Aspartame in the cockpit: Safety issue?

[Mach trim]

Everything in moderation. I am not posting this to scaremonger but for safety and please do not take the info below out of context.

Does anyone have more info or facts on EEG spikes blackouts in the cockpit ?
I am interested in learning more.

Please read below

What does aspartame do?

First, aspartame releases aspartate during digestion. Aspartate is a neurotransmitter used by the neurons in the brain. It is a type of excitatory amino acid. Excitatory amino acids are normal and necessary brain chemicals, and as such, they are allowed to cross the blood-brain barrier. Aspartate, the principal chemical component of aspartame, is a neurotransmitter and a type of excitatory amino acid. It is a natural and necessary body chemical. Neurotransmitters cross the blood-brain barrier.

"Although aspartame-produced tumors in rats do not equal tumors in humans, after aspartame consumption began, there have been more brain tumors. In the years 1973 to 1990, the number of brain tumors in people over sixty five has increased by 67 percent (National Cancer Institute SEER Program Data)."



In a letter to the editor and in one article published in the United States Air Force AirMen's News, it was noted that aspartame ingestion causes elevated spiking on the EEG, resulting in grand mal seizures and blackout episodes in the cockpit. Dozens have lost their jobs due to aspartame-related medical problems."



Enough said. Many of my business colleagues consume huge amounts of Diet Coke, despite this:



"It's well documented that excitotoxins like aspartame have the reverse affect on weight. People drinking diet drinks and eating diet food will get more hungry. The FDA no longer allows manufacturers of diet supplement drinks and foods containing aspartame to label them as weight reduction products, but requires that they be labeled as diet drink or diet food. A study of 80,000 women who use sweeteners were evaluated through the Centers for Disease Control. It was found that they gained rather than lost weight using artificial sweeteners."

[aviate1138]

Some years ago I started getting weird random flashes of light around the edge of my sight. Very noticeable at night, disturbing, enough to seek help. One thing that was noted was my asparteme uptake. I stopped consuming anything with asparteme on the label. Almost immediately [within a week] the flashing circles of light ceased and have never returned. Maybe a coincidence but I am really glad it stopped!

[Airbubba]

I try not to drink too much snake oil myself...

[JW411]

aviate 1138:

Had the same phenomena 25 years ago. Flying doctor diagnosed dehydration. Don't drink coffee etc on longhaul flights and stick to water or the nearest thing to it.

Never ever had another problem.

[Airbubba]

This aspartame hoax has been circulating on the net in numerous versions for a while now, not sure it belongs here:

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp

http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBUrbanMyths.shtml#aspartame

http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/hoaxes/hoaxDetails.asp?HName=ASPARTAME+HOAX

http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.265/healthissue_detail.asp

[seekayess]

. . . . and also, check out:


TruthorFiction (http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/n/nutrasweet.htm)




or





HERE (http://tinyurl.com/yr9h93)




Unfortunately, a perennial favourite for the folks who like to tell you what to do or not do in life!! :ugh::ugh:

[TDK mk2]

do you guys who say that it's a hoax work for Monsanto, or one of the other companies that manufacture generic copies? If not then carry on drinking diet coke or any other products which contain it by all means, in fact why not give it to your kids, grand children or any recently conceived women you may know of and see if all will be well. These companies wouldn't continue to market the product if these claims could be proved. but surely they would put their products consumers health interests before profits wouldn't they??

[Airbubba]

Yeah, it's a conspiracy, e-mail the 'warning' to your entire address book with the header 'IMPORTANT!-SEND TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!'

Reminds me of the time I woke up in the tub of ice...;)

[Wiley]

Had (still have, fortunately) a mate who lost his flying licence at 50 after a grand mal attack whilst airborne. It may have been a coincidence, but he drank a lot of diet coke.

Can't stand the taste of diet drinks myself - it tastes as if the aluminium from the can has leached into the drink. (So on occasion, I drink 'normal' soft drink and take into my body the equivalent of six heaped spoons of sugar instead, which is probably equally as bad for me if in a different way!!!!)

[torquewrench]

These companies wouldn't continue to market the product if these claims could be proved.

The manufacturers of aspartame, and the US Food and Drug Administration, insisted for years that aspartame did not break down into toxic byproducts during shipping and storage.

An eleven-year-old sixth-grader, Jennifer Cohen, took up that challenge for a school science project. She designed a clean, simple experimental protocol which shows that, in fact, aspartame does degrade in the container into formaldehyde and diketopiperazine. The older the sample and the higher the ambient temperature of storage, the worse the contamination became. And she paid out of her babysitting earnings to have a professional analytical lab confirm her findings.

