EPIDEMIC of SUDDEN DEATHS in those EXPOSED TO ASPARTAME 

By James Bowen, M.D.

The horrendous toxicity of Aspartame has been well documented ever
since its inception.

Sudden deaths logically arise from several of its many toxicities.
For example, Christina Onassis, Patty Crane, and Carol Hamm are
amongst those that I know of who were using Aspartame and were
addicted to it, and visibly deteriorating under its influence when
they suddenly, and unexpectedly, died there from.  Patty Crane was
found dead amongst a litter of diet Pepsi cans. When her mother,
Betty Hayland, who was exposing Patty's "Nutra Death" on TV, came to
me to learn the biochemical basis of its deadliness; she, after
learning some of the biochemistry, asked: "Dr Bowen, how could such a
poisonous chemical ever be on the market?" I answered "Betty! This is
organized crime in our government." She became furious with me! "That
I should suggest there is organized crime in the U.S. government!
What a nut!" A few days later they called and threatened her life. A
couple days later two men tried to drag her into a car. She was able
to make her escape by breaking free and running. A couple days later
her husband Dave, who now has no question that organized crime runs
our government, came home and found her shot dead in a puddle of
blood on the floor. Carol Hamm was a close friend, but not my patient
so medical confidentiality does not prevent my discussing her
tragedy. We played cards together a couple of times per week and she
constantly had diet drinks in her hands while she played. She, over a
short period of a few weeks use, visibly deteriorated physically
right in front of my eyes, and mentally. Her card playing
deteriorated as well! She would defiantly look me right in the eye as
she drank diet to let me know that she didn't care that I had warned
her of what I knew about Aspartame. She was going to satisfy her
addiction by damn! Come what may! What came was that, one night she
didn't show for cards, and her daughter Debby called the police. When
we arrived at her house she was lying dead in bed with bloody fluid
running out of her mouth. In all three cases the autopsy report
revealed only "unexplained pulmonary edema".

This is the difference between death from Aspartame metabolism and
regular alcoholism: you can't smell it on the breath, and medical
politics forbids attributing anything evil to "Nutra Sweet." Jim
Krossik was an employee at Searle's first Aspartame plant in Phoenix.
He developed neural toxicity from breathing the Aspartame dust in the
air in the plant and passed out on the plant floor. When he recovered
and returned to work, he found that all employees were required to
wear a face mask lest they breathe the deadly Nutra Sweet dust! He
complied, but absorbed enough through his skin that he passed out on
the floor dead! The autopsy report revealed a "severe alcoholic
cardiomyopathy" as its only finding. Jim used no alcoholic beverage!
I have published extensively on www.dorway.com. My articles such
as "Sperm Warfare", "Aspartame and methanol revisited" etc. enlarge
upon the unique methanol toxicity from Aspartame. It metabolizes in a
toxic axis of Aspartame to methanol, to formaldehyde, to formic acid,
to carbon monoxide. Aspartame, to a striking degree, carries toxic
heavy metals into the body, as well as generating toxic super-oxide
free radicals in the metabolic channels that are poisoned by it. A
good overview of the Aspartame problem is my book "Billions of
Victims" which is available as free advice at many
educational/informational sites on the net. Since it educates about
Chemical Hypersensitivity, (CHz), it is essential reading for a full
understanding of the issue of sudden deaths from Aspartame.

The heart muscle is very sensitive to alcohol poisonings. Such
alcoholic cardiomyopathies frequently terminate in sudden death. The
Aspartame molecule is an alcohol poison about 20,000 times as toxic a
poison as ethanol, (regular old sipping or beverage alcohol) on a per
weight basis. Moreover, the myocardium (heart muscle) never gets to
rest except between heart beats, so the methanol from Aspartame that
becomes more or progressively toxic upon metabolism is especially
damaging to muscles. The myocardium is especially rich in
mitochondria to serve this metabolic need. The mitochondria and their
DNA (Mt DNA) are especially subject to these damages, and Mt DNA
lacks the repair mechanisms of nuclear DNA, so damage to it is
cumulative, even being passed onto the fetus by the mother. The
Cardiac Conduction System is a specialized kind of tissue that is a
hybrid of neuronal and muscle tissues, which is even richer in
mitochondria, and it never gets to rest. It is the metabolic clock
that generates and effectively coordinates heartbeats, heart rhythyms
and contractions. Many various malfunctions of it precipitate sudden
death. The heart's extreme mitochondrial concentration, and its
dependence upon mitochondrial metabolism for its unresting labors
make it a site intensely generative of Aspartame's poisonous
byproducts and extremely subject to their resultant chemical, immune,
mitochondrial and CHz damages.

