has passed a certain stage.
Formaldehyde accumulates in the tissues.



It is a very small molecule, small enough to bind itself into the proteins that form the cells of the human body, including insinuating itself into the D.N.A within the cells.



The formation of formaldehyde adducts such as these is a game of Russian roulette because there is no way of knowing what the effect will be.


Depending on the nature of the cell and the point on the D.N.A. chain at which the formaldehyde binds to it, it could do absolutely nothing, cause a cancer, or alter the germplasm of sperm or ovum in such a way as to cause birth defects in any child unfortunate enough to be born from them. This is an effect that becomes a permanent feature of that Childs D.N.A., and has a potential to effect future generations.



These products of formaldehyde bonding into proteins are called adducts.
Formaldehyde has been shown to produce mutations and abnormal organisms in bacterial studies.



Toxic effects of this chemical are cumulative and depend on how much you ingest and over what period of time. The body is capable of removing them from the system, but at a rate which is far less than they can accumulate with only a relatively small intake of aspartame daily. It can take up to 90 days for the effects to stop making themselves felt, and much longer before the body detoxifies properly.



The higher the level of formaldehyde adducts, the more likely they are to trigger a change in just one cell in the body. One cell – that’s all it takes to change a healthy person into a cancer victim, or the parent of a genetically damaged child. That damage could be invisible, in the form of a decrease in intelligence, or it could be as relatively mild as a hair lip. It could be almost anything.




How many people suffering gulf war syndrome are seeing birth defects in their children? Desert storm troops drank gallons of diet soda's during that campaign. Certainly not all of the illness is caused by aspartame - there were a lot of other factors involved too, but it played a big part in causing this terrible syndrome.




Formic acid



Most likely, you will already know of formic acid as the venom in the bite of certain ants and may be all too familiar with the irritation, the itching and burning sensation that this causes.


In industry, it is used as a fumigant and larvicide for tobacco, dried fruits and cereal, and as a fumigant for nuts and infected clothing, also as a solvent and military poison gas. In fact it is reputed that aspartame itself was once submitted to congress for approval as a chemical weapon!!
Exposure to this chemical can result in serious consequences to the health and can be absorbed by inhalation, ingestion or through the skin. Exposure to large doses can be fatal.




This is the reality that industries handling large amounts of concentrated formic acid on a daily basis live with.
Formic acid consumption from aspartame is obviously a lot less than the potential exposure under those circumstances, but this indicates the nature of the chemical that we are dealing with. It should still be treated with respect, even in small doses.


It is an irritant and a corrosive and will cause problems wherever it comes into contact with living tissues, causing redness and swelling, aggravating breathing problems and over stimulating mucus membranes (probably the cause of the sinus/”nasal drip” on the symptoms list above)
And we are eating and drinking this stuff voluntarily? Why?




Overview



Millions of people in the USA have been using this product since the middle of the 1970’s, most of them without either noticing any ill effects-or associating general ill health and low energy with their aspartame intake.
Low levels of usage may well not cause any effects in the vast majority of the population.



BUT- the effects of aspartame poisoning are cumulative and may take many years to build up to noticeable levels, by which time most people would not associate their onset with their use of this sweetener. With increased dosages being taken from an increasing variety of sources, it is likely that every single human being could react at some time in the future, when their individual tolerance is overwhelmed.



The only real test available to most people is to stop using it altogether for at least 90 days and see if any ill health effects reduce in intensity or disappear altogether.
If this is the case, the acid test would then be to challenge the body by dosing it with a moderate amount of aspartame to check whether the symptoms return. After years of usage, one dose can be enough to show this as the body remains sensitive to it for a long time after having it withdrawn.




The synergistic results of taking a cocktail of potentially toxic substances is almost impossible to predict as it will depend if the chemicals, the quantities, the amounts and on the susceptibility of the person taking them, but there are studies that suggest that it could potentially be disastrous. The 1976 trials on mice referred to earlier would indicate this.



So, here we are consuming unknown quantities of a substance that contains not one toxic substance, but seven in a cocktail. And we wonder why people are getting sick?



The FDA estimate that when there are problems with drugs of this nature, only about 1% of cases actually gets reported to them. Using this as a basis, it has been calculated that about 1,900,000 Americans have suffered effects and associated them with the aspartame, but not reported the fact. This says nothing about the number of sufferers who never made the association and are still not aware of what is causing their suffering; there could be tens of millions.



9000 products and climbing – that is how widespread aspartame use is in the USA, and the number of products available worldwide is rapidly catching up with this.
Please, people, take care of what you are eating and drinking, there are safe alternatives out there.



