Aspartame Almost Killed Me

My Poisoned World

All I can tell you is what happened to me. I am sure I will talk about this many times in the future, but here is a short synopsis of my story and what I experienced through ingesting too much aspartame. I can also tell you from research that aspartame was never meant to be consumed in the levels we are consuming it today and there may be a link to aspartame illness and low folic acid.

In the summer of 2008, I was told I had Multiple Sclerosis. For three weeks I could not drive, take care of my family, carry on a conversation or even stand at times. I was going in and out of what is best described as seizures, although there was never a problem with any MRI of my brain. My hands and feet tingled to the point that I felt they were buzzing and it felt as if I could feel them vibrating.

I went through periods of not being able to talk but in slowed speech at an almost inaudible whisper. I had trouble moving my body parts; sometimes actually being unable to move my legs and arms. I could not wrap my mind around any thoughts and would sometimes shake uncontrollably. My eyesight began to fail. My daughter had to dry my hair and taking a shower was enough to make me go back to bed for more rest...but I still felt tired. I would go through periods of being unable to maintain a proper level of consciousness and felt as if I were literally going to pass out. Me, Valedictorian of my high school graduating class, could not fix a simple meal of bacon and eggs for my family because I could not remember the processes involved in cooking the meal. My mother had to drive me everywhere I went for fear that I was going to have a "seizure" while driving and have an accident.

Every couple of hours I had to go to bed and rest for a while to have the energy to move. I went through blood test after blood test, visited two neurologists, two general practitioners and an endocrinologist and although they tried very hard to pinpoint my illness, they could not. One neurologist actually told me that she "sees lots of patients with your symptoms, but they never have any specific disease." I literally felt as if I was dying and no one could stop it. Initially I was thought to have Thyroid disease, then multiple sclerosis, then possible seizures...then it all stopped. I slowly could feel myself returning to normal.

My symptoms began to go away 3 days after I stopped ingesting a popular Light Lemon drink with ASPARTAME that I had been consuming in large quantities. This Light Lemon drink I had recently begun ingesting in very large quantities ( 3-6 full packets in a .5 L bottle of water everyday ) was turning into wood grain alcohol or ethanol and I almost died of an overdose. Although I had experienced these same symptoms (although not to this degree of severity) in my past, I now can pinpoint that I was ingesting large quantities of diet drink products which contained Aspartame.Who knows what other products I was ingesting with Aspartame over the course of my lifetime and what possible permanent damage that has done.

All I can tell you is what happened to me. After a very long consult and exam, the last neurologist I visited, looked straight into my eyes and asked me this question, "What are you going to do now? Are you going to do anything at all about this?" I knew what he was doing...he was calling me to action. At first I was hesitant to do anything at all but be thankful to God for my renewed health. But as I kept hearing my neurologists words echoing in my ears, I knew I had to tell my story to as many people as I could and work to educate consumers everywhere on the importance of knowing what they are putting into and on their bodies. 

All I ask is that you begin to question what you are ingesting and offering to your family. Question why you are having a hard time concentrating, question that slight tingling in your hands, feet or face, question why you make the choices about food that you do. Is it lack of time, is it lack of love for yourself, is it lack of information? Do you believe me? Do you think you are different? Do you think your children can metabolize the high levels of Aspartame that are in the thousands of products in this nation...check the label on that gum you give them to chew...does it list Aspartame? Does it matter? You bet it does. 

Become educated consumers.  Do not live in fear.  Live in the light of information.