What they should know about the aspartame connection:

1. Before the approval of aspartame (NutraSweet/Equal/Spoonful, E951, Canderel) there was no epidemic of Ritalin use or epidemic of learning disorders and behavioral problems. Renowned neuroscientist, Dr. John Olney, predicted what would happen to the brains of our children if aspartame was approved, especially in combination with MSG. He founded the field of neuroscience called excitotoxicity when he did studies on aspartic acid, (40% of aspartame) and found it caused lesions in the brains of mice. Aspartic acid is an excitotoxin, that stimulates the neurons of the brain to death causing brain damage. Neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D., wrote the book on it, "Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills". www.russellblaylockmd.com Dr. Olney's report to the Board of Inquiry of the FDA explaining what would happen to the brains of our kids can be gotten on CD from Bob Flint, Mission Possible Maine, greatfalls@gwi.net It also has the Board of Inquiry report of the FDA that revoked approval of aspartame. Learn how it finally got approved by seeing the film Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World, www.docworkers.com. On the film Washington Attorney James Turner explains how Don Rumsfeld then CEO of G. D. Searle Co. called in his markers to get approval of a deadly neurotoxic drug masquerading as an additive. Mr. Turner along with Dr. John Olney tried to prevent approval.

2. Aspartame interacts with all anti-depressants and psychiatric medication including Ritalin, of course. Our children are medicated instead of educated. And aspartame triggers behavioral and psychiatric problems to begin with. The 50% phenylalanine as an isolate is neurotoxic and goes directly into the brain lowering the seizure threshold and depleting serotonin. Lowered serotonin triggers manic depression or bipolar, suicidal tendencies, mood swings, panic attacks - all types of behavioral and psychiatric problems. Aspartame knows no age. Time Magazine ran an article some years ago with bipolar on the cover. An epidemic of children have bipolar and why does this point to aspartame? Because children don't get bipolar, its an adult disease. Psychiatrist and medical director of the Safe Harbor Behavioral Health Center in Erie, Pennsylvania, Ralph Walton, M.D. has been concerned about the bipolar and aspartame connection for years and actually did a study on aspartame which can be found on http://www.wnho.net He was concerned if aspartame triggers depression what will it do to those already compromised with these types of problems. Monsanto who owned NutraSweet at the time told Dr. Walton they would supply the aspartame but changed their mind because they could not control the study, no doubt. In the study one subject suffered a retinal detachment while another had conjunctival bleeding. Many from the compromised group said they felt they were being poisoned. The institution stopped the study. Read Dr. Walton's research on scientific peer reviewed studies and funding. 92% of independent, unbiased research showed the problems, yet industry "controlled and financed studies" always said it was safe. This was discussed on 60 Minutes by Dr. Walton when Dr. Olney made world news about the aspartame/brain tumor association in l996. We are now taking aspartame brain tumor cases from New York, Madison County, Illinois, New Jersey and Mississippi for litigation. Aspartame breaks down to a brain tumor agent, diketopiperazine. You have only to read the Secret Trade Information, last paragraph on http://www.dorway.com to know the manufacturer knew it would do this and wanted it approved anyway. They mentioned they had to consider almost conversion to DKP and if they told the FDA they wouldn't get it approved. To check this out in humans Searle sacrificed people in poor villages in 6 countries. The studies showed that aspartame destroys the brain and central nervous system, and hardens the synovial fluids, according the horrific joint pain aspartame victims suffer. Some developed brain tumors and others seizures. Searle did not publish the findings but we have the sworn affidavit from the translator.

3. The July 2005 First For Women has the issue of aspartame and anxiety and irritability on the cover as an alert. On page 24 and 25 Dr. Walton is quoted as saying: "Just a sip of diet soda can bring on symptoms like headaches, sluggishness, anxiety, depression and irritability" .... Lorena Murray, our Mission Possible Hickory, N.C. is being interviewed and she can be seen in the movie, Sweet Misery. What the article didn't go into is that Lorena used aspartame during pregnancy and has aspartame affected children with learning and behavioral problems. This neurotoxin almost destroyed her life and family.

4. How can aspartame destroy families? Because of damage of the hypothalamus and mitochondria this neurotoxin triggers male sexual dysfunction and ruins female response. Being an endocrine disrupting drug it stimulates prolactin, changes the menses and causes infertility. This is discussed in detail in the medical text, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, by H. J. Roberts, M.D., www.sunsentpress.com or 1 800 827 7991 There is also a report by biochemist, Dr. Madelon Price, who worked with Dr. John Olney for 30 years, and it can be found on http://www.dorway.com A Japanese Study some years ago also showed aspartame can cause infertility in the male, and the DNA damage. If a woman gets off aspartame and does get pregnant aspartame is an abortifacient, the reason for so many miscarriages. It is also a teratogen and triggers birth defects and mental retardation. And even if a live child is born it may have heinously damaged DNA for generations to come.

