Motivated by The Bressler Report and concern about family members addicted to diet sodas.
Hundreds of experiments have been done on aspartame. So why did I undertake another one? In 2000, after learning about the possible dangers of using artificial sweeteners containing aspartame, I became concerned about family members who were drinking large amounts of diet soda containing aspartame. I was worried that they were consuming a chemical that could one day lead to their painful and early deaths--or worse, a walking death due to Alzheimer's, Parkinson’s, or some other debilitating long-term illness brought on by aspartame.
Though I was unable to diagnose such neurological illnesses in my rats, neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D. studied the causes of those diseases for over 20 years after his father passed on from Parkinson's. Blaylock's theories about neurotoxins such as aspartame and monosodium glutamate (MSG) causing such diseases are eloquently described and beautifully illustrated in his book, Excitotoxins: the Taste that Kills.
Convinced by The Bressler Report
While researching problems associated with aspartame, I came across The Bressler Report, written by an auditor working for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1977. The report describes an extensive analysis by Jerome Bressler, MD, of an aspartame-related study done by G.D. Searle, the company that first marketed the chemical. The study had been conducted using diketopiperazine (DKP), the most prevalent breakdown component of aspartame.
In his report, Dr. Bressler mentions numerous instances where Searle lacked forthrightness in reporting negative results to the FDA. For example, it states that tumors were removed and rats returned to the study without the tumors or surgery being reported to the FDA. One rat was even documented as dead, and then alive, and then dead again. Because most data related to Searle's aspartame studies was under FDA seal at Searle during the time of the Bressler audit, the fact that such incriminating information remained made me believe that Searle's real test results were far worse than the negative findings identified within The Bressler Report. |
