females between twenty and fifty-nine years of age. Of the seventy different symptoms reported, ten percent were considered severe, including headaches, seizures, and allergic, gastrointestinal and behavioral reactions. Tollefson offered two tables that broke down the reported complaints by the product they were associated with and by the symptoms that accompanied the reactions. Over 1900 complaints were associated with diet soft drinks—the most of any product reported. Other products reported to have adverse symptoms associated with them were: table top sweetener (1002 complainants), puddings/gelatin (348), lemonade (283), powdered fruit drink mix (268), hot chocolate (229) and iced tea (218).
Headaches topped the list of symptoms reported with over 1000 complainants. It was followed by dizziness/balance problems (461), mood swings (399), vomiting and nausea (364), abdominal pain and cramps (268), seizures and convulsions (211), and changes in vision (186). Since CFSAN gathered the data from victims and their physicians and not from a controlled laboratory setting, Tollefson warned of the difficulty in interpreting the data. However, the number of people reporting the same reactions without knowing they were one of many, were too powerful to ignore. I was astounded by the results of this study that took place years earlier.
Another document that Mary showed me was equally disturbing. It was an article written by H. J. Roberts, M.D. and published in the Journal of Applied Nutrition. Dr. Roberts collected data from surveys of respondents and used information in his article from 551 persons he labeled “aspartame reactors” because of their quick responses to aspartame (when it was removed from their diets and added back to their diets). Unlike the CFSAN study, Roberts’ was able to interact directly and frequently with the participants in his study which allowed him to monitor their consumption of aspartame. He was able to establish what he believed was a causative relationship between adverse effects and aspartame consumption based on two things: “(1) the relief of complaints shortly after avoiding such products [that contain aspartame], and (2) their recurrence within hours or days of re-exposure [to aspartame], frequently inadvertent.” I had only gotten through the introduction and I was already shocked at what I read. The next thing I read was even more appalling. Roberts quickly reviewed the three components that make up aspartame: phenylalanine (fifty percent), aspartic acid (forty percent) and methyl alcohol (ten percent). Methyl alcohol, which is more commonly known as wood alcohol, is toxic. Although Roberts did not discuss the components at any length, I made a mental note to research these three items and how they react with the human body. I continued reading, curious to see what Dr. Roberts would reveal about aspartame’s effect on the people in his study.
The participants in Roberts’ study consisted of 406 females (seventy-four percent) and 145 males (twenty-six percent). The average age was forty-three, but they ranged in age from two years old to ninety-two years old. More than 250 people in the study said they used aspartame as a sugar substitute because of a weight problem. The majority of the participants (almost 350) said they stopped using aspartame completely when they first thought it was responsible for their symptoms. Of those people, ninety-six percent reported that their symptoms improved and seventy-four percent claimed that their symptoms disappeared entirely. These results made me believe that the vast majority of people who believe their symptoms are caused by consumption of aspartame are absolutely correct. Even if a few people who linked their problems to aspartame were wrong, the overwhelming number of people who, to me, were obviously being effected by the artificial sweetener should not and could not be ignored. It seemed to me, after reading Dr. Roberts’ article, which went on to give descriptions of several case studies, that aspartame was affecting people in ways we couldn’t imagine. And, even if some people could use the product without apparent problems, the multitude of people sensitive to it was reason enough to investigate the symptoms further. Yet, the FDA appeared to believe aspartame was safe, placing no credence in the complaints and symptoms documented independently and suffered by thousands of victims. The FDA gave the public no warning, and the chemical was allowed into our food supply. Why hadn’t I heard about this before now? Why was I only now reading these reports and studies on the dangers of aspartame? The impact this sweetener had on these people whom I read about and on my own thyroid gland was appalling. Although my suspicions about my own illness had now been confirmed, I vowed to keep on researching the topic over the next days and weeks.
Time was quickly passing. Three months had already passed. I felt better and had no signs of Graves’ disease. I was ready to see my physician and to confess what I had been doing and not doing. I really wanted to tell him what I’d found out about aspartame. I wanted him to know that I was on a natural food and vitamin-supplement program. But I waited, gathering more and more information, making sure I was confident of all of my facts before I would tell him that I hadn’t been taking my thyroid medication and that I had found the cause of my thyroid symptoms. “The proof is in the pudding” was the adage I adopted. My good health had to tell him something. My thyroid was normal. My blood pressure, cholesterol, and heart rate were normal, too. I was no longer experiencing those intense migraine headaches and my mood swings were gone. My blurred vision and night blindness had slowly subsided, yet the retinal tearing in both eyes remained. My equilibrium was normal again, and my menstrual periods were right on schedule with no spotting in between.
Finally, the moment I’d been waiting and hoping for had arrived. Carrying a huge briefcase of papers, I arrived for my regular doctor’s appointment and stretched out my arm for one last conclusive blood test. I waited for the results.
“What’s the verdict, Nurse?” I asked one last time.
“Normal,” she replied.
Never had I felt such confidence. “I would like to see the doctor in his office, if I could, please.”
Making some notations on my file, she excused herself and went to find him. Returning moments later she said, “Come this way.”
She escorted me into the doctor’s office. Despite my new found confidence my palms were sweaty and I was nervous as I trudged along hugging my briefcase. I had taken a chance going against the doctor’s medical expertise. He didn’t even know for the past three months I hadn’t been on any medication. “He can really tear me down for this,” I murmured, thinking out loud. “Do I want to set myself up for disapproval? I must.”
“Did you say something,” the nurse asked, turning around to look at me.
“No, nothing at all.”
“That way. Last door on your right,” she said pointing down a short corridor. She turned and walked away, leaving me to face the doctor on my own.
I found the doctor sitting at his desk, looking down at a file as I timidly entered his office. I guessed it was mine. I took a very deep breath. I walked toward him. I nervously stumbled over my own feet, but disguised the blunder by falling into one of his oversized leather chairs. We sat in silence and stared at one another for what seemed an hour, but was only a few minutes on the clock I watched on the wall. He idly thumbed through my medical file. We each waited for the other one to open the discussion.
He broke the silence. “Your thyroid has returned to normal and has done so in record time,” he said. “How very unusual it is to encounter someone who has recovered from a case of Graves’ disease,” he added, looking at me uneasily. “But you are indeed an unusual patient.” If only he knew how unusual! As he continued to speak so highly of my successful recovery, I began to think of the right words to tell him what I had kept secret over the past three months. I wanted to share what I had done, but I was uneasy confessing my insubordination.
Instead of speaking, I lifted dozens of vitamin bottles from my oversized purse and neatly arranged them on one side of his desk, each one rattling and clanking with tablets and capsules. On the other side of the desk I stacked copies of articles Mary Stoddard shared with me and piles of the documents on aspartame I uncovered through my own research. Finally, I spoke. “Each of these documents verifies the dangerous effects from the aspartame
