Excitotoxin Usually a free excitatory amino acid.

1. ExcitotoxinUsually a free excitatory amino acid. Over stimulates neurons until they die. Examples of excitotoxins: Monosodium Glutamate Aspartame Aceculfame K Splenda Sucralose Nutra Sweet Hermesitas Hydrolised Vegetable Protein

2. What is in your drink?

6. Sweeteners A Bitter Start • 1879 John Hopkins University, Dr Ira Remsen and Constantine Fahlberg were researching toluene derivatives. • One of them spilt a derivative on his hand and noticed that his food was sweet. He called it “Saccharin.” • The scientists published a joint paper 1884 Fahlberg patented Saccharin and began to manufacture it without crediting Remsen. Saccharin was introduced to the market place with great success in America and Europe. • 1901 Monsanto was formed with the sole purpose of producing Saccharin. • 1903 Monsanto producing saccharin for a new company called Coco Cola • 1907 Saccharin began to be used in products for diabetics

7. The Ban! • 1912 Saccharin was banned due to public concerns about possible health risks • 1914 WW1. Sugar rationing created a demand for sweetness, and Saccharin was re- instated. • After the Delaney Clause was introduced into FDA regulations, the FDA proposed banning Saccharin. For the first time since it’s inception, Saccharin was being tested for safety. • A Canadian Scientist , Douglas Arnold performed a study in which 50% of the laboratory animals fed high doses of saccharine developed bladder cancer. This was not repeated in humans. • Public opposition to the planned withdrawal of Saccharin, Congress intervened and saccharin products had to sold with health warning labels. • In 1991, long term studies made a correlation between high saccharin use and cancer, primarily in diabetics, but was not enough for saccharin to be considered a high risk factor. • 2000 president Clinton signed into law that cancer warnings were no longer required for saccharin products.

8. Saccharin Toxicity • One test demonstrated a link to saccharin and bladder cancer in rats, but this was not repeated with other animals. • December 2006 issue of the journal Food Additives & Contaminants. A study showed that the consumption of saccharin in products such as pan masala or pan flavorings among a population from Lucknow, India, was associated with the development of many toxic effects. These effects included bladder distention, bladder cancer and urine osmolality. The subjects that were affected were consuming a maximum amount of the saccharin-containing foods per day. Which was 137% of the acceptable daily intake of saccharin.

9. Cyclamate • 1937. Again, discovered “by Accident” when Micheal Sveda at The University of Illinois was trying to synthesis anti pyretic drugs in the laboratory. He put his cigarette down, and when he put it in his mouth again, it tasted sweet. • Cyclamate has less of an after taste than saccharin and was soluble in water, as well as being stable when heated. • It was recommended for diabetics and was the first powdered table top sweetener, sold as SweetN Low. It was a 10 -1 ratio of Cyclamate and saccharin, one masking the after taste of the other. • 1969 Cyclamate was suddenly banned by the FDA after new research indicated that it caused bladder cancer in laboratory mice. • This study gave the rodents a dose equivalent to a human drinking ten gallons a day for a year of a cyclamate sweetened drink. • Most other countries did not act on this questionable study!

10. Aspartame History of. • 1965 James Schlatter a scientist at GD Searle was working on research with amino acids, licked his finger and discovered a sweet taste. • 1967 Animal experiments showed neurological damage and disturbances • 1970’s Without cyclamate, there was a gap in the market. G D Searle invested $10+million in research to get Aspartame onto the market. • 1973 First application to FDA turned down

11. Aspartame 2 • Aspartame granted preliminary approval for restricted use. • 1977 After attorney Jim Turner and Dr John Olney triggered the FDA to investigate G.D. Searle’s tests for inaccuracies. • This found many inaccuracies and inadequate testing procedures.

12. Aspartame 3 • US attorney Samuel Skinner, leading the investigation, was head hunted to work for GD Searle’s law firm. • His resignation stalled the grand jury for so long the statute of limitations ran out. • 1979 FDA ruled Nutri sweet / aspartame should not be approved pending further studies on brain tumours in animals.

