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OpEdNews Op Eds    H4'ed 2/6/18

Treating Parkinson's Symptoms without Removing the Causes ~~~ What a Cruel Joke!

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Referring to a recent article in the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper:

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/health_and_science/legislature-calls-on-unm-to-consider-center-for-movement-disorders/article_2027c45c-627f-57a5-87f4-28f3b30b3a26.html

New Mexico's legislature has very recently been discussing the need for a Movement Center focused on how to treat Parkinson's disease, given that there are only a few physicians in that state able to treat this illness. I concur that this is needed, but instead of merely only throwing more money at the treatment, you need to deal with the causes. There is a terrible lack of information among physicians and the public at about Parkinson problems. In 1985, US Senator Howard Metzenbaum wrote a bill to require independent studies of problems that begin with aspartame's approval, including the effect on the brain chemistry, what aspartame does to the fetus, seizures, behavioral problems and interaction with drugs including MONAMINE OXIDASE INHIBITORS, ALPHA-METHYL-DOPA AND L-DIHYDROPHENYLALANINE.

Aspartame was acting as a drug and interacting with L-dopa. Worse, Parkinson's drugs like Parcopa and its generic contain aspartame: http://www.rxlist.com/drug-interactions/carbidopa-levodopa-entacapone-oral-and-cholestyramine-aspartame-oral-interaction.htm So many notified Schwarz Pharma: (http://www.wnho.net/schwarz_pharma_letter.htm) but they refused to remove aspartame despite their full knowledge of the deadly interaction and indisputable facts sent.

Both parents of Dr. Russell Blaylock (neurosurgeon and author of Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills) both died of Parkinson's and he has a great interest in the disease. On this book's back cover, Blaylock defines excitotoxin:

"A substance added to foods and beverages that literally stimulates neurons to death, causing brain damage of varying degrees. Can be found in such ingredients as monosodium glutamate, aspartame (NutraSweet), cysteine, hydrolyzed protein, and aspartic acid." (Forty per cent of aspartame is aspartic acid).


From Dr. James Bowen's Lou Gehrig's disease article:

"Aspartic acid, the excitotoxic component of aspartame does not cross the blood brain barrier but is secreted into the cerebral spinal fluid by the choroid plexus located in the ventricles of the brain. There, in the brain's lower area and upper terminus of the spinal is where Lou Gehrig's, Parkinson's disease and Multiple Sclerosis damage is most prominent. These critical locations are bathed in the toxin as it is removed from the blood. From the third to fourth ventricle there is a narrow canal called sylvian aqueduct, which fills with this secretion and washes the roof of the hypothalamus."


Dr. Blaylock quotes Dr. John Olney pointing out the irony of a food industry practice:

"Thus, today we are witnessing an ironic situation; while knowledgeable neuroscientists are fervently attempting to develop methods for protecting CNS (brain) neurons against neurotoxic potentials of endogenous Glu (glutamate) and Asp (aspartate), other elements of society are vigorously promoting the unlimited use of exogenous Glu and Asp as food additives. Today the experimental evidence demonstrating the neurotoxic potential of these excitotoxins is so overwhelming, as can be seen from the scientific citations in this book, that it can no longer be ignored. The studies showing how excitotoxins work have greatly increased our understanding, not only of brain function, but also of the very basis of the degenerative brain disease process itself. In this discussion you must keep in mind that the excitotoxins added to food are the exact same ones that produce experimental brain damage in animals. The glutamate in our discussion is the same substance and active ingredient found in MSG. The neurotoxin aspartate is a major component in the artificial sweetener aspartame (actually a mixture of two amino acids, phenylalanine and aspartate, and methanol or wood alcohol)."


From a chapter in his book entitled Creeping Death: The Neurodegenerative Diseases:
"By ingesting diets high in MSG, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, aspartame and other excitotoxins, these people would be exposing their brains to damaging levels of this class of toxin. Eventually other neurons would be damaged, possibly leading to symptoms of Alzheimer's type dementia and ALS. Glutamate and aspartate can enter the brain without a breakdown in the blood brain barrier. We know that certain areas of the adult brain have no, or incompetent, barriers. These areas are near the ventricular system (circumventricular organs) and can potentially act as points through which glutamate and aspartate in the plasma could slowly seep into the surrounding brain, thereby by-passing the blood brain barrier."

Blaylock explains Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease):
"Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that primarily affects the anterior horn cells of the spinal cord. These are the primary neurons in the spinal cord that control muscle movements of the body. But these neurons do not operate by themselves; rather, they are controlled from higher up in the brain by other neurons in the motor cortex which send fibers down the spinal cord, that in turn connect (synapse) with the anterior horn cells. This bundle of fibers from the cortex is called the corticospinal tract. In most cases of ALS these neurons are also affected."



