Info on Aspartame - is it true?

My husband brought home an email he got at work all excited thinking he might have solved my health problems.  Bascially it is a 12 page email that discusses how aspartame and artifical sweeteners  can mimic conditions to include MS and lupus.  This is related to methanol toxicity and can cause vision and hearing loss,  spasms, pains, numbness, memory loss.... and several other symptoms.  Yes, I do drink diet soda but in limited moderation (1 to 2 a day). There was a case story that went along about how a woman was miraculously cured only after three days of eleminating this product.  I am trying not to be too skeptical but I feel bad for bursting his bubble.  It does make me want to quit my sweetner consumption.  I use Splenda on anything I sweeten but do drink limited diet soda.  Has anyone else heard this and could it actually cause optic neuritis and demyelination on my MRI.  I am finding this information somewhat beleivable but not overwhelmingly - because I am sure my neuro would have mentioned this if it were true and I would have learned about it in nursing school.

[Deb61]

Yes, I've heard about this and have even cut the aspartame out of my diet (at one time).  It didn't do anything for me, but maybe it would help someone else to cut these out.  I still try to stay away from aspartame (and caffeine, too--to avoid migraines) just in case.

A friend of mine that has MS, has completely cut them out of her diet.  She's been away from aspartame for several years and it's done nothing for her.  

Sorry, I don't know about the validity of whoever had written that original article (or did the research, if there was any).  However, if you google "MS, lupus, aspartame" you'll come up with lots of web sites to check out.  Personally, I really don't think this has any validity, but maybe there will be someone in this forum that can testify to the contrary.  I'm always searching for that "magic bullet" whether or not it exists or not.

This is a good topic for discussion, and I have a feeling that there will be a lot of debate.

Deb

[santana8]

I have wondered about this one myself. I started drinking Diet Coke about 16 years ago to keep wieght down. I drink about six a day, I know thats too much! I never had any problems until two years ago when I had a sudden onset of vision disturbance in a store. The white matter lesions showed up on MRI and I have been stuck between ADEM and MS for this whole time. I have seen this question on the forum before, and most of the responses said that it is not valid. But to be honest I really don't know for sure. I have not asked my neuro, but I plan to now since I keep seeing this come up. If it is true then I know for sure that I am at risk because I have drank it for so long. I wonder if there is a test that they can do to determine if a person has this toxicity? If anyone knows the answer to this I would love to know the name of the test! One thing that makes me doubt this theory in my case is with drinking it for so many years I would think that some sort of symptom would have showed up before that sudden onset two  years ago. And the fact that I have been scanned every six months for two years with no change or no progression, and I still drink Diet Coke! I don't know what to make of this, but maybe someone can give us something with proof of this risk!

Santana

[cjacks]

Hi
I got this e-mail yesterday from my friend who is a nurse , she got it from her cousin who is a PA

I have been a diet coke consumer, one per day, for years .  I have stopped a couple of times and it is harder to quit than smoking was . I have stopped again because my pcp was beside himself when I just casually mentioned it .  He had a lot of bad stats to back up his statements.  The nutritionist I saw last summer had said about the same things ..

I'm going to listen to them ..  I pay them for their advice , so I guess I should take .

As to whether it causes ms or anything else ,??  I'm staying out of the fray. But if there's a chance , why take ,   There are many healthy drink alternatives out there .    
that's the route I'm taking .  

Stevia comes in a flavored liquid , a few drops in club soda or seltzer, not too bad .. I have more ideas..  

My philosophy , the less chemicals we put in our bodies the better.

All the best to everyone                Jo        

[Tabs]

I asked my doctor about this a while back after I quit drinking regular sodas and she said there's no statistically significant evidence that it causes harm and most of what's out there is anecdotal stories, conspiracy theories etc...

[essdipity]

Please check snopes.com about this. That site is very reliable for debunking urban legends. The aspartame thing has been making the Internet rounds for years and years, and it's just plain not true. Would that it were that simple. Too much artificial sweetener, or too much anything, for that matter, is not good. But there is no scientific evidence whatever that aspartame causes or contributes to MS.

This question appears here so often that maybe it should be included in the MS Health Pages.

ess