13. Aspartame 4 • 1981 Donald Rumsfeld appointed CEO of G.D Searle • His friend, newly elected R Reagan limited the power of the FDA commissioner and then appointed Dr Arthur Hull Hayes who worked to get the ban lifted. He then took a well paid job with G D Searle. • 1983 Despite objections from The National Soft Drink Association, Aspartame allowed for use in soft drinks.

14. Safety and tests • As far as I can establish there are no large scale human studies on the effects of artificial sweeteners, despite aspartame accounting for 75% of complaints to the FDA about the ill effects of food additives.

15. DRUG AND CHEMICAL TOXICOLOGYVol. 27, No. 3, pp. 257–268, 2004 • From C¸ ukurova University, Adana, & Anadolu University,Turkey • Aspartame significantly induced Cell Abberations and micronucleus formation and • showed a cytotoxic effect by decreasing the Mitotic Index • Their conclusion . It is not possible to • conclude that ASP is safe according to these results.

16. Aspartame Research • 2012 Abdel-Salem et all found that feeding mice aspartame caused impaired memory performance and brain oxidative stress. • Collison KS et al found that a life time of exposure to Aspartame in mice affected spatial cognition and glucose homeostasis • Bernard KA at al, using the Nurses Health Study, found a correlation between drinking diet soda and an increase in Non Hodgkin Lymphoma, myelomas and leaukemia

17. Aspartame 3 Ingredients: • Phenylalanine 50% • Aspartic Acid 40% • Methanol 10%

18. Acesulfame-K (Ace-k, Sunett) • Also known as Acesulfame potassium. • Discovered in 1967 when Karl Clauss of Hoechst AG spilt a mixture of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur and potassium on his finger, which he licked. • European companies approved it’s use long before the USA. • Acesulfame acts as a flavour enhancer and preserves the sweetness of sweet foods. It is heat stable and can be used in cooking.

19. Is Acesulfame safe? • Mid 1990’s Hoechst petitioned the FDA for approval to use Acesulfame in soft drinks. • Scientists opposed it’s wider introduction to the public, including Drs David Rall, Arthur Upton and Umberto Saffiotti. They asserted that current research showing Acesulfame’s safety was flawed. • The Centre for Science in Public Interest (CSPI) urged the FDA to require long term animal feeding tests because of the link with impurities in acesulfame to cancer.

20. Safety of Acesulfame • Methyl Chloride, a carcinogenic chemical is a potential impurity resulting from it’s use as a solvent in the initial manufacturing step of the sweetener. • Chronic exposure can cause headaches, mental confusion, depression, liver effects and kidney effects, bronchitis, nausea, loss of appetite, lack of balance visual disturbances and cancer in humans. • Politics, Acesulfame had already been approved for use in baked goods and chewing gum. If the FDA accepted that those tests were inadequate, then by accepting the need for further tests for the safety of adding acesulfame to drinks, they would have had to admit to inadequate testing in the first place!

21. NEUROTOXIN • Black’s Medical Dictionary definition: • “A chemical substance that harms nervous tissue, causing symptoms of numbness or weakness of the body part supplied by the damaged nerve.”

22. Examples of Neurotoxins • Ethanol • Nitric Oxide • Glutamate • Aspartate • Lead • Aluminium • Arsenic

23. Brain Neuron

25. Artist impression of firing neurons

26. Dr. John W. OlneyWashington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri • Microscopic photograph at left shows normal brain area called the arcuate nucleus.  Photograph at right shows same area after exposure to MSG and Aspartate at 1 g/kg.  White areas are dead brain cells resulting from the MSG exposure.

