For those of you who know me on this board, I am obviously a HUGE pusher of conventional medicine, and I am often at odds with theories that lie outside of its realm. HOWEVER, I was reading a post about someone who had alopecia areata and someone made the comment about it possibly having to do with aspartame. I've heard people say in the past that aspartame is toxic, but have often not paid attention because no clinical trials have ever shown aspartame to have any adverse effects. But allow me to tell my story:

I have had no problems with my hair until September of 2003. My friends began to notice a small bald patch at the back of my head in late Oct 2003. Since then, the bald spot has grown to be about the size of two and a half "twonies" laid next to each other, and I believe it continues to grow. Now that I think about it, in Sep of 2003, I started the third year of a program that required me to be up very early almost every day, so I began to drink coffee more regularly. The big thing, though, is that I started using artificial sweeteners regularly also because I didn't want to use sugar every day for risk of gaining a ton of weight. IF the artificial sweetener had any effects on my hair, then the timing is right as I was taking artificial sweetners in my coffee and drinking diet pop almost every day for a month when the bald spot first showed up.

I have continued to eat products containing artificial sweeteners in them for the past year (again, almost every day) and my hair continues to fall out. I haven't tried to see if stopping the artificial sweetners will stop or reverse the hair loss because I didn't even think about a link until I, by chance, read someone's post in this thread today.

So, I'm wondering a couple of things:

Has anyone ever experienced hair loss (more specifically alopecia areata?)which was seemingly related to a high intake of artificial sweeteners?

If the answer to the above question is yes, did stopping the artificial sweetener cause the hair to grow back, or at least stop falling out?

Please keep in mind I am a follower of conventional medicine and the scientific method. I realize that these two events in my life might be a total coincidence, but because this has been something that has been bothering me for over a year, I want to find out if anyone else has noticed this. I know there are other supposed toxicities associated with aspartame, but please, I'm only interested in people that have experienced hair loss.

No one knows ANYTHING about this? :(

I'm on day 5 of cutting out aspartame. Thanks to the person who mentioned it in another thread!

you only stated for people who have experience with hair loss from aspartame need only reply......

BUT....had the need to say congratulations for cutting out the aspartame.

Now the preaching.... any man-made sweetener is basically poison to the system. As well, since the 80's it's the biggest "in your face" flogged poison that's been distorted in so many ways that allow people to believe it's actually good for them. Weight gain has exponentially increased since the use of aspartame....but I won't go into the pancreas/insulin/brain chemicals/weight gain thing (you opened the door to that, but this isn't the forum to discuss it).

Congratulations.....so, what's wrong with actual sugar? At least the body knows how to use it. Just make wiser choices?

have you been diagnosed for alopecia areata?

quincy

Ohhhh, sorry....I guess I wanted anyone that knew anything about this association to answer. Thanks Quincy.

Yes...I have been diagnosed with AA, but I think AA is a bit of a "grab bag" diagnosis for any localized hair loss. AA is usually supposed to attack you quickly, leaving a patch of hair that, if anything, starts growing back eventually. With me, the patch at the back of my head has been slowly getting bigger and bigger which suggests to me some kind of ongoing toxicity. This makes sense because I have been drinking either a coffee with sweetener or else a diet pop almost every day for a year now. I have, however, stopped now, and hopefully I'll see an improvement. I'm lucky that the hair loss is localized enough that I can just grow my hair a bit longer to cover the area. It would be nice to hear from anyone that can reassure me the hair will grow back.