Aspartame Exposure Triggered Central Nervous System Problems, Depression: Hawaii Should Support Resolution to Ask FDA to Ban Product from the Marketplace by Ralph G. Walton, M.D. - Hawaii Reporter

[Guest guest]

Hawaii Reporter

Freedom to Report Real News

 

----------

 

 

Aspartame Exposure Triggered Central Nervous System Problems, Depression

Hawaii Should Support Resolution to Ask FDA to Ban Product from the Marketplace

By Ralph G. Walton MD, 2/23/2009 11:00:18 AM

 

I would like to vigorously support the

resolution, SR 13, sponsored by Hawaii Senator

Suzanne Chun Oakland, urging the FDA to rescind the approval of 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 were 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, however,

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 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.

 

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 and 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

certainly 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 this hazardous substance be removed from the market.

 

Ralph G. Walton MD is currently semiretired and

in practice with the Center for Personal and

Family Growth in Erie, PA. He is a former

Professor and Chairman in the Department of

Psychiatry at the Northeastern Ohio's Universities College of Medicine

 

 

<http://www.hawaiireporter.com//list.aspx?Capitol+Thoughts>Capitol Thoughts...

 

 

 

 

© 2009 Hawaii Reporter, Inc.

______________________________\

_

 

More information on aspartame on www.mpwhi.com,

www.dorway.com, www.wnho.net, Aspartame Toxicity

Center, www.holisticmed.com/aspartame