NEUROSURGEON
WARNS AGAINST ASPARTAME!
WRITES
LETTER TO THE MIAMI HERALD CONCERNING ASPARTAME
By Neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D.Web Site: http://www.russellblaylockmd.com
To the Miami Herald | April 24, 2004
Dear Editor,
It has come to my attention that the Calorie
Control Council, a front group for the NutraSweet Company, recently
suggested that aspartame was safe for women to use during pregnancy, as well
as by those with serious liver disease and phenylketonurics. This is the
most serious breech of public trust in the history of this nation. There is
not one long-term study of aspartame safety ever conducted on the offspring
of pregnant women consuming aspartame. Yet, there are numerous studies
indicating aspartame could pose a serious danger to both mother and infant.
For example, according to the National Collaborative Study for Maternal PKU, blood levels of phenylalanine, a major component of aspartame and a developmental brain toxin, should not exceed 6mg./dl. In a study of pregnant women it was found that aspartame consumption at commonly consumed amounts reached these levels in 42% of normal women and 100% of PKU carriers. One in fifty people are PKU carriers and do not know it. This same group concluded that levels of 10mg/dl held a serious risk of infant brain impairment. In this same study 15% of pregnant women reached this toxic level of phenylalanine and 36% of PKU carriers.
This means that fully a third of all babies born to PKU carrier mothers consuming aspartame foods and drinks risk varying degrees of brain damage. It is also known that the amount of toxic phenylalanine reaching the baby is twice as high as that in the mother's blood because the placenta concentrates the toxin. In addition, numerous metabolic breakdown products of aspartame are known to damage the developing infant's brain, including methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid, diketopiperizine and phenylacetate. Aspartame has been shown by several studies to damage DNA, which can lead to cancer and degenerative brain disorders later in life. The risk of increased brain tumors in such a child would be enormous. Similar mechanisms of damage would be expected in those with liver disease. Studies on aspartame safety have shown that the product increases tumors throughout numerous organs, especially the brain. It was shown that brain tumor incidence increased over 47X in animals exposed to aspartame.
With the public concern over childhood obesity and diabetes, few are being told of the overwhelming evidence that early exposure to excitotoxins (as found in aspartame) consistently produce gross obesity and insulin resistant diabetes, just as we are seeing in our youth.
The promoters of aspartame use have been lying from the beginning and continue to use their money and political clout to cover up the real and present dangers of this toxic product.
Russell L. Blaylock, M.D.
Neurosurgeon
Ridgeland, MS 39157
(Dr. Blaylock is author of Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, Health & Nutrition Secrets to Save Your Life and Cancer Strategeries, http://www.russellblaylockmd.com)
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