Since I already figured out the NutraSweet thing I’ve been off of it for almost a year. Here is my story; you have my permission to use it.
I began experiencing migraine headaches in my early 40s. This is quite common with “pre-menopausal” women and is definitely connected to hormone fluctuations. My migraines were what are called classic migraines, which begin with an aura that looks like flashing jagged lights in your vision. This lasts about 20 minutes and is then usually followed by the actual headache.
At first my headaches would only last about 6 hours and although I had the accompanying photophobia and photophobia (extreme sensitivity to light and sound), I was not experiencing the nausea that usually accompanies migraines. I began to get them about twice a month. My diet consisted of 1 – 3 Diet Cokes or Diet Snapples daily.
After about a year my headaches got continually worse. Instead of lasting one day they began to last for three days. I was getting them sometimes two or three times a week and I began experiencing the nausea. It finally got to the point where I was so incapacitated by the migraines that it started affecting my job performance, and I had to leave my job. (Stress is a big trigger of migraines, along with food allergies, and my job was really stressing me out).
After I left my job I continued to have debilitating migraines. I was still drinking lots of Diet Coke. My doctor attributed this to post-traumatic stress, which I’m sure was partially correct. I also started on a course of herbal therapy, which eventually was successful, but I still got more headaches than I was comfortable with.
Then my secretary mentioned that she and her husband had discovered that Diet Coke was giving them headaches. She suggested I stop drinking Diet Coke, which I did. My headaches improved dramatically, but I was away from my “job from hell” and also taking the beneficial herbs. I never thought there was any one factor which was responsible for the improvement, but a combination of all three.
I still think this is correct, and I only have one or two headaches per month now, and usually they are not acute. But on two occasions in the last year I have ingested NutraSweet unknowingly, and both times I developed a killer headache within about 12 hours. This is consistent with migraines caused by food allergies.
I have absolutely no doubt that if I ingest even a small quantity of NutraSweet that I will develop a migraine within a short period of time. I have no desire to be a human guinea pig, but I am convinced that NutraSweet played a big role in my migraines, and ingestion of NutraSweet also serves to exacerbate the other triggers which contribute to migraines.