I've never used aspartame as I used few artificial products before I became ill as I didn't like the taste. Aspartame was not used by any members of my family who developed ME or many of the people at my earliest support groups. It may be more popular now or in some countries but not when I became ill. It can't explain epidemics of ME or the 80's outbreaks.
Gulf War Syndrome, 8 out of 11 victims tested have incredibly rare pituitary disease
- Thread starter SilverbladeTE
- Start date
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12195884
Just a little something. Good old MOD. Dont it make you proud to be a British citizen.....oops! sorry we're just subjects!
Just a little something. Good old MOD. Dont it make you proud to be a British citizen.....oops! sorry we're just subjects!
SilverbladeTE
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Ah, good old S W, he gets around a lot of these odd, financially/politiclaly troubling ailemnts, doesn't he? I wonder why...
Battery Muncher
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It's the last line of that article that gets me.
"I think the only thing worth spending money on is trying to help those who are ill."
Wessley's true attitude to CFS - exposed.
valentinelynx
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While I don't think aspartame was causative in my ME/CFS, I would like to share what happened when I quit drinking it (was drinking 6 or more Diet Pepsi's per day, felt cravings for it, even in the middle of the night!) to see how it would affect my symptoms. While my ME/CFS symptoms were not obviously affected by stopping aspartame, I was surprised that my frequency of migraine headaches dropped dramatically, from 3-4 per month, to one every few months. When I do get a migraine now, it is readily treatable with a triptan (rizatriptan is what I use), whereas when I was drinking aspartame sodas, the headaches would often last for 3 to 5 days, and were very resistant to treatment.
I also was having myoclonus at sleep onset that was quite disturbing, in which my whole body would jerk like I'd been punched in the stomach. It made trying to fall asleep most unpleasant: as as soon as I'd start to drift off, "Wham!" a jerk would hit. This went away completely when I quit aspartame. Note I didn't quit caffeine, so that was not the cause of the myoclonus. Aspartame acts as an excitotoxin, through the release of the aspartate half of the molecule. In many people it causes seizures. Migraines have features in common with seizures. In any case, aspartame is probably a bad idea for ME/CFS patients in general. I also would suggest that anyone who suffers from frequent or chronic headache try avoiding aspartame, particularly if you are a frequent user of such. The brand name is Nutrasweet. Aspartame is also the sweetener in Equal, a sugar free sweetener used for coffee.
I also was having myoclonus at sleep onset that was quite disturbing, in which my whole body would jerk like I'd been punched in the stomach. It made trying to fall asleep most unpleasant: as as soon as I'd start to drift off, "Wham!" a jerk would hit. This went away completely when I quit aspartame. Note I didn't quit caffeine, so that was not the cause of the myoclonus. Aspartame acts as an excitotoxin, through the release of the aspartate half of the molecule. In many people it causes seizures. Migraines have features in common with seizures. In any case, aspartame is probably a bad idea for ME/CFS patients in general. I also would suggest that anyone who suffers from frequent or chronic headache try avoiding aspartame, particularly if you are a frequent user of such. The brand name is Nutrasweet. Aspartame is also the sweetener in Equal, a sugar free sweetener used for coffee.
morse27
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only squalene in vaccine A is responsible of GWS , i'm a civilian with this illness after a single shot with a vaccine against H1N1 flu with squalene adjuvant , in winter 2009
alex3619
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There is a thread on pituitary issues here somewhere. Its a distinct possibility.
eastcoast12
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It's no better in the US. I forgot where(surprise surprise) I read this but some agency wanted to completely stop funding research on the cause of GWS and focus on treating the symptoms. The veterans hospitals here are an absolute disgrace. There are a ton of documented stories about these poor soldiers coming home with PTAs and trying to book a spot for the VA psych only to be told that they have to wait 6 months to a year to see someone. Turns out a bunch ended up killing themselves because they couldn't deal with it any more. These poor people made a huge sacrifice for their country only to be abandoned by that same country. It's a very revealing look into what the govt really feels about their vets. It'll be a very satisfying day when this disease can be forever crossed off the psychosomatic list.Yeah, apparently according to Wessely, GWS allegedly started out because servicemen past stories of illness/problems between each other which span into a "disease"...yeah GWS is just a "rumour", you know, "somatization"
sigh...like a broken record, isn't he?
eastcoast12
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Funny about the test thing. Started feeling crappy...found out I was hypothyroid. Still wasn't feeling good. Turns out I was making about the same amnt of test as an 70-80 year old guy. After that we tested a bunch of other stuff and my cortisol is screwed up too. Interesting
morse27
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SilverbladeTE
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alas the truth ALWAYS is, that while most join up to help their country or cause, politicians almost ALWAYS *use* them as thugs, to rob and steal other peoples' stuff, and want rid of them when they have what they want so won't pay a penny to help them.
it's the plain ugly truth throughout history.
