Or, Diet Pepsi Rots Your Brain

Found in my Inbox, from a someone concerned about Michael's health. The validity of below has not been established, but you should understand it was forwarded by someone on a lifelong quest to find a redheaded girl on the slopes of Mt. Shasta who once invited him to the underground city that exists there. Even more astounding is the expert medical commentary quoted for most of the mail, as even a layperson can see the riddled logic collapsing in on itself. However, the campaign to save a person endeared to the populace continues.


Michael J. Fox, Star of Spin City, Family Ties and many movies, suffers from Parkinson's Disease and once asked how a 30 year old man would get this old man's disease. Michael Fox has also been a Diet Pepsi spokesman and informants say he is addicted drinking many a day.

Aspartame/NutraSweet that is in Diet Pepsi is a neurotoxin that triggers neurodegenerative diseases, and can precipitate Parkinson's. Fox has been going downhill because of the wild movements and writhing he's been suffering. He is unable to control his body. Aspartame, in reality a drug, also interacts with other drugs and changes the dopamine of the brain. There is no way for Michael to improve until someone gets him off the Diet Pepsi.

Dr. James Bowen (note: oddly, Dr. Bowen doesn't seem to exist. ~gnarl) says: "Many NutraSweet victims report parkinsonian symptoms. This should be 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. Aspartame is a source of methanol alcohol. Experts in neurodegenerative disease from alcoholism recognize that methyl alcohol is the component of beverage alcohol that causes neurodegenerative in Parkinson's Disease in alcoholics. Beverage alcohol is grain alcohol or methyl 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. 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's Disease degeneration occurs. As in the case with methyl alcohol the molecular 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. 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. "

While it is utterly pointless to debunk any of the good doctor's statements (as those who believe them will and do believe anything, most fervently when there are facts to disprove it), I would note that his claim that Mr. Fox's use of L-Dopa will be counteracted by the presence of aspartame in his system is contrary even to his own faulty and mysterious logic. He has said that aspartame decreases dopamine production (decreased dopamine production being a hallmark of Parkinson's disease), yet L-Dopa is designed to metabolize directly into dopamine in order to bypass the blood-brain barrier. In other words the dopamine doesn't have to be produced--that's the whole point of ingesting it.

Simply: Aspartame supposedly makes him unable to produce dopamine, and so the dopamine analog doctors put into his bloodstream is somehow rendered ineffectual. How is that supposed to work?

But again, so is the whole statement. Thank you, Doctor Bowen (if you exist--Google seems to think you do) for this work of medical comedy.

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