Aspartame Triggers 'Psychiatric Disorders'
Aspartame, a controversial artificial sweetener, has been linked to cancers, multiple sclerosis, degraded vision, and a host of other side effects. However both the FDA and the European Food Authority are falling over backwards to deny that aspartame could ever be bad for us. Ajinomoto, the maker of the sweetener, joins in the chorus with a study that reviewed previous published material and comes to the conclusion that aspartame is ... safe.
In a recent open letter to the UK Food Safety Authority, Betty Martini brings up the subject of additives and childrens' behavior. It seems that combinations of colorants with aspartame and monosodium glutamate are especially damaging:Dr. Blaylock, neurosurgeon wrote: "Many recent studies have illustrated that food additives (such as red and yellow dyes, MSG, aspartame, gluten and gliadin) can adversely affect human behavior - especially in small children."But when Dr. Ben Feingold first made these assertions back in 1975, as you might expect, the medical community balked. Now powerfully convincing evidence indicates that when MSG and aspartame are combined with certain food dyes, the effects can have profound implications on learning, memory and behavior.
"In one study, researchers combined Brilliant Blue dyes, Quinoline Yellow, L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester (aspartame) and MSG. They discovered that when these substances were added together and given to a child, they inhibited brain cell development.
"For instance, compared to when the additives were used alone, the rate of inhibition on cell development was four times higher when MSG was combined with Brilliant Blue - and seven times higher when Quinoline Yellow was mixed with aspartame.
But according to a recent paper of Ralph Walton, MD, aspartame can trigger not only changes in behavior but serious psychiatric disorders by its ability to impact the central nervous system:
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Aspartame and Psychiatric Disorders
Although psychiatry is far from an exact science, over the past half century there has been an explosive growth in our understanding of the human brain and consequently in our ability to diagnose and treat mental disorders. We have also become much more sophisticated about the impact of a variety of toxins on psychological processes. I am convinced that one such toxin is aspartame.
Two years after aspartame was introduced onto the market I first became aware of the negative impact of this artificial sweetener on the central nervous system. I had been treating a then 54 year old woman with imipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant, because of recurrent major depressive episodes. Previous psychoanalytically based therapy had proven ineffective, but she responded dramatically to 150mg of imipramine per day. She had done well for 11 years on this medication, but was then suddenly hospitalized with a grand-mal seizure and subsequent manic episode.
One could postulate that she was bipolar, and the antidepressant had triggered the mania - but she had been on the same medication for a total of 11 years, and for the previous 5 years at the same 150mg per day dose. Neither the seizure nor her mania was consistent with what we know about the clinical course of bipolar disorder or epilepsy. Careful history revealed that the only change in her life was a recent decision to switch from the sugar which she had always used to sweeten her iced tea to a newly marketed product with aspartame.
Since aspartame can alter the balance of certain neurotransmitters which we believe are involved in mood disorders and can, in my opinion, alter the seizure threshold, I advised my patient to avoid all
aspartame products. She did so, and had no further seizures, no further manic or depressive episodes. I discontinued the lithium carbonate which I had started when I mistakenly concluded that she had a bipolar disorder, reinstated her imipramine and she has continued to do well.After this case report was published in the medical literature, many patients with unexplained seizures or treatment resistant psychiatric problems were referred to me. I became increasingly convinced that aspartame could both trigger seizure activity and mimic or exacerbate a variety of psychiatric disorders. I presented a paper based on those patients at a 1987 MIT sponsored conference on Dietary Phenylalanine and Brain Function.
Industry sponsored criticism was made that my conclusions regarding aspartame's toxicity could not be accepted as valid because my case reports were "merely anecdotal" and not based on double blind research. Unfortunately case reports do not currently have the respect in the mainstream medical literature which they deserve (historically much of medical progress has been based on careful observation of individual patients).
Nevertheless, I was so convinced of aspartame's toxicity, and the need to have its hazards more widely appreciated in the medical community, that I did undertake a double blind study. That study - "Adverse Reactions to Aspartame: Double-Blind Challenge in Patients from a Vulnerable Population" was published in Biological Psychiatry in 1993. It demonstrated that individuals with mood disorders are particularly sensitive to aspartame and experienced an
accentuation of depression and multiple physical symptoms. I had expected that the difficulties experienced by patients receiving aspartame would be fairly subtle (the dose of 30mg/kg/day was well below the level of 50mg/kg/day which the FDA considered "safe"). I was not prepared for the severity of the reactions, and for obvious ethical reasons cannot perform any further human studies with aspartame.Over the ensuing years I have continued to see the multiple neurologic and psychiatric consequences of aspartame use. It can lower the seizure threshold and lead to an incorrect diagnosis of epilepsy, with subsequent inappropriate prescription of anticonvulsants. It can mimic or exacerbate symptoms of MS, it can paradoxically produce carbohydrate craving and weight gain. The world-wide epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes obviously has multiple causes, but I am convinced aspartame is a major factor.
The explosive increase in our knowledge base in the neurosciences I referred to earlier is a topic beyond the scope of this brief report, but to drastically oversimplify, we know that in a variety of psychiatric disorders there is a disturbance in the balance of certain neurotransmitters. Specifically, serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine and acetylcholine are all major players.
Aspartame can affect the levels & balance of all these transmitters. It impairs the absorption of L-tryptophan, the major precursor in the synthesis of serotonin.
The phenylalanine from the dipeptide component of the aspartame molecule, is a major precursor in the norepinephrine-dopamine synthetic pathway. Recent research demonstrated that aspartame reduces acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme which breaks down acetylcholine - a key player in the central nervous system, with an important role in cognition and memory, and with a reciprocal, inhibitory relationship with dopamine.
We are not sophisticated enough at this point in time to fully understand all the implications of the neurochemical changes induced by aspartame, but as a busy clinician I see the profound impact on patients' lives on a daily basis. It can both produce and aggravate depression, in certain patients it can trigger manic episodes, it can produce or aggravate panic attacks. Some of my patients have experienced a complete cessation of panic attacks and needed no further treatment after they completely eliminated aspartame from their diet. Certain schizophrenic patients have experienced fewer auditory hallucinations or needed less antipsychotic medication after the elimination of aspartame.
It is essential that there be much greater awareness of the hazards of this highly toxic substance!
Ralph G. Walton, M.D.,
Medical Director, Safe Harbor Behavioral Health
Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Northeastern Ohio
Universities College of Medicine
Adjunct Professor Of Psychiatry, Lake Erie College of
Osteopathic MedicineDr. Walton's aspartame study: "Adverse Reactions to Aspartame: Double-Blind Challenge in Patients from a Vulnerable Population"
Dr. Walton's research on Scientific Peer Reviewed Studies and Funding
Additional data on aspartame:
www.mpwhi.com
www.mpwhi.com/main.htm
www.wnho.net
Aspartame Toxicity Center
Betty Martini, D.Hum, is the Founder of Mission Possible International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
770 242-2599
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Wednesday September 26 2007
updated on Thursday December 16 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2007/09/26/aspartame_triggers_psychiatric_disorders.htm
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