Doesn't matter that the service folk are decent, it's the awful uses to which they are put, see Iraq, invasion over a lie. Mass robbery by armed force, and when folk find that out, puts even bigger toll on their minds.
Nowadays Western militaries do a lot to prevent any psychopaths joining up, and have tight laws and behaviours to enforce good, ethical behaviour. Most of the folk in any service will aid civilians whenever they can because they are decent people themselves.
But war is chaotic hell and innocents will always get slaughtered by accident or when some deliberately goo too far, for example General Giap in North Vietnam decided to use excessive brutality, murder etc to provoke American into bad behaviour so there'd be a "war to the knife" with no surrender possible, and it worked
thus like it or not atrocities were carried out by American forces and since most of them were just ordinary decent folk, that drove many insane.
An Indian rajah did similar thing in the Indian Mutiny, he demanded British women and children he'd captured be butchered and thrown into a well, but the ordinary Indian people refused and prevented him from doing so until he got some "untouchables" threatened their families so they did the atrocity...and sparked horrendous backlash form British forces. And the British government tossed the broken soldiers onto the streets...just like they have done nowadays
While atrocities by our forces are rare now, the enemy are either forced to use irregular warfare or are scumbags
battles are bad enough, but never knowing when a booby trap will gut you is far far worse, as it's constant fear
thus psychological toll is enormous
You note my signature "if you want to enemies, try to change something"
that's a large part of the VA's problem
it's a fact of life that lazy useless God forsaken pencil pushing small minded bureaucrats and politicians HATE being bothered or made to think, so they will just push the problem away...which is large part of what's happened at the VA
Also, they are such petty swine, they fight wars over bureaucratic "turf" how big their budget is etc, and do nothing to FIX things.
The Austerity garbage going on in the UK is the SAME garbage as happened in Germany just before the Nazis came to power and for the SAME reasons
it's so the Elite don't have to pay tax, they'd rather millions died form failing infrastructure, closed hospitals etc, than pay a PENNY in tax
Thus the Elite don't give a damn about US or Uk soldiers
Also, FREE medical treatment? the corporations hate that, they want everyone to pay in BLOOD for health.
thus, Wessely etc push the interests of people who don't want "troublesome" people healed, or free or fair treatment, or exposing the problems caused by the insane and very real "Industrial-Military Complex"
Can't have people questioning why we put nerve gas on our food, our animals, on our gardens, in our aircraft, or sell it to Saddam Hussein etc
eastcoast12
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Truth! Man. I used to be really patriotic although I always had a bit of sceptisism and distrust with the Feds. I still believed, ignorantly, that we are the good guys. I live on Long Island and was surfing the morning of 9/11. Saw the smoke from the fires while I was in the water. Such a beautiful day and the waves were perfect. One of those things that will be forever burned into my memory. By the time I got home the first tower collapsed. My uncle who was a fdny LT was in that first tower. Literally almost everyone I know knew someone that either died or lost someone that day. There were about 400 people from LI That perished. When we invaded Iraq, I honestly believed we were doing good. I guess a few years later I really started digging deeper and realized that the whole entire war in Iraq was a complete sham in which the public was fed lies. CIA, FBI, NSA and other international intelligence agencies all told the executive branch there were no wmd's and absolutely no evidence of al queda in Iraq. How many soldiers were killed for nothing. How many innocent men, women and children were killed. Look what it led to. ISIS and the Syrian refuge crisis. Unbelievable. Sorry end rant.
PS. The Feds also gave the first responders a hard time regarding the insane number of health problems related to the cleanup. Truly shameful but I believe most people would rather not acknowledge the truth