Most of the above information has been gleaned from the internet and is available for you to check. Look for the websites belonging to holisticmed.com, Mission possible and doorway, but research as widely as you can – that way you can ‘iron out’ the errors more effectively.
It is not, and never has been, my intention to scare anyone. There is no need to be afraid as, once you know what is doing it, you can make it stop, and in many cases you can see the symptoms cease if it is the aspartame that is causing problems.



I Hope that the information contained here will not cause undue anxiety, but will help people to understand the subject better.
This document should not be seen as anything other than a guide to the problems that many people are experiencing, and a jumping off point for your own research
_________________
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.” rumi
Nur Illa' Hob!

http://phytobiopharma.com

,
"Haspiallah a'am al waqil, na'am al maula, na'am al nasir"66

[Yasmine]

Article by FDA on artificial sugar



Article written by Nancy Markle (1120197

I have spent several days lecturing at the WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL CONFERENCE

‘ASPARTAME marketed as ‘NutraSweet’, ‘Equal, and Spoonful’In the keynote address by the EPA, they announced that there was an epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus, and they did not understand what toxin was causing this to be rampant across the United States. I explained that I was there to lecture on exactly that subject.

When the temperature of Aspartame exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol in ASPARTAME converts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes metabolic acidosis. (Formic acid is the poison found in the sting of fire ants). The methanol toxicity mimics multiple sclerosis, thus people were being diagnosed with having multiple sclerosis in error. The multiple sclerosis is not a death sentence, where methanol toxicity is.

In the case of systemic lupus. we are finding it has become almost as rampant as multiple sclerosis, especially with Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi drinkers. Also, with methanol toxicity, the victims usually drink three to four l2oz.cans of them per day, some even more. In the cases of systemic lupus, which is triggered by ASPARTAME. the victim usually does not know that the aspartame is the culprit. The victim continues its use aggravating the lupus to such a degree, that sometimes it becomes life threatening. When we get people off the aspartame, those with systemic lupus usually become symptomatic. Unfortunately, we cannot reverse this disease. On the other hand, in the case of those diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, (when IN reality, the disease is methanol toxicity), most of the symptoms disappear. We have seen cases where their vision has returned and even their hearing has returned This also applies to cases of tinnitus.

During a lecture I said “If you are using ASPARTAME (NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc.) and you suffer from fibromyalgia symptoms, spasms, shooting pains, numbness in your legs, cramps, vertigo, dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, joint pain, depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision, or memory loss-you probably have ASPARTAME DISEASE

People were jumping up during the lecture saying, “I’ve got this, is it reversible?’ It is rampant. Some of the speakers at my lecture even were suffering from these symptoms. In one lecture attended by the Ambassador of Uganda, he told us that their sugar industry is adding aspartame! He continued by saying that one of the industry leader’s son could no longer walk - due in part by product usage! We have a very serious problem.

Even a stranger came up to Dr. Espisto (one of my speakers) and myself and said, ‘Could you tell me why so many people seem to be coming down with MS? During a visit to a hospice, a nurse said that six of her friends, who were heavy Diet Coke addicts, had all been diagnosed with MS. This is beyond coincidence.

Here is the problem. There were Congressional Hearings when aspartame was included in 100 different products. Since this initial hearing, there have been two subsequent hearings, but to no avail. Nothing has been done. The drug and chemical lobbies have very deep pockets. Now there are over 5,000 products containing this chemical, and the PATENT HAS EXPIRED.

At the time of this first hearing, people were going blind. The methanol in the aspartame converts to formaldehyde in the retina of the eye. Formaldehyde is grouped in the same class of drugs as cyanide and arsenic - DEADLY POISONS.

Unfortunately, it just takes longer to quietly kill, but it is killing people and causing all kinds of neurological problems. Aspartame changes the brain’s chemistry.

It is the reason for severe seizures. This drug changes the dopamine level in the brain.

Imagine what this drug does to patients suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. This drug also causes Birth Defects.

There is absolutely no reason to take this product. It is NOT A DIET PRODUCT!!! The Congressional record said, “It makes you crave carbohydrates and will make you FAT”. Dr. Roberts stated that when he got patients off aspartame, their average weight loss was 19 pounds per person. The formaldehyde stores in the fat cells, particularly in the hips and thighs.

Aspartame is especially deadly for diabetics. All physicians know what wood alcohol will do to a diabetic. We find that physicians believe that they have patients with retinopathy, when in fact, it is caused by the aspartame. The aspartame keeps the blood sugar level out of control, causing many patients to go into a coma. Unfortunately, many have died.