I am by no means a sandal-wearing organic food fetishist. I eat red meat and drink black coffee and malt whiskey. I even -- horrors! -- still smoke an occasional tobacco cigarette. I demur from much of the hysteria about supposed chemical and radiological hazards about which there isn't any substantive science on which to base rational fear.

But I stay away from aspartame.

Before having had occasion to read up on things like the Cohen study, I had a spell of involuntary hand tremor and migraine headaches. It baffled my internist, who ordered a bunch of inconclusive studies. I had never connected it to aspartame, though a previous occupant of my desk had left behind in a drawer a box of aspartame sachets of which I had been availing myself several times per week. That would have been my only route of exposure: I don't drink cola products nor do I consume sweetened packaged foods.

That box ran out and, thinking that one artificial sweetener was as good or as bad as another, I replaced it with a saccharine sweetener product. Within three weeks, my hands were steady again and I have not had a migraine since.

By the way, the Snopes link quotes someone who quotes Russell Blaylock. For those who actually prefer to dig into the science, both pro and con, behind any controversial question, one could do worse than to read Dr. Blaylock on the aspartame issue.

[Hasselhof]

How does this tinfoil hat conspiracy theory rubbish belong in Rumours & News? Safety issue in the cockpit????? What a load of ****e :yuk:

[torquewrench]

Oh, and, while the plural of anecdote is not data, one can get an idea about where to start to collect data after contemplation of significant anecdotes.

A friend of mine had his medical pulled after failing vision checks. As well they should have done: closer examination revealed that his eyesight was messed up because of the previously undetected strawberry-sized astrocytoma which was pressing on his optic nerve!

I worked with this gentleman in a ground-based capacity for many years before his diagnosis, and I rarely if ever saw him without a can of aspartame diet soda at his elbow.

Perhaps he would have developed the tumor without the diet drinks.

Perhaps there is a causal link.

What is called for is more and better science. Preferably not science conducted at the behest of regulatory agencies which are already far too closely in thrall to the firms which they are meant to objectively oversee.

[Hasselhof]

I worked with this gentleman in a ground-based capacity for many years before his diagnosis, and I rarely if ever saw him without a can of aspartame diet soda at his elbow.

Perhaps he would have developed the tumor without the diet drinks.

Perhaps there is a causal link.

No you're right. I've seen the light on this. But it has caused me to ask some additional questions that might end up scaring the populace... but I'm willing to take that risk.

Did you ask this particular gentleman if he regularly slept in a bed? In my experience 100% of cancer patients I met in my former job as an oncology nurse regularly (if not every night) slept in beds so perhaps there is a link there?

Did you ask this particular gentleman if he was regularly exposed to artifical pop music? Again, its my anecdotal experience (though I suppose you might want to call it "data" given that it involves various individuals and as you pointed out, data is eventually the sum of anecdotal evidence) that a significant percentage of cancer sufferers and indeed sufferers of many other illnesses both serious and indeed potentially fatal actually owned at least one Britney Spears album!

There you go hey.... :ugh:

[blackbird71]

that stuff is bad sh..te, was having a lot of headaches few years ago till i read about aspartame and then found out the chewing gum i enjoyed so much during was full of it!
as soon as i quit the gum, the headaches went away.
read the fine print boys n girls.

all the best

[Dream Land]

Flying doctor diagnosed dehydration. Don't drink coffee etc on longhaul flights and stick to water or the nearest thing to it.Your doc may have given you the best information he had at the time but it widely known that drinking anything will hydrate you just fine.

[airfoilmod]

be concerned about their Health. I had "light circles" and was diagnosed with Ocular Migraines. My Doctor (non-FAA) ordered me off Aspartame, AND cigarettes. Unfortunately for me, I smoked for too long, and ended up with a Heart glitch that cost me my Medical. Live and Learn. I hope your friend survived the Astrocytoma, Aspartame or no, I hope he's OK.

[Airbubba]

The manufacturers of aspartame, and the US Food and Drug Administration, insisted for years that aspartame did not break down into toxic byproducts during shipping and storage.

An eleven-year-old sixth-grader, Jennifer Cohen, took up that challenge for a school science project. She designed a clean, simple experimental protocol which shows that, in fact, aspartame does degrade in the container into formaldehyde and diketopiperazine.

Classic urban legend stuff about the whizkid who proves all the grownups wrong. That should raise a flag I would think.

Here's another similar story making the rounds for years now:


It's incredible! But true.

An Indian boy in his twelfth standard has disproved Einstein's "Theory of Relativity".

Shocked???Read on..