27. How to Kill a Neuron • Take an excess of Aspartate or glutamate in its free form; • These then allow an influx of too much calcium into the cells. • This triggers excessive amounts of free radicals • Which kill the cells. • Aspartate and glutamate can stimulate at least 3 different amino receptors found on nerve cells

28. Sucralose • Sucralose is a synthetic chemical that was originally made in a laboratory. It starts off as a sugar molecule. Then, in a five-step patented process of making sucralose, three chlorine molecules are added to a sucrose molecule. The chemical process to make sucralose alters the chemical composition of the sugar so much that it is converted to a fructo-galactose molecule. • This type of sugar molecule does not occur in nature, and therefore your body does not possess the ability to properly metabolize it. As a result of this "unique" biochemical make-up, McNeil Nutritionals makes its claim that Splenda is not digested or metabolized by the body, hence it has zero calories.

30. Sucralose • an average of 15 percent of sucralose is absorbed into your digestive system. It is also absorbed into your fat cells. • Unfortunately, if you are healthy and your digestive system works well, you may be at HIGHER risk for breaking down this product in your stomach and intestines! • Splenda destroys up to 50% of beneficial intestinal bacteria.

31. Sucralose • Sucralose was discovered in 1976 by scientists from Tate and Lyle, working with researchers Leslie Hough and Shashikant Phadnis at Queen Elizabeth College (now part of Kings College London While researching ways to use sucrose and its synthetic derivatives, Phadnis was told to test a chlorinated sugar compound. Phadnis thought Hough asked him to 'taste' it, so he did. He found the compound to be exceptionally sweet. • Tate & Lyle patented the substance in 1976; as of 2008, the only remaining patents concern specific manufacturing processes

32. NEOTAME • 1997 Approved for table top sweetener use • 2002 as a general use sweetener • Neotame is Aspartame plus • 3-di-methyl-butyl which is on the EPA’s list of most hazardous chemicals. • Neotame is 7-13,000 X the sweetness of sugar

33. Dr Russell Blaylock • The neurotoxin aspartate is a major component in the artificial sweetener aspartame.“ • How excitotoxins can kill neurons ... • "When a neuron is exposed to a massive does of MSG, the cell immediately begins to swell and dies within one hour. At two hours the macrophages begin to clear the remains of the dead neuron away. • When a lower dose of MSG is used, nothing appears to happen immediately. But after the second hour the neuron suddenly undergoes rapid death. This delayed death of neurons is characteristic of MSG, aspartate and other excitotoxins. There is some evidence that subtoxic doses of excitotoxins can alter the cells physiology."

34. Some of the harm caused by Aspartame • Aspartame – the artificial sweetener found in more than 6,000 foods and dietary drinks – causes liver and lung cancers, the risk increasing with the amount of aspartame consumed, Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Centre, in Bologna, • Migraine Headaches • Increased risk of Non Hodgekins Lymphoma, Myeloma Leukemia

35. Adverse reactions to aspartame: double-blind challenge in patients from a vulnerable population.Biol Psychiatry. 1993 Jul 1-15;34(1-2):13-7. • Walton RG, Hudak R, Green-Waite RJ. • Source • Department of Psychiatry, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Youngstown. • Abstract • This study was designed to ascertain whether individuals with mood disorders are particularly vulnerable to adverse effects of aspartame. Although the protocol required the recruitment of 40 patients with unipolar depression and a similar number of individuals without a psychiatric history, the project was halted by the Institutional Review Board

36. Aspartame and Uni Polar pt 2 • after a total of 13 individuals had completed the study because of the severity of reactions within the group of patients with a history of depression. In a crossover design, subjects received aspartame 30 mg/kg/day or placebo for 7 days. Despite the small n, there was a significant difference between aspartame and placebo in number and severity of symptoms for patients with a history of depression, whereas for individuals without such a history there was not. We conclude that individuals with mood disorders are particularly sensitive to this artificial sweetener and its use in this population should be discouraged.

37. E Numbers • E950 Acesulfame K - Artificial SweetenerE951 Aspartame - Artificial Sweetener E952 Cyclamate - Artificial Sweetener E954 Saccharin - Artificial SweetenerE955 Sucralose - Artificial SweetenerE956 Alitame - Artificial SweetenerE959 Neohesperidin DC - Artificial SweetenerE960 Stevioside - Natural Sweetener E961 Neotame - Artificial SweetenerE962 Aspartame-acesulfame Salt - Artificial Sweetener