Dr. Blaylock discusses research on ALS in l987 by Doctors Andreas Plaitakis and James T. Caroscio:

"In a follow-up study, Dr. Plaitakis and his coworkers examined the glutamate and aspartate levels from the cerebellar cortex, frontal lobe and two areas of the spinal cord in patients dying of ALS. They found that glutamate levels were significantly decreased (21 to 40% lower than controls) in all areas tested. The cervical and lumber cord, the areas containing the greatest number of motor neurons, showed the greatest deficit. Aspartate was significantly decreased in the spinal cord only (32 to 35%). This defect in the aspartate and glutamate pools in the brain and spinal cord of ALS patients could indicate that these specialized neurons are destroyed and as a result have lost their previously high concentrations of these excitatory amino acids."

Writing about the prevention of ALS:

"You must also avoid all foods and drinks sweetened with aspartame (NutraSweet), since it contains the powerful excitotoxin aspartate. In addition, all that we have learned about hypoglycemia and Parkinson's disease also applies to ALS patients. Low energy levels greatly magnify the toxic effect of MSG and aspartate on the spinal cord."


Dr. Blaylock's book states that glutamate, amphetamines and other excitotoxins may produce Parkinson's by overexciting the cortical glutamate cells that connect to the nigrostriatal neurons lying deep in the brain. This is true of aspartame as well. "It is like lightning hitting the power line outside your house and burning up all of the appliances connected to that line. The powerline represents the cortical glutamate neurons and the appliances, the nigrostriatal system.

Dr. Blaylock points out that: 1. Parkinson's disease is a disorder whose cause appears from substantial evidence, to be related to excitotoxicity. These toxins destroy the cells in the brain central to this disease. 2. Excitotoxins cause these brain cells to generate enormous amounts of free radicals. This is true of MSG and aspartic acid (aspartame). 3. There is substantial circumstantial evidence that dietary excitotoxins, including aspartame, can aggravate these destructive changes in the Parkinson's brain. 4. The additional toxins - DKP, aspartate, methanol, formaldehyde and formic acid - add to this injury. 5. Recent evidence demonstrates that aspartame products, formaldehyde - accumulates within cells and damages proteins and DNA.



Dr. James Bowen has noted that many NutraSweet victims report Parkinsonian symptoms.

"This is no surprise because every biochemical component of the aspartame molecule is implicated in producing Parkinsonian structural damage and creating a biochemical basis for Parkinsonian symptoms. For example, aspartame is a source of methyl alcohol. Experts in neurodegenerative disease from alcoholism recognize that methyl alcohol is the component of beverage alcohol that causes neurodegenerative disease in Parkinson's disease in alcoholics. Beverage alcohol is grain alcohol or ethyl alcohol. However, methyl alcohol is also present in very small amounts, although present only in trace amounts in alcoholic beverages. It is the factor that produces the neurodegeneration. Methyl alcohol accomplishes this even though the ethyl alcohol serves as a protective factor. Aspartame on the other hand affords no such protection and the structural components of the molecule are so arranged that the methyl alcohol from aspartame is probably 500 to 5000 times more active in producing toxicity than it would be alone."


Bowen also wrote:
"The structural damage in the basal areas of the brain where Parkinson Disease structural damage occurs from the dicarboxylic amino acid neuroexcitotoxins is a problem long recognized. So aspartic acid even in and by itself is a recognized source of the damage to the basal ganglia where Parkinson Disease degeneration occurs. As in the case with methyl alcohol the molecule structure of the aspartame molecule probably makes the aspartic acid damage from aspartame 5000 times more potent than from free aspartic acid on a mg. per mg. basis. The brain with loss of neural tissue to produce the dopamine, a neurotransmitter necessary to let the brain circuitry function normally, is no longer producing dopamine in sufficient amounts in these structures. The metabolic impact of the phenylalanine isolate from aspartame is to remarkably decrease dopamine production thus making Parkinson symptoms much worse. The phenylalanine isolate out-competes all other amino acids at enzyme sites in the brain. This includes the decarboxylase enzyme sites. Therefore, the amino acid tyrosine is not decarboxylated to tramine which is the first step in producing dopamine in the brain. Therefore, the brain dopamine levels plummet remarkably."

"Poster Boy for Diet Pepsi Michael Fox has reportedly used L-Dopa to try and increase his dopamine levels. The use of aspartame completely defeats this therapeutic endeavor. Not to mention the fact that it caused the degenerative disease called Parkinson's Disease in the first place. The destructive process will continue as long as he uses it."


The bottom line is that for 40 years aspartame has been on the market poisoning the public and interacting with drugs. The medical text, "Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic" by the late Dr. H.J. Roberts, world renown aspartame expert, is 1000 pages of symptoms, diseases and drug interactions all triggered or precipitated by aspartame.

