It started about 6 years ago when I was about 43 years old. At the time that is when the now popular term “presbyopia” started to become known.
That, as you probably know, is described as the natural and predictable process whereby the flexibility of the lens in the eye begins to decrease and the eye loses its ability to focus on close items. Hence the jokes about needing longer arms to read a printed page.
My vision had been 20/15 all my life, and I was horrified that all of a sudden I needed reading glasses. Further, I spent many hours a day using a computer, and I had become privately convinced that I was developing an attention deficit because I had trouble concentrating.
My genetic predisposition to type 2 diabetes had prompted me to eliminate sugar from my diet (mainly for weight maintenance). Of course the only widely available alternative is Equal/Sweet&Low.
The trip to the optical shop got me some reading glasses that seemed to do the job. I even got a pair that was optimized to the computer screen distance. However, I seemed unable to concentrate as well as I had in years past. Also my need for the glasses seemed to vary for reasons I could not explain. Sometimes I could read very fine print without assistance, and other times 1/8″ letters seemed to swim on the page.
At about this same time, I developed another pretty weird neurological symptom my hearing became hypersensitive to noise. Particularly on the telephone. When talking on a cellular, for example, a loud or distorted voice or sound would cause me to lose equilibrium and get very dizzy and disoriented. Basically, I got the symptoms of motion sickness.
At this time I also became so clinically depressed I went on an anti-depressant. I also have a strong genetic component of clinical depression. I was in therapy, taking my pills and wishing I were dead.
In spite of excellent therapy and good medical help, I felt that my world was falling apart and that I was physically falling apart.
About a year later, I was interviewing a bunch of job candidates in St Louis for a sales position. I had coffee with about 14 people during their interviews. At that point I would use one or two Equals with each cup of coffee. As the interviews progressed, I became very sick.
I was wearing bifocal reading glasses, and every time I looked up from the resume’s to look at the candidate, the little flickering change of perspective gave me this wave of extreme dizziness. I got so sick that I cancelled the interviews and went to bed. I thought I was having a stroke or a brain tumor or high blood pressure. I called my doctor who FEDEXed me some high blood pressure meds since I had a strong familial tendency for hypertension. I had had mild hypertension in the past, and the pills were a precaution against something worse. I was too sick to leave the hotel until the following day and I hurried back for an exam. I had layed off the coffee thinking that if my problem was hypertension that coffee would be bad. I went in for the exam and confirmed that I had hypertension and was given a prescription for that which controls it very well. The doc said to closely monitor my BP and see if caffeine was a factor. I could demonstrate no relationship between my caffeine intake and BP levels, so I went back to a modest coffee intake. Still, though, I found my hearing sensitivity and related disequilibrium seemed to return in the afternoons. I also scheduled my demanding intellectual pursuits in the mornings because I was unable to focus mentally and visually in the afternoon. I was pretty scared, since I had controlled the apparent cause of my problem, but the most obnoxious of the physical symptoms remained. The story I have told you happened over a period of several years.
About three months ago I was sitting in my office reading in the morning (without glasses) a very small type face at the bottom of a magazine ad. I said “hey, this can’t just be presbyopia and it is not just a fatigue issue. Sometimes I can see and sometimes I can’t see!” It just hit me so hard that I had to investigate. I made an inventory of what I did all day long what I ate and drank, what I read, how much I used the computer, etc. The only commonality I could find was that I drank coffee all morning about 36 oz) which included a total of six packets of Equal. Then, at lunch I’d have a diet coke usually 32 oz. In the afternoon, I’d have another diet coke and maybe a coffee. Thank God I’m not too reactive to caffeine, I’d be dead.
Anyway the reduction in cognition and in vision coupled with the disequilibrium tracked and correlated almost directly with my Aspartame intake. Eureka! I was trained in science, so I decided to eliminate the Aspartame from my diet to evaluate the differences, if any, that I could feel see or measure.
Interestingly, the symptoms were pretty much gone by the third day. I still need my reading glasses, but the size print I can see unaided is much smaller than before! I can concentrate much better, and the dizziness symptoms have disappeared. I now drink coffee with sugar and Pepsi (sugared) in about the same schedule and volume as before. I was thrilled with the immediate and marked improvement in how I felt and what I could do. Note, I had never heard a single bad thing about Aspartame before, in fact I could not have told you that Aspartame is NutraSweet! By the way I decided to go back to NutraSweet to see if it triggered a return of the symptoms. After about 3 days it all came back. I then permanently quit using NutraSweet. This is a controlled experiment with a single subject measuring what seems to be subjective data. Nevertheless, I am completely convinced that my body and NutraSweet are incompatible.
Now, I no longer need anti-depressants, I religiously take my anti-hypertensives and I feel immeasurably better.