By the way I gave my doctor the post that you sent me. She was very impressed. She told me that she took one of her patients off of NutraSweet for an undisclosed (to me) condition and was starting to see improvement. She promised to be sensitive to effects of NutraSweet in all of her patients.
Anyway the post . . .
A while back, I promised to post my results of stopping Aspartame. Now seems as good a time as any, although some things are going on that haven’t completely played out yet.
First off, I have been a diabetic, type 1, for 35 years; I take thyroid replacement hormones, and I have alopecia areata.
Well, I’m still a diabetic although my average blood sugar has gone from 155 -160 to 135 -140, and I’ve been able to maintain that for about six weeks now, somewhat of a record for me. I’ve lowered my insulin dose, but only slightly.
I’m taking about half the amount of thyroid replacement that I was taking, although this is a bit uncertain. Thyroid is measured with an indicator that is a 4 to 6 week average. I was having symptoms of hyperthyroid and the doctor decided to lower my dosage. The actual correct dose won’t be confirmed for a while.
I have seen some hair return in the alopecia areas – but only a bit; I’m still not ready to grow back my mustache (though I keep hoping). I have been using Rogaine as the treatment for this; however, it hadn’t seemed to help until recently.
I’ve lost nine pounds; I’m not as hungry as I used to be. The tendonitis I had in my hip has gotten considerably better; my shoulder (still recovering from surgery) seems to be opening up a bit more; and finally my sense of smell and taste are both better. I also feel better and indeed have more energy.
Now all of these things could and frequently do happen to people with no effect from Aspartame. My wife attributes all of this to the “halo effect,” that self-righteous glow associated with sacrifice, and that may well be the case. Tendonitis does get better, people gain more control over their diabetes, and alopecia does go into remission. However, I am convinced that giving up Aspartame played some role in all of this. These effects seemed to happen at once and seemed to be related to my giving up the stuff. At any rate I’m convinced enough to not use it again.