I was the one who started a small thread about this a few weeks ago. I had reported that after a few years of increasing, chronic pain in my left foot, it started to subside within days after stopping use of Aspartame-based products. As of last week, even the soreness of the long-term pain is now gone (although I went on a 10-plus-mile walk this past weekend and it was *slightly* sore afterward — bummer, eh?).
Since posting my previous article, I mentioned this experience to my chiropractor — a person in whose abilities I have complete confidence.
After discussing his knowledge on the topic, he gave me a VHS tape of a local (S.F. Bay Area) talk-show program from 1985 to check out. On it was a lady who had attributed blindness to the use of Aspartame (at the time she was in a legal battle with Searle, NutraSweet’s benefactor).
Others stated that a number of other cases involving possible Aspartame related blindness were under investigation, as well as purported cases of hyperactivity in children, weight gain (although it is used in diet products, it apparently causes sugar/fat cravings), epileptic-type petit and grand mal seizures, and a number of other things. There were *numerous* studies cited from prestigious universities (MIT, UCLA, etc.) who concluded that Aspartame should not have been allowed such wide-spread usage due to a poisoning effect of one of the two amino acids it produces.
The other amino acid is what requires the “Phenylketonurics: Contains Phenylalanine” note on NutraSweet-based diet sodas, for example. This is a warning to people with PKU (apparently people with this affliction have difficulty “absorbing” too much of this amino acid). Nifty, eh?
It was only after someone else posted a NutraSweet-pain experience that caused me to halt its use — what did I have to lose? Well, I lost a great deal of pain. By the way, to the individual who wrote me that I only lost the pain due to a placebo effect, fat chance? If this ecstasy of foot painlessness is due to a placebo effect, perhaps I’ll stop eating altogether and get rid of all my pains.)