Questions posted in the
Neurology and Neurosurgery Forum have been answered by doctors from The Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
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Subject: Re: Can Aspartame poisoning cause PN? : I have been diagnosed as having a chemical imbalance of the brain. I am 37 years old, in good overall health. Never smoked, drank, had HIV or any other disease. My symptoms include: burning of the feet and lower legs, mild numbness on occassion in the little fingers, sensation of "heavy eyes" and slightly strained vision, oaccassional headaches often in the back of the head, occassional neck and shoulder soreness, occassional mild nausea, occassional muscle pain. None of the symptoms are severe and they do tend to travel with perhaps only one or two present at any given time. I have had a brain MRI done (normal - no MS), neck MRI done (normal), EMG on the neck/shoulder and right arm (normal), and several blood tests. For many years I was a very heavy diet soda drinker. I averaged 6 to 7 cans per day. I have read many articles suggesting a link between aspartame and numerous neurological disorders including affects on the brain chemistry. I have recently stopped all ingestion of foods containing aspartame. It is too soon to know if this is going to help. I realize this might be a controversial subject and I have no intent to quote your reply in any forum. I was just wondering if there have been any medical studies/experience suggesting a link between high levels of aspartame consumption and neurogolical disorders such as peripheral neuropathy or "chemical imbalances" of the brain. Thanks, Bob p.s. How can I determine if I have a difficiency of B-12 or other There has been considerable debate in the medical literature regarding the effects of aspartame, the suggested links include headache, brain tumor, memory loss seizures , attention defecit disorder, and dizziness. In a ten year literature search however I could not find a single reference to peripheral neurpoathy, and the other suggested links are all unproven. I feel the term poisoning is probably not even accurate in your case as the safety of Aspartame has been established in people taking the equivalent of 10 pints of soda per day. It is not possible to make a diagnosis of your problems from the information supplied but I feel , on the basis of the current scientific literature, that aspartame is not involved. As regards testing for Vitamin B12 levels this is easily achieved by means of a simple blood test. Other vitamins and minerals can also be accurately tested by this means. I would be reluctant to attribute any of your symptoms or test results to soda drinking on the basis of the scientific information currently available. | |
