I found your site just in time and it has stopped me cold. I no longer use anything with Aspartame. In 1992, I was diagnosed with Severe Hypoglycemia. I was told to not ingest any sugar whatsoever, and I was put on a strict diabetic exchange diet. Months went by and in October I began finding a bunch of sugar free alternatives to those things I loved so much – ice cream, candy, hot cocoa etc. Well, after several months I began to develop acne. Keep in mind that I had never had a pimple in my life and I was 22 at the time. Well, I tried everything – Accutance, Retin-A, Eryderm etc. – It helped a little. Then in 1995, I began ingested a lot more NutraSweet – on my cereal, in my tea, several diet cokes a day.
Well, I began to develop anxiety and sleep disorders – I did not sleep for a week. I became obsessive and plagued with worry. I thought it was caffeine – so I stopped it. It became a little better. Well, I still had pimples and in 1996 I got cystic acne and was still wired. After going from doctor to doctor and having my hormone levels checked and told that there was nothing wrong – I became frustrated. My face looked like hell – swollen and oily and it hurt – my self-esteem was in the crapper. I needed to do something – so, I thought about the time when this started coming around. I traced it back to when I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia. That is when I started with NutraSweet – so in December I stopped. WOW, my face cleared up in about a month – totally. I have slept through the night for the last two months – no anxiety – nothing. I am happy to say that after having quit music from “performance anxiety” that I am able to do that again. Another thing I noticed was I no longer have back aches and my PMS is not as bad. Pretty amazing huh? And they say this stuff isn’t bad for you. Well, I am living proof, as are all of the other people on here, that it is bad – VERY BAD – even life threatening. Thank you