Seizure inducing aspartame added to anti-seizure drugs
The Pacific Epilepsy Society in affiliation with the Epileptic Foundation of Maui has completed a seven year study on Epilepsy and Seizures, finding that epilepsy is at an all time high in Hawaii and the western states and Pacific Ocean Territories. There has been a100% increase over the two previous years.
Dr Glenn Mabson of the Epileptic Foundation of Maui believes the reason for the increase is a change in formulation of several of the major anti-seizure drugs:
"The most profound reason for the spectacular increase in seizures is the inclusion of the drug ASPARTAME in with the new larger sized anti-seizure drugs: DILANTIN, DEPACOTE, TEGRATOL and several others produced by major pharmaceutical corporations. In 2007 the manufacturer of Dilantin changed the description of the 100 mg. Dilantin, changed the 100 mg white capsule with red stripe to a much larger white capsule, orange on one end, which contains 100 mg of the drug, plus aspartame. 150 people who took the new Dilantin capsule found the seizure rate increased in every case. The Chemical Pharmaceutical Engineer employee, in fear of his job would not reveal his name, but said they were adding aspartame."Dr. Allen Stein, Neurosurgeon, President of the Epilepsy Foundation of Hawaii (a separate organization from the above) is sympathetic to the makers of ASPARTAME and routinely prescribes these drugs. I believe this contributes to the increase of epilepsy in these areas."
Glenn Mabson, PhD., CEO - Epileptic Foundation of Maui
Aspartame Disease - An ignored epidemic
What is aspartame - known to induce seizures - doing in a capsule of anti-seizure medicine? It can't be there for its sweet taste, because capsules are swallowed whole. Could someone be drumming up business for more medication by adding stuff that causes people to need more?Betty Martini of Mission Possible, the international anti-aspartame campaign group, has interviewed Dr Mabson:
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INTERVIEW WITH DR. MABSON
by Dr. Betty Martini, D.HumMARTINI: How did you get started in this investigation, and why, Dr. Mabson
MABSON: From 1999 to 2007 The Epileptic Foundation of Maui conducted a survey on the number of people in Maui suffering from the three most prevalent types of epileptic seizures:
(1) Absence
(2) Complex-partial
(3) Grand Mal Seizures.4,975 victims from a Maui Population of 130,000 suffered from one of these types of seizures. Seniors over 65 and children 12 or less had increased epileptic seizures. The count for the entire state of Hawaii is over 28,000 seizure victims.
In an effort to determine the most effective medication it was discovered that well over 50% of the victims consumed medications containing aspartame. We inquired as to what anti-seizure medications were mostly prescribed to control their seizures. Dilantin, Tegratol and Depacote contained most aspartame amount among the 22 most utilized anti-seizure medications.
In 2007 the [manufacturer of] Dilantin changed the 100 mg white capsule with red stripe to a much larger white capsule, orange on one end, which contains 100 mg of the drug, plus aspartame. 150 people who took the new Dilantin capsule found the seizure rate increased in every case.
Impaired vision and thinking, and it is suspected glaucoma [were found] in fifty patients who never had visual problems prior to taking the new Dilantin capsule. We suspected this was an experiment out of control. A manufacturer of Dilantin then confirmed aspartame is in the drug.
MARTINI: Were there any deaths having to do with aspartame?
MABSON: Dr. Allen Stein, Neurosurgeon, has been prescribing aspartame to patients in large quantities with negative results, in some cases. [There were] as many as 150 highly suspected deaths. He is president of the Epilepsy Foundation of Hawaii.
MARTINI: What is the difference between your organization and Stein's?
MABSON: A big and important difference: The Epileptic Foundation of Maui (EFM) provides first aid to epilepsy victims, hands on help, with a 24/7 Help Line 1 888-919-9444. We have trained more than 5000 parents, Maui Police, Department of Public Safety, IRS, Hawaii Business and Public Schools at no cost! We provide immediate, practical, lifesaving care to seizure victims.
This is very personal to me. I have traumatic epilepsy from torture during 18 months as a civilian prisoner of war in Viet Nam. Over 50 dedicated volunteers carry out this public service. We take no money from aspartame makers.
MARTINI: So what does Stein's organization do?
MABSON: It sells books and some outdated documents, but provides no personal service.
MARTINI: In what journals have you published?
MABSON: Among many others, the following: Neurology 48:621. Hamburg University News 2003, Strouseburg on Epilepsy Vol 2 pp 5, 6, 7 & 8 Savic, International. Athurer lnternational Epilepsy Research 26:245 2002: Long Term Follow-up After Temporal Lobe Resection for Lesions Associated With Choric Seizures
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Betty Martini notes: "It has been known for three decades that aspartame is a seizure triggering drug. In a 52 week aspartame oral toxicity study done in 1972 on 7 infant monkeys, 5 had grand mal seizures and 1 died. Martini adds that "the FDAs 1995 list of 92 documented aspartame related side effects from 10,000 citizen complaints named 4 types of seizures, death, blindness, sexual dysfunction and a long list of neurological injuries." (You can download the list as a PDF document.) And finally, "Dr. Richard Wurtman testified against aspartame to Congress. He told UPI investigator Gregory Gordon that he was threatened by the VP of G D Searle Co, aspartame producer, that his funding would be killed if he studied aspartame seizures. Wurtman speaks no more against aspartame but he left quite a paper trail." (Read the UPI Investigative Report from 1987.)
