ANSWERING MONSANTO'S DENIAL OF THE ASPARTAME/BRAIN TUMOR ISSUE


Dr. Betty Martini
Mission Possible World Health International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
Telephone: 770-242-2599
E-Mail: BettyM19@mindspring.com



Original Published in August 1999

An Aug 3 news release said research is to be carried out on whether there are possible links between aspartame and brain cancer. This is to be headed by neurochemist Dr. Peter Nunn of Kings College in London.

Monsanto (NutraSweet) says: "It is physiologically impossible for aspartame to cause brain tumors because it never enters the bloodstream and thus cannot travel to essential organs, including the brain."

Aspartame is a molecule composed of three components, aspartic acid, methanol and phenylalanine. H. J. Roberts, M.D., says in Aspartame (NutraSweet) Is It Safe?

Page 30: "After ingestion there is a rapid breakdown and absorption of aspartame within the upper gastrointestinal tract. This results in a prompt rise of the two amino acids in the bloodstream."

Page 32: "Influence of Method of Administration" Both phenylalanine and aspartame concentrations in the blood plasma are significantly higher when aspartame is given as a solution rather than in capsule form."

Aspartame, Physiology and Biochemistry, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, L.D. Stegink and L. J. Filer, Jr., l984 (Pro industry, Significantly Corporate Sponsored!!) Searle was original manufacturer, bought by Monsanto in l985

Page 161: TISSUE DISTRIBUTION OF ORALLY ADMINISTERED ISOTOPICALLY LABELED ASPARTAME IN THE RAT Yoshimasa Matsuzawa and Yuichi O'Hara, Life Science Laboratory, Central Research Laboratories, Ajinomoto Company, Inc. Yokohama, Japan

Page 162: RESULTS: Phenylalanine Moiety: "The pattern of distribution of (U-14CPhe) aspartame following its oral administration was very similar to that of (U-14C) phenylalanine after 0.5, 2.6 and 24 hr and 7 days. Thirty minutes after administration of these compounds, very high levels of radioactivity were observed in the lumen of the stomach and upper small bowel. Significant uptake of radioactivity was observed in the pancreas, gastrointestinal mucosa, hair follicles, salivary gland and liver. Radioactivity was observed in the kidney, adrenal gland, bone marrow, spleen and eye. Some radiolabel was localized to the BRAIN, SPINAL CORD, (emphasis added) heart, thymus, lung and testes.

In real world demographic studies that could be dated from July, l981 when aspartame became commercially available, Dr. Roberts in DOES ASPARTAME CAUSE HUMAN BRAIN CANCER?, Journal of Advancement in Medicine, Volume 4, Number 4, Winter 1991, emphasized the extraordinary rise of primary brain lymphoma in persons who were not immunosuppressed within one or two years after the availability of aspartame products. -- and for which no other reasonable cause could be identified. Primary brain lymphoma had been a rare brain tumor prior to that time; subsequently there was a striking rise of other more common primary brain tumors within several years after the availability of aspartame in soft drinks and other products, beginning July, l983. These data on brain cancer statistics were regarded by the American Cancer Society statisticians as significant, and for which no other cause was apparent. Dr. Roberts report was a milestone publication, presented 15 years after the previous demonstration of high incidence of brain tumors in rats given aspartame. Indeed, these experimental studies were the reason that FDA scientists, consultants for the GAO, and a Public Board of Inquiry had urged the FDA Commissioner NOT TO APPROVE aspartame for human use. Unfortunately, a new FDA Commissioner ignored these warnings. In subsequent letters and books by Dr. Roberts, including a communication published in Lancet, Vol. 349, Feb 1, l997, Roberts reemphasized the matter, and urged the FDA to declare aspartame products an imminent public health threat for their potential carcinogenic, neurologic,psychiatric, metabolic and fetotoxic potential based on a clinical database now exceeding 1300 aspartame reactors.

As further refutation of assertions by the manufacturer, and the FDA that there are no evidences for severe neurotoxicity, Dr. Roberts and others have listed and reviewed many reports to the contrary -- with emphasis on corporate - neutral studies involving "real world" products subjected to heat and storage. Even corporate - sponsored studies affirmed the matter. For example, one of 15 pivotal studies submitted to the FDA for approval of aspartame was a "52 Week Oral Toxicity Infant Monkey Study (SC-18862). This study orally dosed aspartame to seven infant Rhesus monkeys in work conducted at the University of Wisconsin Medical Center at Madison. Reported in l972. 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..." The study correlates brain seizures with high amounts of phenylalanine ingested by the monkeys. The study determined: "following the end of the experiment, medium and high dose monkeys were kept under observation for three months. No further convulsions were detected during this period." In other words, once the aspartame was withdrawn from the monkey's diets, the brain seizures ceased. Monsanto spokesperson Dr. Robert Moser has said that aspartame does not enter the blood stream. The data revealed by this "pivotal" study submitted to FDA renders false Moser's assertion that Aspartame does not enter the blood stream. Elevated levels of phenylalanine in the blood of monkeys fed medium and high levels of Aspartame prove that the compound is absorbed into the blood stream. The brain seizures followed. How could FDA claim a "pivotal " study in which all of the medium and high dose monkeys suffer brain seizures, confirm Aspartame's safety for humans?

Neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D. in Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills explains that for every molecule of aspartame metabolized, a molecule of methanol was released into the blood stream. An EPA assessment of methanol states that methanol "is considered a cumulative poison due to the low rate of excretion once it is absorbed" The absorbed methanol is then slowly converted to formaldehyde by alcohol dehydrogenase in the liver (DHHS 1993a, Liesivuori 1991). The formaldehyde is then converted to formic acid by aldehyde dehydrogenase in the liver, by formaldehyde dehydrogenase in the blood or through the tetrahydrofolic acid dependent, one-carbon pool (Liesivuori 1991). Methanol thus breaks down into formaldehyde and formic acid in the body. Journal of the Diabetic Assoc. of India, A Health Alert, Emerging Facts About Aspartame, Vol. No. 35, No. 4: l995, J. Barua, A. Bal

During Congressional Hearings on aspartame there was voluntary submission of Trade Secret Information, Document 31. This had to do with Food and Drug Sweetener Strategy on getting aspartame approved and says in the last paragraph: "With the spoon-for-spoon, we have no way of estimating maximum likely abuse and hence need to utilize data based on almost complete conversion to DKP. If we include this use in the original FAP, we stand a good chance of ending up with nothing in the short run and nothing in the long run whereas the other approach would give us something in the short run and quite likely as much as we would ever get in the long run."...

DKP is diketopiperazine and has been implicated in the occurrence of brain tumors. Dr. John Olney, noticed that DKP, when nitrosated in the gut, produced a compound which was similar to N-nitrosourea, a powerful brain tumor causing chemical.

What is so serious about this situation is that Searle knew before they marketed aspartame that the phenylalanine would break down to DKP, and they didn't think they could get it approved if the FDA found out. Indeed, rats developed brain tumors in original studies. An FDA toxicologist who tried to stop the approval of aspartame, the late Dr. Adrian Gross, told Congress that because aspartame was capable of producing brain tumors and brain cancer, FDA should not have been able to set an allowable daily intake of the substance at any level. He said at least one of Searle's studies "has established beyond any reasonable doubt that aspartame is capable of inducing brain tumors in experimental animals and that this predisposition of it is extremely of high significance...In view of these indications that the cancer causing potential of aspartame is a matter that had been established way beyond any reasonable doubt, one can ask: What is the reason for the apparent refusal by the FDA to invoke for this food additive the so-called Delaney Amendment to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act?" The Delaney Amendment makes it illegal to allow any residues of cancer causing chemicals in foods. The concluding testimony of Dr. Gross will never be forgotten. He asked: "Given the cancer causing potential of aspartame, how would the FDA justify its position that it views a certain amount of aspartame as constituting an allowable daily intake or 'safe" level of it? Is that position in effect not equivalent to setting a 'tolerance' for this food additive and thus a violation of that law? And IF THE FDA ITSELF ELECTS TO VIOLATE THE LAW, WHO IS LEFT TO PROTECT THE HEALTH OF THE PUBLIC?" (Emphasis added). Congressional Record SID835:131 (August 1, l985)

In Nov l996 John W. Olney, M.D, reported that brain tumor rates had risen for 17 years with a sudden 10% increase three years after aspartame was introduced. Olney linked aspartame's mutagenicity to the function of aspartate as an excitotoxic neurotransmitter. Dr. Olney appeared on 60 Minutes and with him Dr. Ralph Walton who declared that only NutraSweet funded studies showed safety and that 83 of 90 independent studies show it harmful. This year world famous toxicologist, George Schwartz, M.D., in writing to Monsanto said: "By ignoring the scientific studies which disagree with your position, you are doing a great disservice to consumers. Further, you may have created base for litigation against your company by denying the existing science." (Letter on http://www.dorway.com ) Dr. H. J. Roberts has now declared Aspartame Disease to be a world epidemic and is in the process of publishing a 700 page medical text on the world plague.

Suggested documents to review:

FDA audit, Bressler Report CDC Investigation Protest of National Soft Drink Association

Letters from Dr. Adrian Gross to Senator Metzenbaum

Affidavit from N. Vera,translator, that studies were done in South America on humans that showed aspartame triggered brain tumors and seizures, and were never published by Searle.

These documents on http://www.dorway.com

Dr. Betty Martini
Founder, Mission Possible World Health International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
770-242-2599
E-Mail: BettyM19@mindspring.com
http://www.wpwhi.com
http://www.whno.net

Aspartame Toxiocity Center: http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame

Mission Possible Intl is a worldwide volunteer force alerting consumers aspartame is a neurotoxin. Two support groups have been set up on the Internet for the victims of Aspartame Disease.

The important thing is in intact human beings who are exposed to this on a sustained level, not just with just a couple of doses or so , its cumulative. (Said by H. J. Roberts, M.D.)

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  1. Take the 60-day No Aspartame Test and send us your case history.

  2. Tell your doctor and all of your friends!

  3. Return Asparcidal food to the store.

(Anything with Monsanto's NutraSweet/Equal/Spoonful/Benevia/NatraTaste)

VISIT http://www.dorway.com Get links to over 200 sites on aspartame

VISIT http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame FAQs & Cases

VISIT http://www.notmilk.com Exposing Bovine Growth Hormone

VISIT http://www.sunsentpress.com Books on aspartame by Dr. Roberts

Disability and Death are not acceptable costs of business!