Aspartame contributes to birth defects

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The chemicals we ingest may affect more than our own health. They affect the health and vitality of future generations. The danger is that many of these chemicals may not harm us but will do silent violence to our children. Senator Abraham S. Ribicoff (l971)

I have studied the numerous adverse effects of products containing the chemical aspartame for a quarter century as a corporate-neutral physician (Board-certified internist; member of the Endocrine Society and American Academy of Neurology). I encompassed them as "aspartame disease" in my large text published in 2001. They have been detailed in the articles, letters and books listed below.

The prime motive for this ongoing effort was the apparent enormous toll in illness, disability and death attributable to aspartame disease and failure of the medical profession and many governmental and other public health agencies to concern themselves with this ignored epidemic. The fact that over two-thirds of adults in our society consume aspartame products, and approximately 40 percent of children, often in prodigious amounts, provides perspective.

Perhaps the most grievous aspect pertains to the damage that these products can induce in infants and children. Moreover, aspartame could affect subsequent generations borne to mothers who were misled about the safety of this and related chemicals. Indeed, some who regard the widespread promotion of aspartame products to these groups as "crimes against humanity" have urged the banning of aspartame products as an imminent health threat.

A case in point is the full page ad that appeared in Function Foods & Nutraceuticals (November 2004) titled, "Remember your first taste of aspartame?", depicting an infant feeding at its mother,s breast. It noted that the chief ingredients of aspartame are two building blocks of protein " just like those founds in eggs, fruit cheese or fish and even in mothers, milk."

In my January 2005 objection to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission about such perceived deceptive advertising in "a material respect", I listed the following reasons: "(1) omission of other major components of aspartame, especially the 10% free methyl alcohol (methanol), (2) the profound adverse effects of the large amounts of its two building blocks of protein, on neurotransmitters and other important systems, and (3) the absence of any references to the terrible reactions induced by aspartame products in numerous infants and children."

Aspartame Disease in Infants and Children

The manifestations of aspartame disease in young children are legion and continue to be unraveled. They include severe headache, convulsions, unexplained visual loss, rashes, asthma, gastrointestinal problems, obesity, marked weight loss, hypoglycemia, diabetes, addiction (probably largely due to the methyl alcohol), hyperthyroidism, and a host of neuropsychiatric features. The latter include extreme fatigue, irritability, hyperactivity, depression, antisocial behavior (including suicide), poor school performance, the deterioration of intelligence, and brain tumors.

Each of these disorders and the underlying mechanisms is detailed in my books, especially Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic. They tend to be magnified in patients with unrecognized hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid), hypoglycemia (low blood sugar reactions), diabetes and phenylketonuria (PKU). Persons with PKU lack the enzyme needed for handling phenylalanine, one of the amino acids. (Its dramatic increase in the body can cause severe neurological and other damage if aspartame abstinence and other dietary precautions are not instituted.)

It is my further opinion that exposure to aspartame products and other neurotoxins may initiate or aggravate changes in the nervous system that result in multiple sclerosis, parkinsonism, and Alzheimer,s disease. The latter issue is detailed in my book, Defense Against Alzheimer,s Disease.

Pregnant Women and Nursing Mothers

I continue to urge ALL pregnant women and mothers who breast-feed to avoid aspartame products advice that many of my obstetric colleagues have adopted. This caution has been dramatically demonstrated by the occurrence of convulsions in suckling infants as the mother drank an aspartame soda. The scientific grounds for the foregoing continue to increase. They include:

* exposure of the fetus to considerable phenylalanine and methanol * maternal malnutrition associated with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and a reduction of calories * transmission of aspartame and its breakdown components via the mother,s milk * the increased "allergic load," thereby risking future hypersensitivity problems

Birth Defects and Subsequent Generational Stigmas

The finding of cumulative aspartame metabolites in DNA clearly has profound implications. I have described severe problems in the fetus or the infants of parents including father who consumed much aspartame at the time of conception and/or during pregnancy.

Epidemiological studies will be necessary to corroborate the role of aspartame consumption in medical, neurological, metabolic, immune and neoplastic disorders involving subsequent generations.

The Urgent Need for Action

It is clear to all who have studied the matter that the initial approval of aspartame by the FDA in l981 in the face of severe objections from its in-house scientists, consultants for the General Accounting Office, and even a Public Board of Inquiry was an erroneous political decision. This opinion is supported by considerable clinical experience, an increasing number of credible scientific studies, and demographic evidence relating to the contributory role of aspartame sodas and other products in the dramatic increase of obesity, diabetes, attention deficit disorder, brain tumors and other malignancies in children.

In the light of this information, it is incumbent upon governmental agencies and consumers to severely curtail or stop the use of ALL aspartame products including vitamins, drugs and supplements. This also applies to a number of derivatives of aspartame and other chemicals that have not been evaluated by corporate-neutral investigators over sufficient periods of time using real-world products. Failure to do so invites the tragedy of a human "silent spring."

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