5. Has it been proven that aspartame causes these problems in children. Absolutely! Go to the Safe Harbor web site and read Miracle in Wisconsin . The ADD folks sponsored a program for the worst school in Wisconsin. All vending and soda pop machines were removed and the children were given nutritional food. At the end of the program this was the best school in Wisconsin with zero learning and behavioral problems. In September the ADD people, Feingold, banned aspartame.

Normally nobody would do a study on aspartame and children because after a quarter of a century we know without a shadow of a doubt how this aspartame destroys brains. In fact, some years ago a Norway University did a study and found aspartame destroys the brain, especially in the area of learning. However, a study was accidently done in children by Dr. Baret of the Dominican Republic. Knowing that small children drinking milk could trigger diabetes, Dr. Baret changed their diet to replace milk with aspartame laced juice. It affected immediately almost all 360 children with anxiety, irritability, etc. Knowing the only thing he did was add aspartame to their diet he called. He then removed the aspartame laced juice and within 4 days all the children went back to normal. More information about this is in Dr. Roberts medical text, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic.

6. Has DNA damage been proven? Beyond a shadow of a doubt. Dr. Russell Blaylock discussed the Trocho Study done in l998 in Barcelona to the Minneapolis Neuropathy Association in l999. He said: "A recent study by Trocho, Pardo and co-workers, have demonstrated that following aspartame ingestion, significant amounts of formaldehyde accumulate in the tissues. Formaldehyde is known to bind strongly to proteins and nucleic acids, forming adducts that are extremely difficult to eliminate through normal metabolic pathways.

"In this study, they demonstrated that labeled methanol ( as formaldehyde) accumulated in high concentrations in the liver (50%) and in lower, but substantial, concenetrations in the kidney, adipose tissue, brain and retina. Within the cell, they found large amounts located within the DNA. It was interesting to note that these doses were lower than that used in toxicity studies. Previous studies have shown that very high doses of aspartame may not cause acute symptomalogy. This study indicates the damage may necessitate longer periods of time to manifest itself and that the eventual effects can be quite deleterious."

Having spoken to many people in the media who have tried to interview the researchers in Barcelona, I can tell you they won't be doing more studies on aspartame and they won't talk. They have been threatened. This is one of the damning scientific peer reviewed studies done on aspartame. When you damage DNA you can destroy humanity.

7. Why do not all physicians and consumers known the above information? Because of the most wicked propaganda. There are many front groups on the Internet like the Calorie Control Council who had the audacity to write the Miami Herald and with full knowledge push aspartame on pregnant women. See Dr. Blaylock's letter to the Miami Herald on http://www.wnho.net click on aspartame. Does the Miami Herald know aspartame is a deadly neurotoxin? Absolutely. They picked up propaganda from another front group two years earlier. They were written by physicians like Dr. Roberts and overwhelmed with aspartame victims testimonies. And since the front group was writing about me I sent them proof they were wrong. This had to do with lecturing for the World Environmental Conference and I even sent them my invitation to speak. In both cases the Miami Herald printed none of the letters nor did they write a retraction . They refused to tell me which reporter published the propaganda. Obviously since they were writing about me in the first place they should have contacted me, so intent was made clear. And while they said they would publish they did not showing they did not want the public to have the real facts. Shame on the Miami Herald. One caller reported a woman reading the propaganda in the Miami Herald got back on aspartame, had a grand mal seizure and died. Professional organizations also push the manufacturer's propaganda because they receive their funding. You could write a book on the propaganda mills and the lobbyists. Dr. Louis Elsas, Pediatric Professor, Genetics, testified before Congress about what aspartame and birth defects. His excellent testimony is on http://www.dorway.com and http://www.wnho.net

8. What you can do to help save the children. What is most important at the present time is that the Alabama Board of Education on July 12 will vote on a health plan for the Alabama schools to deal with obesity. And there are some that want to allow caffeinated diet drinks in the schools for 2005/06 school year. Keep in mind it's the diet drinks that cause obesity because of the aspartame and a new study has proven it. http://my.webmd.com/content/article/107/108476.htm

Also read Dr. Sandra Cabot's paper on http://www.dorway.com Aspartame Makes You Fatter and Dr. Ralph Walton's paper on Aspartame and Depression and Obesity. It also can precipitate diabetes, simulates and aggravates diabetic retinopathy and neuropathy and interacts with insulin as diabetic specialist H. J. Roberts, M.D., discusses in his medical text, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic. The soft drink industry in Alabama is lobbying hard. We need everyone's help to stop them. Read the recent article below about lobbying:

 

The Junk Food Lobby Wins Again

 

By Michele Simon, AlterNet.
Posted June 17, 2005.

