I’m very backlogged in posting the wonderful suggestions being passed along to me by students in my Biological Psychology course this quarter. I’m bumping this one to the front of the line, though, because it has a great deal of personal significance for me.
For years, I was a very heavy consumer of Diet Pepsi, which like most diet sodas, contained the artificial sweetener aspartame. My chemist friend, Peggy Rice, warned me that aspartame was not a terrific thing to put in your body, but I continued to drink diet soda. About three years ago, I started to have significant problems with my vision, and invested in a very large screen monitor. I also experienced bouts of dizziness. The last straw, about a year ago, was the experience of neuropathy–chronic tingling and numbness in my feet. That got my attention. I have a family history of MS, and I thought to myself, oh no, here we go.
A quick review of the literature brought some interesting issues to light. First, I ran into sites like the one provided by one of my students, suggesting that aspartame could produce an MS-like syndrome in sensitive people. Given the previous warning I received from Peggy, I decided the first change I would make would be to quit using aspartame. In the medical literature, however, the biggest controversy seems to be whether or not aspartame causes brain tumors. Wow–that’s another good reason to leave it alone.
Although I didn’t see any immediate changes, I did suffer setbacks on two occasions. Once, I started drinking diet soda again when my daughters visited for the holidays. They like soda, too, so it was in the house again. After I stopped drinking the soda, my symptoms got a lot better. The second setback occurred after I enjoyed a most excellent Chinese lunch at one of my favorite restaurants. I never felt I was sensitive to MSG before, but I sure am now. Both aspartame and MSG can produce excitotoxicity, which may damage the myelin coating axons. After a few days, the symptoms got better again.
My husband, who is treating his diabetes 2 through diet, exercise, and supplements with no prescription meds, is a big fan of niacin. He talked me into trying it, and it was an “interesting” experience. Interesting, if you don’t mind turning bright red for about 45 minutes. I learned to take my niacin in plenty of time before I had to leave for class to let it wear off. Niacin is usually applied intravenously for the treatment of MS, but I’m glad that I got results without having to do that. Coupled with increased exercise (30 minutes stairmaster per day, light weightlifting, and walking about 3 miles per day), I am now virtually symptom-free! It has been weeks since I felt any problems with my feet. My eyes are no longer red and dry, and although I still need my reading glasses (most people my age do, too), I do not feel fatigued when using the computer or reading.
As a scientist, I am obviously aware of the dangers of anecdotal evidence and introspection. Nonetheless, I am hoping that objective scientists continue to look at aspartame with a critical eye. The MS Foundation has dismissed any connection between aspartame and MS as an “Internet Hoax,” yet states that “individuals who experience problems after consuming aspartame should eliminate foods and beverages that contain this sweetener from their diet.” I guess that means me. What bothers me about this research is that little of it is long-term. Aspartame has been available since the 1980s. What if it takes 20 years to do its thing on people?
I have become somewhat evangelical about aspartame. I have strongly encouraged my daughters to stay away from it, and I’m pleased to see that they have sharply reduced their intake.
6 Comments
StevenBogolub · November 5, 2006 at 11:36 am
It’s slightly ironic that people drink diet soda as a healthy alternative to regular soda, however because of aspartame, these people may end up damaging their body much more significantly.
MollyMcLaughlin · November 6, 2006 at 3:46 pm
I agree with that. I gave up regular soda about three years ago, and since I don’t like the taste of coffe, have been drinking 2-3 Diet Pepsi drinks a day to keep me awake. I recently decided that the large amount of sugar contained in regular Coke was better than the potentially VERY dangerous diet drinks!
jejabe13 · November 14, 2006 at 5:21 pm
After you mentioned the negative effects of aspartame in class a few weeks ago, I went home and researched the negative effects for myself. I, like many young women, have always struggled with my weight and became a member of Weight Watchers in high school. As a way to avoid the “empty calories” of regular soda, the leader of our Weight Watcher meetings would suggest and encourage us members to drink diet sodas instead. Accordingly, I have been drinking diet sodas exclusively since the beginning of high school. After reading of the possible aversive consequences, I told my fiancé we were no longer having diet sodas with aspartame in the house. We instead are buying Diet 7-UP and Shasta sodas, all made with the sucralose of Splenda. I haven’t heard of any, but I’m wondering if sucralose has any aversive health effects.
kcrusePSY340 · November 28, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Diet soda has been so amazingly popular since it’s introduction, and it has been branded as a staple in the diet of many people trying to lose weight, because of this i think it’s going to take a lot of extremeley convincing evidence and advertisement of the research to ever significantly decrease people’s consumption of diet soda. If it’s more likely that the effects are long term i wonder if there’s is going to be a burst of people showing serious health problems sometime soon that were not shown in high numbers before the introduction of aspartane. If the research ever gets that convincing, the fda should probably ban aspartane.
Ariel_Januszewicz · November 30, 2006 at 9:09 pm
I think this discussion is really interesting. For one the sudden surge in splenda and sucralose products in the recent years has come about without the really heavy backlash against aspartame that I would have expected. For me personally, I used to be a pretty heavy diet coke user (abuser?) I’m not sure if it was the caffeine or the bubbles that did it for me. But I have noticed that I do seem to feel better when I’m not going through one of my diet coke binges. In recent months I naturally cut back in my drinking habits and I feel much better for it now that I have read this board. I’ll still drink diet coke, but I will definitely only drink it in moderation.
mdasilva · December 4, 2006 at 10:35 pm
A teacher that I had in highschool had a similar incidence to this with her father, and she told us about what happened to him to worn us of aspartame. Her father was a large, strong man, and loved diet Pepsi, and drank at least 3 a day everyday for the past 20 some years. Within the past few years, he has had many problems, and now, has trouble even standing for a prolonged period of time. This teacher was my chemistry teacher, so she is knowledgable in the area of science, and she is convinced that this is caused by the aspartame in the diet soda that he drank religiously. It is amazing that aspartame can have this type of effect on a person, and that it can cause someone that used to be so strong to now not be able to barely stand. Also, I am not sure of effects of MS, but would his effects be considered those of MS?
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