People were telling us at the conference of the American College of Physicians, that they had relatives that switched from saccharin to an aspartame product and how that relative had eventually gone into a coma. Their physicians could not get the blood sugar levels under control. Thus, the patients suffered acute memory loss and eventually coma and death. Memory loss is due to the fact that aspartic acid and phenylalanine are neurotoxic without the other amino acids found in protein. Thus it goes past the blood brain barrier and deteriorates the neurons of the brain Dr. Russell Blaylock, neurosurgeon, said, “The ingredients stimulate the neurons of the brain to death, causing brain damage of varying degrees.

Dr Blaylock has written a book entitled EXCITOTOXINS: THE TASTE THAT KILLS(Health Press 1-800-643-2665 Dr. H.J. Roberts, diabetic specialist and world expert on aspartame poisoning, has also written a book entitled DEFENSE AGAINST ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE (1-800-814-9800). Dr. Roberts tells how aspartame poisoning is escalating Alzheimer’s Disease, and indeed it is. As the hospice nurse told me, women are being admitted at 30 years of age with Alzheimer’s Disease Dr. Blaylock and Dr. Roberts will be writing a position paper with some case histories and will post it on the Internet. According to the Conference of the American College of Physicians.

‘We are talking about a plague of neurological diseases caused by this deadly poison.

Dr. Roberts realized what was happening when aspartame was first marketed. He said, “his diabetic patients presented memory loss, confusion, and severe vision loss’. At the Conference of the American College of Physicians, doctors admitted that they did not know. They had wondered why seizures were rampant (the phenylalanine in aspartame breaks down the seizure threshold and depletes serotonin, which causes manic depression, panic attacks, rage and violence.

Just before the Conference, I received a FAX from Norway, asking for a possible antidote for this poison because they are experiencing so many problems in their country. This “poison” is now available in 90 PLUS countries worldwide.

Fortunately, we had speakers and ambassadors at the Conference from different nations who have pledged their help. We ask that you help too. Print this article out and warn everyone you know. Take anything that contains aspartame back to the store. Take the “NO ASPARTAME TEST’ and send us your case history I assure you that MONSANTO, the creator of aspartame, knows how deadly it is. They fund the American Diabetes Association, American Dietetic Association, Congress, and the Conference of the American College of Physicians.

The New York Times, on November 15,1996 ran an article on how the American Dietetic Association takes money from the food industry to endorse their products. Therefore, they cannot criticize any additives or tell about their link to MONSANTO.

How bad is this? We told a mother who had a child on NutraSweet to get off the product. The child was having grand mal seizures every day. The mother called her physician, who called the ADA, who told the doctor not to take the child off the NutraSweet. We are still trying to convince the mother that the aspartame is causing the seizures.

Every time we get someone off of aspartame, the seizures stop. If the baby dies, you know whose fault it is, and what we are up against. There are 92 documented symptoms of aspartame, from coma to death. The majority of them are all neurological, because the aspartame destroys the nervous system.

Aspartame Disease is partially the cause to what is behind some of the mystery of the Desert Storm health problems (Gulf War Syndrome). The burning tongue at ~ other problems discussed in over 60 cases can be directly related to the consumption of an aspartame product. Several thousand pallets of diet drinks were shipped to the Desert Storm troops. (Remember heat can liberate the methanol from the aspartame at 86 degrees F). Diet drinks sat in the 120 degree F. Arabian sun for weeks at a time on pallets. The servicemen and women drank them all day long. All of their symptoms are identical to aspartame poisoning

Dr. Roberts says consuming aspartame at the time of conception can cause birth defects”. The phenylalanine concentrates in the placenta, causing mental retardation, according to Dr. Louis Elsas, Pediatrician Professor- Genetics, at Emory University in his testimony before Congress. In the original lab tests, animals developed brain tumors (phenylalanine breaks down into DXP, a brain tumor agent). When Dr. Espisto was lecturing on aspartame, one physician in the audience, a neurosurgeon, said, “when they remove brain tumors, they have found high levels of Aspartame in them.

Stevia, a sweet herb, NOT AN ADDITIVE, which helps in the metabolism of sugar, which would be ideal for diabetics, has now been approved as a dietary supplement by the F.D.A. For years, the F.D.A. haD outlawed this sweet food because of their loyalty to MONSANTO. If it says “SUGAR FREE” on the label-DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!!!!!!

Senator Howard Metzenbaum wrote a bill that would have warned all infants, pregnant mothers and children of the dangers of aspartame. The bill would have also instituted independent studies on the problems existing in the population (seizures, changes in brain chemistry, changes in neurological and behavioral symptoms.

It was killed by the powerful drug and chemical lobbies, letting loose the hounds of disease and death on an unsuspecting public.
_________________
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.” rumi
Nur Illa' Hob!

http://phytobiopharma.com

,
"Haspiallah a'am al waqil, na'am al maula, na'am al nasir"66