The junk-food industry's lobbyists are working hard to make sure sodas, candy and fast food are cheap and plentiful in the nation's schools. Tools

More stories by Michele Simon

On Tuesday, Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell vetoed what would have been the nation's strongest school-based nutrition law. With one stroke of the pen, she put to rest an extremely contentious three-year battle to rid Connecticut schools of soda and junk food.

Similar scenarios are being played out in state capitals all over the nation, where high-paid lobbyists of multi-national corporations such as Coca-Cola are swooping in to foil the efforts of local nutrition advocates, educators. With rising rates of childhood obesity and diabetes, state legislatures have become a major battleground over the sale of junk food in public schools.

Ironically, the most common argument made against such bills is that schools should maintain "local control" over nutrition policy. But Governor Rell's reasoning is hard to swallow. She invoked the word "local" no fewer than 16 times in her 3-page veto message. However, many school policies are made at the state and even national level. Perhaps the governor has heard of President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" policy?

But Rell is not alone. All over the country, politicians deep in the pockets of the junk food lobby are using the excuse of "local control" to defend their indefensible positions on school nutrition. Trouble is that local school districts are lured by the much-needed cash generated by soda and junk food sales. Yet, as many parents are realizing, no amount of money can justify sacrificing children's health.

Same Story Elsewhere

Recent examples of similar corporate influence include how in March, the Kentucky state legislature passed a compromise bill that bans soda only in elementary schools. Kentucky nutrition advocates were worn down after battling Coca-Cola lobbyists for four years. Allowing companies to continue to sell soda in middle and high schools was the only way the bill could possibly pass.

Also, Arizona passed a law in April that bans the sale of soft drinks and candy during the school day, but only in kindergarten through eighth grade. The provision that would have extended the ban to high schools was added and removed from the bill several times, but ultimately, the junk food lobby got its way.

And in May, a strong piece of legislation was completely gutted in Oregon thanks to corporate lobbying. The bill would have banned carbonated soft drinks, candy, and fried pastry products in schools. But the law that passed calls only for schools to have "wellness policies." The Oregon Soft Drink Association donated $91,000 in campaign contributions to state politicians last fall. Three key lawmakers--members of the education committee--received $2,000 each.

High-powered Lobbying Tactics

The showdown in Connecticut involved an eight-hour House debate in which lawmakers engaged in such stall tactics as relating memories of being deprived of candy as a child. (Who cares and why is this is a basis for policymaking?) The original bill would have allowed only water, juice, and milk to be sold during the school day, but a compromise reached at the end of the marathon session allowed diet soda and sports drinks to be sold in high schools. Then the bill had to go back to the Senate, where it had already passed. But this time, lawmakers there attempted to delay the process by adding no fewer than 10 unrelated amendments, such as requiring smoke detectors in school bathrooms.

And in a particularly underhanded move, while the bill awaited the governor' s signature, a sign mysteriously appeared on the inside of a high school vending machine that read "Let the state know how you feel about the state getting into your lunch program", followed by Governor Rell's e-mail and phone number. The sign was not approved by the school, as is required for all public postings.

To do its bidding, Coca-Cola hired Patrick Sullivan, of Sullivan & LeShane, which the Hartford Courant has called "the most influential lobbying firm in the state." For his services, Sullivan is paid $80,000 annually by Coca- Cola 's New York division, plus an additional $7,350 a month by its New England subsidiary.

What Connecticut Governor Rell failed to mention in her veto message was her own possible conflict of interest: The other co-founder of this lobbying firm, Patricia LeShane, has served as the governor's campaign advisor.

Proposals to rid schools of unhealthy food and beverages are currently pending in several other states where similar battles are being fought. For example, in California, nutrition advocates are back asking lawmakers to get soda out of high schools, which were exempted from a measure passed two years ago thanks to soda industry lobbying. How many years must go by and how many precious resources must be spent on accomplishing what should be common sense policy? And when will politicians begin to show real leadership by placing the health of our children above corporate profit?

Michele Simon, a public-health attorney who teaches health policy at UC Hastings College of the Law, is director of the Center for Informed Food Choices, a nonprofit in Oakland, Calif.

- end of this article -

The Idaho Observer publishes the Artificially Sweetened Times, 24 page booklets to distribute to friends and families on aspartame. The front page is titled "What Is Happening To Our Children". You can get your copies from www.idaho-observer.com You can distribute to PTA's and schools to alert parents and teachers.

