Aspartame concerns - junk science, quack doctors?

NewsWithView.com recently ran a news piece on Donald Rumseld and Aspartame which brought a sizable amount of mail to their editor's desk. The bulk of it was from people thanking NewsWithViews for getting this important information out to the general public. However, there were a few knee jerk reactions ("Are you for real...pure horses__t.") which prompted me to write this piece. Aspartame is a very serious health issue and those who ignore the warnings may deeply regret it someday.

Before we begin, I am compelled to point out the difference between a news item, a column or op-ed commentary. A news item is just that. It's not a research paper nor a dissertation on any subject. Certain facts are presented without commentary. One whiner complained the news piece was full of political bias. In my opinion, it was not. Everyone should be accountable for their actions regardless of who they are or what political party they belong to because no one is above the law.

One whiner screeched that the doctors in the news article were a bunch of quacks and kooks. Below is factual information on some of the doctors referenced in the news piece:

John W. Olney, M.D., professor of psychiatry and neuropathology at Washington University in St. Louis and the first occupant of the John P. Feighner Chair in Neuropsychopharmacology. Olney received a bachelor's degree in 1956 and a medical degree in 1963 from the University of Iowa. Olney arrived at Washington University as a resident in psychiatry in 1964. He joined the faculty as an instructor of psychiatry and became a full professor of psychiatry and neuropathology in 1977.

Olney was a recipient of the Wakeman Award for Research in Neuroscience in 1992, the Society for Biological Psychiatry Lifetime Achievement Award and the St. Louis Academy of Science Peter H. Raven Lifetime Award in 1996. That same year, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Olney is recognized as a pioneering neuroscientist who helped establish glutamate as a major excitatory transmitter in the brain. Stemming largely from Olney's research over the past 30 years, glutamate now is recognized as a neurotoxin that contributes to the degeneration of brain cells in a number of neurological disorders.

Ralph G. Walton, M.D. Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Northeastern Ohio University College of Medicine. Currently Acting Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, is a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry for NEOUCOM and Psychiatry Clerkship Director for Forum Health. He is Chairman of The Center for Behavioral Medicine, Forum Health. Under his leadership, programs include ECHO (Enhancing and Creating Healthy Opportunities), adult and youth services, Discovery House, adolescent recovery services and CHAMPS (Challenge and Mutual Problem-Solving).

Woodrow C. Monte, Ph.D., R.D. Associate Professor of Family Resources and Human Development; B.S., New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology; M.S., Ph.D., Colorado State University. Current: Director of the Food Science and Nutrition Laboratory Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287.

Russell Blaylock, MD is a board certified neurosurgeon engaged in a private neurosurgical practice for the past 21 years. Dr. Blaylock's interests of research and treatment include nutritional treatment of neurological disorders and in the biochemical basis of diseases of the nervous system. In 1994 he documented his work on this subject, Excitotoxins, The Taste That Kills, which was revised and updated it in 1998. Blaylock has written and illustrated three chapters in medical textbooks and a patient care booklet on multiple sclerosis and published several papers in peer reviewed journals on a variety of subjects from the pathology and treatment of pituitary tumors to immunotherapy of brain tumors.

H. J. Roberts, M.D., F.A.C.P., F.C.C.P., is a Board-certified internist in West Palm Beach, and an internationally respected medical consultant and researcher. He is on the Staff of Good Samaritan Hospital and St. Mary's Hospital, Director of the Palm Beach Institute for Medical Research (since l964), and a member of prestigious medical and scientific organizations including The Endocrine Society and the American Academy of Neurology.

His publications include ten acclaimed texts and more than 220 original articles and letters; many deal with research in challenging neurological disorders. Twenty years into his long career he voluntarily re-certified with American Board of Internal Medicine: his high marks helped to insure he remained as current as his peers. He is listed in every Who's Who Medical list one can imagine.

One doctor not listed in the news item who is also blowing the whistle on aspartame is Dr. Leonard Horowitz. He received his doctorate in medical dentistry from Tufts University in Boston in 1989, then his master's of public health degree from Harvard University. Horowitz became the nations leading author of dental self care books and audiotapes. Titles such as Your Mouth is Your Business: The Dentist's Guide to Better Health (Appleton, 1980), Freedom from Dental Anxiety (Tetrahedron, LLC Press, 1986), and Freedom From Headaches and TMJ Pain Syndrome (Tetrahedron, LLC Press, 1987) graced dental offices and lending libraries throughout North America.

Horowitz also authored Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola. His recorded and now published admissions are horrific, and frighteningly similar to the conclusion Horowitz reached by examining the scientific evidence that a Dr. Hilleman, along with CDC and FDA officials, developed the 1974 contaminated chimpanzee-linked hepatitis B vaccine that was the likeliest AIDS pandemic trigger. Major General Gwambo, Director of the Department of Defense in Kenya has given copies of Horowitz's books to all heads of state and their government has now stopped the World Health Organization's experimental vaccine program in that nation.

All these doctors certainly look like a bunch of kooks and quacks to me. I feel confident in saying that if these doctors all came out in favor of aspartame, those who think they're kooks for exposing the dangers, would accept their assessment and findings in a NY second. Betcha.

Devvy Kidd authored the booklets, Why A Bankrupt America and Blind Loyalty, which sold close to 2,000,000 copies. Has been a guest more than 1600 times on radio shows, ran for Congress twice and is a highly sought after public speaker. Devvy is a contributing writer for www.NewsWithViews.com Devvy's web site is: www.devvy.com; e-mail is: [email protected]