I feel much better, thanks. I no longer get blurry vision, have less tremor in my hands (although this is one symptom which I think will never go away completely), no more chronic “tickle” in throat which caused me to constantly clear my throat, less chronic depression, and best of all, I don’t feel that deep down fatigue that I used to feel in seemingly every bone in my body. Overall, I seem to sleep better also, although I still occasionally get one of those sleepless nights.
I no longer get those inexplicable monster “back-of-the-eyeballs headaches” when I read anymore; although I used to be an enthusiastic reader at one time before Aspartame, I couldn’t tolerate reading for more than 15 minutes when I as on Aspartame.
I still do get tired more than I feel I should, but I definitely am doing better than just 6 months ago. I believe that an important residual effect of
Aspartame use is that due to chronic fatigue and basically feeling sick all the time had led me to become much less active which caused me to gain weight and to lose endurance from lack of enough aerobic exercise.
In addition to removing Aspartame from my diet, I have also cut my caffeine down to only one cup of coffee (seem to still need that jolt in the morning) per day which really minimizes that 2pm to 4pm “valley of fatigue” crash which used to hit me very hard usually right after lunch.
Other diet revisions which I have made: 1) almost compete substitution of soft drinks with fruit/vegetable juices such as V-8, oj, cranberry, grape, etc. about the only soft drink that I’ll still have is ginger ale but even that I have rarely; 2) major reduction (but not fanatic abstinence) in consumption of red meats especially cold cuts; 3) we make a couple of big pots of different soups every weekend made with a lot of fresh veggies which we use as left overs which last through the week; 4) also have increased intake of vitamins up to at least 1500 mg of vitamin C and 400iu of vitamin E per day along with a multi for B vitamins which I always make sure to take along with meals to ensure more complete digestion and adsorption.
I really did not start my diet change until after my 60 day countdown of stopping Aspartame use. So I guess it was somewhat “scientific” or whatever. The main idea that I have brought away from following the CFS and Aspartame post lists and web info is that everyone has a right to actively take care of his own health and to have free access to the materials and information to do so. I think that the modern medical system has become too bureaucratic and unresponsive to individual needs, especially if your symptoms don’t happen to fall neatly into an easy to diagnose and prescribe ailment. As time permits, we’re trying to read more books about holistic health approaches.