Mrs. Barbara Metzler tells about her daughter Julia: "In April 1986 Julia was completing her graduate studies, was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy. A neurologist in Pennsylvania was treating her with medication he deemed appropriate, but without success. I learned Dr. Richard Wurtman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was doing research into a possible link between epileptic seizures and aspartame. (NutraSweet). It occurred to me that aspartame may have triggered her problems, since I experienced that beverages sweetened with aspartame gave me classic migraines. I spoke to my daughter's many friends, and they watched her carefully and reported individually that she had peculiar episodes shortly after they saw her drink diet soda. So I wrote to Dr. Wurtman and he replied:
Thank you for writing to us about your daughters condition that may very well be associated with NutraSweet.He requested that I send him specific information about Julie's neurological problems, then arranged for her to be evaluated at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. Her evaluation included 3 days of monitoring with EEG telemetry as well as neuropsychological testing.
When the testing was completed, my daughter was told that she had been misdiagnosed by her Pennsylvania neurologist and that she did not have temporal lobe epilepsy at all. She was advised to stop her medication and to stop drinking diet soda. She listened, and little by little, her bizarre problem disappeared. To watch her recover was an incredible experience! Twelve years later, she tried diet soda again and she had the same severe reaction. She quit the diet soda sweetened with aspartame and never had a problem again."
Dr. Ralph Walton, asked by Betty Martini to comment on the Maui study, said: "We have known for many years that aspartame lowers the seizure threshold. To combine an anticonvulsive with aspartame to make seizures more likely is outrageous."
Washington Consumer Attorney James Turner, who fought to prevent aspartame approval commented on the Epileptic Foundation of Maui's study:
"This study has confirmed that aspartame triggers both seizures and epilepsy, but this isn't news to me. In 1986 I was the attorney for the Community Nutrition Institute who petitioned FDA to ban aspartame for that exact reason. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had surveyed 80 people who experienced seizures after consuming aspartame. The petition of the Community Nutrition Institutes said:
These 80 cases meet the FDA's definition of an imminent hazard to the public health, which requires FDA to expeditiously remove a product from the market."Dr. Kenneth P. Stoller, President of the International Hyperbaric Medical Association adds: "When large amounts of unopposed phenylalanine (1/3rd of the aspartame molecule) hits the brain it causes serotonin levels to crash, which lowers the seizure threshold, and in many cases causes frank seizures. This information has been known since the 1970s when the original research was done on monkeys, but [it was] kept from the FDA by the then owner of the patent G. D. Searle. This is why the FDA called the US attorney to convene a grand jury against Searle. The lawyers representing Searle then bought the US Attorney who left the case to his assistant. The Grand Jury was allowed to expire and the assistant was then hired by the same law firm - his reward for killing the Grand Jury."
Additional discussion (by email):
At 11:59 AM 7/16/2008, Shirley writes:can you explain to me why they put aspartame in a pill that is swallowed... what difference does it make if it is sweet or not when you never taste it????
ShirleyFriday, July 25, 2008 9:00 pm Dr. Betty Martini,D.Hum. replies:
Dear Shirley,
Obviously the answer is they do it on purpose, and not to the benefit of the consumer. Someone just told me Lifesavers uses aspartame as a flavor enhancer. So now we have poison as a flavor enhancer.
It's just come down to not eating processed foods at all, and making sure anytime you are prescribed a drug its not got aspartame in it. However, what bothers me is using it without labeling, and adding it to natural or artificial flavors.
Aspartame was never an additive. They knew it was a drug from the beginning. Because it damages the mitochondria it interacts with virtually all drugs and vaccines. Now we have the global epidemic of Aspartame Disease. In fact, the medical text is called Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, by H. J. Roberts, M.D., www.sunsentpress.com
The FDA is not going to help. They are part of the problem. An article titled Pharma Facade Cracking Over Controversies in the January issue of the Idaho Observer (2005) stated:
"A little more than one year ago the LA Times broke a huge story about the incestuous relationship between scientists at the National Institutes for Health, officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and pharmaceutical company executives. Rep James Greenwood (R - PA) noted that, "This is not a matter of a revolving door where NIH people go from the federal agency to the private sector. This is a question of a swivel chair where they sit at one desk and do both jobs." As I have mentioned many times, "FDA is Big Pharma's Washington Branch Office".The pharmaceutical industry is putting aspartame in the very drugs used to treat the problems it causes. For instance, headache is #1 on the FDA list of 92 symptoms. The victim doesn't know that aspartame is the culprit because an additive is supposed to be inert or non-reactive. So the victim goes to the doctor and he prescribes Maxalt by Merck for headache. It contains aspartame. Aspartame also can trigger Parkinson's which often violently interacts with L-Dopa. Schwartz Pharmaceutical adds aspartame to Parcopa. Aspartame is escalating asthma and products like Singulair contain aspartame, now said to be causing suicidal tendencies. The phenylalanine in aspartame lowers the seizure threshold and depletes serotonin which triggers suicidal tendencies, bipolar, panic attacks, etc.