Senator Gerald Ortiz y Pino carried a bill to ban aspartame in New Mexico. I testified along with Pediatrician Kenneth Stoller before Senate and House Committees. Five out of seven in the Senate Public Affairs Committee were ostentatiously sipping on their Diet Cokes; Dr. Stoller told them, "I don't think we will get anywhere with all of you drinking Diet Coke, but please have mercy on the children."

I visited with former New Mexico Attorney General Gary King, asking that something be done to protect New Mexico's children. He told me if I could show him that since the approval of aspartame autism has increased, he would intervene. Dr. Stoller had already done the research and sent it to the Attorney General but nothing was done. Later it was found out that the teratology studies (on birth defects) had been sealed from the public. It took me 8 years to find them and they showed neural tube defects, spina bifida and cleft palate for starters. Dr. Woodrow Monte then wrote the book, "While Science Sleeps: A Sweetener Kills". Here is the last chapter on aspartame and autism: http://www.rense.com/general96/asparautism.html

Dr. James Bowen has Lou Gehrig's resulting from his own aspartame poisoning wrote Senator Gerald Ortiz y Pino, and enclosed his letter to the FDA about mass poisoning of the public. http://www.wnho.net/letter_to_senator_goyp_concerning_aspartame.htm

While I was in New Mexico to testify to the legislature, there were lobbyists, attorneys and front groups. The power of the aspartame industry was everywhere.

In 2009 the FDA admitted to President Obama that they were broken. They are run by Big Pharma.

As an example of industry power Dr. Blaylock wrote in his book:

"Placebos are supposed to be completely inert substances. Otherwise they would produce a physiological effect all of their own and ruin the experiment. In the case of MSG toxicology studies, the placebo used to test the excitotoxin glutamate is NutraSweet, which contains the excitotoxin aspartate. It has been clearly shown in a multitude of studies that aspartate produces the identical destructive reactions on the nervous system as MSG. It would seem obvious even to the layman that you would not use a control substance to compare to a known toxin if the control contained the same class of chemical toxin. But that is exactly what is being done."

"Are the representatives of the glutamate industry aware of this basic scientific fact? It is hard to believe otherwise, especially in the face of the fact that one of their own representatives presented evidence before a public hearing at a meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology in which tables were presented showing that aspartame produces the same types and incidences of reactions as MSG."


"Did these scientists disclose in their scientific papers the fact that the placebos also contained a known excitotoxin? The answer is an emphatic "no", and I have reviewed dozens of these studies. In fact, I was not aware of this deception until I received the proof from Dr. Samuels. In many cases the powder used to mix the placebos was supplied by the International Glutamate Technical Committee (IGTC). It is interesting to note that the Ajinomoto company, the chief manufacturer of MSG and the raw materials of aspartame, is an active member of the IGTC."


"This company funds extensive research programs and provides funds to major universities for research on the safety of MSG. In my personal opinion, I have to believe that both the company representatives, and certainly the scientists doing the research, must know that such studies are dishonest at the very least."


It's obvious that aspartame can precipitate ALS. In conclusion Dr. Blaylock wrote:
"But of primary concern is the effect of these powerful brain cell stimulants have on the developing brain of the infant and child and the later development in the adult of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's dementia, Huntington's disease and ALS. The brain not only utilizes the excitatory amino acids as normal neurotransmitters, but there exists a delicate balance of excitatory and inhibitory chemicals in the brain. When the balance is upset, serious disorders of the nervous system can result."

While I was in New Mexico I gave out to Legislature members Dr. Ralph Walton's research for 60 Minutes showing that almost all independent scientific peer reviewed research delineates the problems aspartame triggers or precipitates.

http://www.lightenyourtoxicload.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Dr-Walton-survey-of-aspartame-studies.pdf

To me, this was horrifying to hear ill-informed corporate lobbyists try to disprove the research, parroting what their corporate masters told them to say. It was like walking into a pool of very ignorant and very dangerous Piranhas. Two out of three of the most vicious and vociferous pro-aspartame lobbyists ended up in prison for other reasons having to do with a fraudulent voter education film project and their embezzling from that project. One actually died in prison.

Aspartame is very hard to avoid. The broken FDA just approved another aspartame drug, Advantame, as an additive. One doctor told me aspartame is in all gastrointestinal generics and it triggers gastrointestinal disease. It was given to me without my knowledge and interacted with the pain medication. I immediately was covered in urticaria or hives and stopped breathing on three occasions before I found out. The opioids epidemic is all over the news. Maybe there is some overuse but a lot of deaths can be caused by the violent interaction of aspartame and opioids.

In the halls of hospitals today you see "falling signs". #2 on the FDA list of 92 symptoms is loss of balance.

http://www.mpwhi.com/92_aspartame_symptoms.pdf

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