When the methanol from Aspartame is metabolized, it has obligatory
first step metabolism to formaldehyde, the strongest organic base.
This is a polymerizing agent which cross links sites on DNA so it
can't reproduce or function to transmit genetic information nor
essential metabolic instructions. The next step in Aspartame's
metabolism is to formic acid which is a chromosome shattering agent
(along with cyanide and fluoride, it is called a "blister poison"
because it is so damaging that it leaves blisters of dead tissue
behind.) Formate is also recognized as fire ant poison. The whole,
entire toxic axes are severe sensitizing agents. A fire ant can,
because of the sensitivity it engenders, kill a human being that
outweighs it billions of times. Thus, the myocardium and conduction
system are rendered highly subject to attack both from the direct
actions of the Aspartame poisons and their metabolic derangements
along with the free radicals they generate via the impaired metabolic
competence, and are highly susceptible to other toxics and "sick
environments" via CHz, (Chemical Hypersensitivity). Damaged Mt DNA,
its resultant mitochondrial dysfunction along with dysfunctions by
and from immune and hypersensitivity reactions (CHz) are all
associated with sudden deaths. Cardiomyopathies from damaged Mt DNA
are also well known to be passed to the child from the mother. Many
other Mt DNA diseases are inherited from mothers who have damaged Mt
DNA. Because the Mt DNA is not in the nucleus but rather is located
in the mitochondria of the cell, its transmission in the case of a
given ovum is haphazard and random, so that infants from such mothers
usually display varied, random, and often dissimilar disease
patterns. One may be diabetic, another may have a cardiomyopathy,
another pervasive developmental disorders such as autism, another,
metabolically generated diseases like steato-hepatitis, hypotonic
obesity, etc. (see my article on www.dorway.com  "Steato Hepatitis".)

Another whole related area is the damage done to the hypothalamic-
pituitary-adrenal axis. Repeated poisonous assaults, such as CHz,
cause the activation of the anti-shock mechanisms of the adrenal
glands leading to either adrenal fatigue or a chronic turned-on 
status, both being conducive to sudden death, especially in response
to toxic or other shock inducing states such as the CHz response. The
hypothalamus, along with many other brain structures is severely
damaged by the dicarboxylic amino acid neuroexcitoxin component of
the Aspartame poisoning. This alone can cause adrenal insufficiency
and resultant sudden death. The phenylalanine isolate poisoning from
Aspartame also leads to serotonin and dopamine depletion in some
areas of the brain, and elevation of serotonin in others, leading to
neuro-endocrine disruptions contributing to all of the above, as well
as depression and schizophrenic episodes often leading to Aspartame
related suicides.

Aspartame is a potent epileptogenic agent, causing seizures directly
from its toxic effect, as well as when in withdrawal from same, along
with seizures induced by the CHz when the patient is exposed to even
minute amounts of sensitizing agents such as chemical contaminants.
Some of these contaminants are sulfites from pulp mills (or the
universally practiced new world order environmental abuse of
illegally burning high sulfur coal in power plants), pollens, fungal
blooms, and other "sick" environments, and food chemicals. Such
seizures can result in sudden death, especially if the subject is
alone and suffering from the other aforementioned Aspartame risk
factors.
**********************
The Atlanta Journal Constitution recently published an article about
sudden death referring to Science magazine. It reported that 450,000
people drop dead each year and discussed consumers with an irregular
heart rhythm.  Aspartame notoriously triggers an irregular heart
rhythm. Frankly, this is probably an understatement as to deaths. On
Dec 16, 2001, the Sunday Telegraph in the UK wrote an article on
sudden death and epilepsy.  Aspartame is also a seizure triggering
drug as proven on a pivotal study that approved it, a 52 week oral
toxicity study where seven infant monkeys were fed the toxin.  Five
had grand mal seizures and one died.  The FDA report of 92 symptoms
lists four types of seizures triggered by this neurotoxin. To make
matters worse, aspartame interacts with anti-seizure medication such
as Dilantin and similar drugs.

In this article it said  "..  .many people, including doctors, have
little idea that a disturbing number of patients, many of them young
and in good health, die unexpectedly, often in their sleep." Further
it states that "The unpredictable death syndrome has become known as
Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy or Sudep.  In 1996, there were
969 epilepsy related deaths, twice as many as from sudden infant
or `cot' syndrome, which is the subject of widespread inquiry."

Dr. James Bowen wrote at the time, "Sudden death during seizures is
almost always due to cardiac standstill due to cardiac arrhythmias.
There are several ways that this is due to aspartame damage.
Aspartame and methyl alcohol poisoning are noted for damaging
myocardium and the specialized form of myocardium called the cardiac
conduction system. This kind of damage leads to susceptibility to
arrhythmias. The aspartame and methyl alcohol poisoning cause immense
damage to the mitochondria and to Mt DNA which perpetuates the
mitochondria damage. The myocardium and cardiac conduction system
never get to rest. They are constantly at work pumping blood,
therefore they are very highly concentrated in mitochondria to
accommodate the metabolic needs of this tremendous work load.  So
mitochondrial damage is more highly reflected in the heart.  Damaged
mitochondria produce increased amounts of free radicals and other
abnormal metabolites that produce arrhythmias."

Dr. Bowen continues about the unusual demands on the cardio-
respiratory system and notes that seizures due to NutraSweet occur
more frequently and in spite of otherwise adequate anti-seizure
medication. Furthermore, aspartame interacts with pharmaceutical
drugs and anti-seizure medication creating yet another unknown toxic
byproduct. He says it should be no surprise then that people are
dropping dead from this aspect of aspartame toxicity.

On www.dorway.com  you will see two reports about aspartame and
sudden death:

Aspartame and cardiac and chest problems by H. J. Roberts, M.D.

Aspartame, MSG and Other Excitotoxins and the Hypothalamus by
neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D.

Both have written books that discuss sudden death syndrome:

Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, www.aspartameispoison.com  or
www.sunsentpress.com  or  800-814-9800.    H. J. Roberts, M.D.

Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills by neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock,
M.D., www.amazon.com

Mission Possible is currently seeking case histories for class action
on aspartame triggered seizures, brain tumors, eye deterioration and
blindness. For more information, contact: Mission Possible
International, 9270 River Club Parkway, Duluth, Georgia 30097   770-
242-2599   www.dorway.com