Talking about bipolar, aspartame is an inactive ingredient of Risperdal M-Tab orally disintegrating tablets - each 2 mg. tablet contains 0.56 mg phenylalanine and each 1 mg tablet, 0.28 mg phenylalanine. So aspartame triggers bipolar and now they give
aspartame back to them in Risperdal, used to treat the problem. The FDA noted the frequency of prolactin-producing pituitary tumors in patients taking risperidone, a drug widely prescribed for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Of 64 patients with pituitary tumors receiving anti-psychotics, 48 had been using risperidone. Dr. H. J. Roberts wrote a paper about this. Aspartame triggered pituitary tumors in original studies. Now its triggering these tumors in patients using a drug that contains aspartame.The FDA is allowing this, the very agency who knows how deadly aspartame is because they tried to have them indicted for fraud. You just can't do a study on a poison and show safety and they got caught doing things like excising brain tumors from rats, putting them back in the study and when they died resurrected them on paper. They also revoked the petition for approval because aspartame could not be proven safe and caused brain tumors. Don Rumsfeld through political chicanery got aspartame marketed as discussed in the aspartame documentary, Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World. www.soundandfury.tv
In 1986 the Community Nutrition Institute petitioned the FDA to ban aspartame because it was causing so many seizures and people were going blind. The FDA refused even though it had full knowledge of this. So the FDA has nothing to do with safe food and drugs. It is the Food and Death Association who raids health food stores to snatch healthful vitamins and herbs and at the same time approves poisons for the public. They sit by and do nothing with this happening. This is why I say everyone should write their congressman. The FDA's doors need to be shut forever. When those responsible to solve the problem ARE the problems its an abomination. As long as the incestuous relationship of the FDA exists with the pharmaceutical industry the public will continue to be poisoned. They receive money from the pharmaceutical industry and its well known you can't serve two masters. So the FDA has betrayed the public trust and is the cause of the problems that exist.
Consider that even pediatric pharmaceuticals are not safe - they do not even spare the children. A mother takes her child to a pediatrician and he proscribes Augmentin, pediatric Penicillin. It has aspartame in it. Then the mother goes to the store and buys over-the-counter cough syrup and such that have aspartame in it. On January 7, 2005, WZZM13 News coverage published an article titled: "Researchers May Have Found Cause for Sudden Death Syndrome". The article said: "3000 children die every year of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, better known as SIDS. ... They say a lack of Serotonin, the brain chemical known for regulating moods, also helps the body set the pace for breathing." The phenylalanine in aspartame depletes serotonin!. Here is a case in point: http://www.wnho.net/sweetened_horror_story.htm So the FDA doesn't even care how many babies and children die each year because they have refused to ban aspartame. Aspartame triggers an irregular hearth rhythm and interacts with cardiac medication. It damages the cardiac conduction system and causes sudden. Imagine a baby being given this poison. Their little hearts can't take it. Even young student athletes are dropping dead. http://www.wnho.net/aspartame_msg_scd.htm
Now pharmaceutical companies say they will remove over-the-counter products for toddlers like two year olds voluntarily because it has been brought to their attention babies are dying for some reason. Be assured they are still there as I checked a couple of months ago. Some of the products also now contain Splenda which is a chlorocarbon poison. The FDA has been petitioned to ban Splenda as well but the FDA does nothing. I filed a petition to ban aspartame 6 years ago which has to be answered in 180 days. The FDA ignored it. I filed an amendment based on an imminent health hazard which has to be answered immediately, like a week or ten years. This was done in October and they have ignored it. The FDA serves above the law and is the problem. People are dying because the FDA refuses to do its job so Big Pharma can gouge the public and make more billions to influence and control. We now have a Fascist government.
If you and everyone on these lists sends this to their congressman maybe we can get their doors closed. Today they are guilty of the very same crime, Title 18, Section 1001, they filed against the original manufacturer of aspartame, G. D. Searle. Their web site
tells the public aspartame is safe, and they put out propaganda in their FDA Talk Paper, with full knowledge they are lying.The first weekend after Labor Day is Aspartame Awareness Weekend. I think this year we will try and get the poisons off restaurant tables, and I'll write a flyer. And we should all write Congress to do something about the FDA. Congress gives them more money and they use it for bonuses. After all, they have no use to use it to protect the public, since its obvious that's one thing they don't do.
All my best,
BettyDr. Betty Martini, D.Hum, Founder
Mission Possible International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
770 242-2599
www.mpwhi.com
www.mpwhi.com/main.htm
www.wnho.netAspartame Toxicity Center www.holisticmed.com/aspartame
Aspartame Information List www.mpwhi.com scroll down to banners
See also:Aspartame - avoid it - Dangerous symptoms
Aspartame Disease - An ignored epidemic
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Thursday July 17 2008
updated on Wednesday December 8 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2008/07/17/seizure_inducing_aspartame_added_to_antiseizure_drugs.htm
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