Sudarshan Reddy has theoretically proven the existence of a sub-atomic particle which can travel at speeds greater than that of light, thereby challenging one of the fundamental postulates of the "Theory of Relativity". In his recent research paper submitted to the "Institute of Advanced Physics (IAP)" at Trieste,(Italy) Sudarshan has proved the existence of a class of sub-atomic particles called 'leptons', which can travel faster than light.

...When physicists from Princeton University tried to measure Sudarshan's IQ with an IQ-meter (at the American Embassy in Delhi), the meter broke down, simply because it was not calibrated to measure such high IQ. This was reported 'Times of India'.


http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/i/indiansciencewhiz.htm

Maybe Jennifer Cohen broke the IQ meter too. Perhaps we should use some of this pseudoscience and these wunderkinder to steer planes away from the Bermuda Triangle.

You need to sell as much as you can to this here wagon train of dumb European pioneers that don't know no better!

You may have a point.:ok:

[Hand Solo]

See what Snopes thinks of the aspartame rumours here:

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp

[Tigs2]

This is a 100% first hand story' I was at a dinner party with some friends and guests. One of our friends had been wheel chair bound for about 6 months, with increasing mobility difficulties. Diagnosed with MS some time earlier i think(though not sure of the diagnosis - ie no bull **** here)., She had been a perfectly healthy beautiful lady, now still Beautiful but in a wheel chair.

One of the 'guests' was a consultant surgeon from London. He was talking to her for some time. I went up and asked her did she want another drink. I thought a can of stella for me, a can of stella for the doc, and I said the 'normal' she said yes. a diet coke. I brought the drinks back. The surgeon said to her 'how many do you drink a day if you don't mind me asking'? She replied 'i don't know, it could be five or six cans a day, maybe a two litre bottle, more since she got ill'

The doc said , under no circumstances drink that can, have some water, or tea no sugar. He then explained why. It was a thought, not a proved theory that aspartame was the issue. He asked her to please please not drink this stuff for 2 months. She said ok she would do it. No word of a lie, 6 weeks later she was out of the wheel chair and walking. 2 years later, this friend who we all thought (including her) had a fatal degenerative disease is now a normal healthy, jogs 10 miles a week mature houswife.

I am no doc. There are many bad diseases out there that come over as MS or arthritis etc. If you have these symptoms, do NOT take diet coke (or ANY diet drink), sweetex etc, anything with aspertame in. Do NOT allow your children under any circumstances to have Aspertame in any drink or food stuff.

Just by perchance because of a meeting and a bit of reading in the medical journals, our 'guest' saved this womans life. It is not truley understood yet, but it is very bad stuff. Do not take it! Heroin addicts die quicker, which may be a blessing compared to self induced symptoms resembling MS, Arthritis and Altzheimers (is that the correct spelling?, I can't remember;) )

True story, first hand, take it or leave it.

[Eboy]

In a letter to the editor and in one article published in the United States Air Force AirMen's News, it was noted that aspartame ingestion causes elevated spiking on the EEG, resulting in grand mal seizures and blackout episodes in the cockpit. Dozens have lost their jobs due to aspartame-related medical problems.

1. What is the "United States Air Force AirMen's News"?

2. The above quote appears to be extracted word-for-word from this web site offering cures and health advice having no basis in science: http://www.naturodoc.com/library/nutrition/aspartame.htm

[airfoilmod]

Coke is loaded with sugar, Diet Coke with aspartame.

[OwlHoot]

This is a one-off "bungee post", from an occasional lurker not involved with the airline industry but interested in the banter and info here.

Aspartame contains an amino acid called phenylalanine and some people
carry a gene that makes them vulnerable, in varying degrees, to a condition called phenylketonuria which this chemical causes, and one symptom is mental disturbances.

As well as not being a pilot, I'm not a doctor or chemist either! So to be honest that's about as much as I can add. But hopefully it's enough for anyone interested in this to follow up.

OK, back to lurking ..

[seekayess]

Owl

. . . some people carry a gene that makes them vulnerable . . . .




. . . . . as do some people who carry genes that make them allergic to peanuts or even milk and milk products!!



Yet, I do not hear any across the board panning -- and condemnation! -- of peanut butter or milk!!



:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[red.sky@night]

"...... I do not hear any across the board panning -- and condemnation! -- of peanut butter......!!

A page 1 of Google search includes

http://www.deanesmay.com/archives/007598.html

http://www.bodybuildingweb.net/blog/peanut-butter-causes-cancer/

:ooh:

[seekayess]

rs@n



EXACTLY my point, sir!


If one person has allergy to something -- aspartame, in this case! -- it just isn't worth it to condemn that item to be horrible and poisonous!



But, in this case, there are any number of people willing to vouch how they have had a horrible experience with aspatame!




enuf said!