Aspartame caused brain seizures
Aspartame is the generic name for "NutraSweet", which is owned by Monsanto Corp. FDA okayed Aspartame for limited food use in the early l980s. In June 1996, FDA sanctioned use of Aspartame in thousands of food products. Aspartame consists of three components: 50% phenylalanine (a chemical which transmits impulses in the human brain), 40% aspartic acid and 10% methanol (wood alcohol-a poison).FDA's human "safety" determination for Aspartame is based upon some 112 studies submitted to FDA by the original manufacturer, Searle Pharmaceuticals. (Monsanto acquired Searle Pharmaceuticals in the mid-1980s.) Of those 112 studies, FDA designated 15 studies "pivotal".
Critics have been re-looking those "pivotal" studies and come away puzzled how FDA can deduce human "safety". Take, for example, one of the 15 "pivotal" studies: "52 Week Oral Toxicity Infant Monkey Study (SC-18862)." This study orally dosed Aspartame to seven infant Rhesus monkeys for 52 weeks, in work conducted at the University of Wisconsin Medical Center at Madison, Wisconsin. The work was reported in l972.
The monkeys were divided in three groups: a low dose group (1.0 g/kg), a medium dose group (3.0 g/kg.) and a high dose group (4-6 g/kg). Aspartame was incorporated into milk formula and administered orally. The high dose group did not consume intended levels of aspartame during the study, perhaps due to the overt sweetness (200 times greater than sugar). Thus, researchers concluded, the high-dose group actually ingested approximately as much Aspartame as the medium-dose group. (Editor's note: The UW-Madison researcher, H. A. Waisman, deceased in mid-study. For that reason, the low-dose group monkeys was pulled from this study at about 200 days-prior to when brain seizures commenced for the medium and high-dose groups.)
There was no control group. That ostensible inadequacy in the research protocol was dismissed by the lack of available monkeys and "..limitations in adequately skilled laboratory personnel..."
All medium and high dose monkeys showed increased phenylalanine levels in their blood. All medium and high dose monkeys exhibited brain seizures, starting about seven months into the experiment.
The study reported "All animals in the medium and high dosage groups exhibited seizure activity. Seizures were observed for the first time following 218 days of treatment... The seizures were of the grand mal type... One monkey, m38, of the high dose group, died after 300 days of treatment. The cause of death was not determined..."