You can also show the movie, Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World, www.docworkers.com at PTA meetings and at lectures in school systems.

Remember that aspartame interacts with vaccines and is a chemical hypersensitivity agent. So when children get off aspartame on to such things as Splenda which is a chlorcarbon poison they can react. Dr. Blaylock's book Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills brings out even when a life child is born of an aspartame user and appears normal, by the time they reach puberty you can see the problems especially behavioral.

Unfortunately, Dr. John Olney's prophecy has been fulfilled. Help save the children. Read below: Report of Ritalin Risks Prompts a Federal Study.

Dr. Betty Martini, Founder, Mission Possible International, 9270 River Club Parkway, Duluth, Georgia 770 242-2599 http://www.wnho.net and http://www.dorway.com Aspartame Toxicity Center, http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame

New York Times July 1, 2005

Report of Ritalin Risks Prompts a Federal Study

 

By GARDINER HARRIS

ROCKVILLE, Md., June 30 - Federal health officials said Thursday that they were looking into a suggestion by a small Texas study that Ritalin and other stimulant drugs given to children might increase their risk of cancer later in life.

A team of experts from the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency went to Texas on May 23 to examine the methods used by the researchers, who found damage to the chromosomes of 12 children who took Ritalin for three months.

Ritalin, which entered the market in 1955, has been used for decades to treat children for attention or hyperactivity problems.

Dr. David Jacobson-Kram of the Office of New Drugs at the food and drug agency said that the study, by researchers at the University of Texas and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, had flaws in its methodology but that its results could not be dismissed. Drugs that are known to cause cancer cause similar chromosomal changes, Dr. Jacobson-Kram said.

But other scientists cautioned that the study was far too small and its finding far too preliminary to cause alarm. The study did not include a comparison group of children who had not taken Ritalin. And federal officials said there was no reason for children currently taking Ritalin or other stimulants to stop taking them.

Dr. Lawrence Greenhill of Columbia University, an expert on Ritalin and other stimulant drugs used for children, questioned why the government was devoting so many resources to following up on the study's findings. Dr. Greenhill, like many other academic researchers, serves as a consultant for companies that make the drugs.

Several research teams are trying to reproduce the study on a larger scale, using better controls. And federal officials are examining millions of health records to determine if children who took Ritalin decades ago now have higher rates of cancer. The drug agency has also asked the makers of Ritalin-like stimulants to provide it with any information about their drugs' effects on chromosomes.

"I would say that if these data are reproducible, then that would be very concerning," Dr. Jacobson-Kram said.

He added that it would be at least a year before the results of those studies were known.

It is unclear, Dr. Jacobson-Kram said, how Ritalin might damage chromosomes.

"There's no obvious mechanism by which these drugs should be doing this," he said. "And there is nothing about them by which they clue us that they are DNA damaging."

About 29 million prescriptions were written last year in the United States for Ritalin and similar drugs to treat attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity, 23 million of them for children. The drugs are among the most widely prescribed medicines in the world.

Controversy has long surrounded their use, however, with critics saying that the medications are greatly over prescribed.

Dr. Jacobson-Kram made his presentation before an F.D.A. advisory committee called to examine the most recent reports of adverse events among children taking Concerta, a long-acting form of Ritalin. The committee found nothing new or unusual about the reports, which included cases of children who had become psychotic and others who had developed heart problems.

The drug agency said no committee members had conflicts of interest that would prevent them from evaluating the drug's safety in an independent manner.

F.D.A. officials told the committee that the agency planned to change Concerta's label to make the risks of such side effects clearer. Among the mental side effects reported among children taking Concerta were hallucinations, thoughts of suicide, psychotic behaviors and aggression.

"It's not that this is something new or that this is something that's happening at a higher incidence than before," Dr. Paul Andreason, a psychiatrist who is part of the agency's division of neuropharmacologic drug products, told the committee.

But, Dr. Andreason said, descriptions of these problems in the labels of Concerta, Ritalin and similar stimulants are often written in technical language. So the F.D.A. has decided that descriptions of the drugs' potential side effects must be stated more clearly, he said.

Still, agency officials and several committee members said they were not convinced that Concerta caused mental problems like hallucinations and psychosis. Rather, the children taking the drug may also suffer from other mental disorders.

"The agency believes that it is not yet possible to determine whether these events, especially the more serious ones, are causally associated with these treatments," said Dr. Dianne Murphy, director of the Office of Pediatric Therapeutics at the drug agency.

The most common side effects of Ritalin, Concerta and similar drugs are appetite suppression, headaches, abdominal pain and sleep disturbances. Children who take these drugs chronically often weigh less and are shorter in stature as a result.