Graves and aspartame? Your thoughts?

hyperkim

Robbit,

Yes, there is a definite connection between graves and aspartame. For me anyway.

Here's my story on artificial sweetners. I have been trying to improve my lifestyle and food intake over the last couple of years. I quit artificial sweetners about a year ago. In December I got hooked on a soy milk because of its low carb count (I am hypoglycemic). I was out of town for a weekend and went to buy some soy milk and had to settle on a different brand. When I got back in town I made a quick trip to a store that was on my way home (not where I usually shop). They didn't have "my" brand either so I bought the same stuff I had drank while out of town. It was actually about two weeks I did without "my" brand. When I got started back to "my" brand I had a few hyperT symptoms pop back up that had recently disappeared. It made me think.....I checked the label of "my" brand.....yep there it was....sucralose. I don't know how I missed it but it was there. I thought back to December when I had started on "my" brand. And, yep, I had started having trouble drifting off to sleep, I started waking at 4am (although I was able to go back off to sleep quickly) and I was just more edgy(which I had marked up to finding out I had a thyroid problem in Nov.) Needless to say I quit drinking "my" brand and went with another. Suspiciously, ALL those sympotms have again disappeared.

Hope that helps some.
Hyperkim

Robbit

Hyperkim: Thanks for that. How interesting. I just think that even though there are some obvious anti-fake sweetner sites, there seems to be some medical information out there linking it. So far my son does not have any symptoms--nor should he get them now that he is on meds, but I wonder if we helped "bring on" the diagnosis via aspartame? Is that lame to think? He has Type 1 diabetes, so they look for this (as well as celiac), but I guess I need to know why.

ps. What are the other names I need to avoid--anything that ends in "..lose"--as in sucralose etc?

hyperkim

Robbit,

One book I have lists aspartame, acesulfame K, sorbitol, sucralose, and saccharine to be avoided. There may be others but I can't think of what they might be at this time.

It is important to note that eliminating possible triggers in graves patients will make them more responsive to treatment. Meaning your son may do better with ATDs if he were to eliminate (at least cut back on) artificial sweetners. Sorry, probably not what you wanted to hear.

Hyperkim

MyBowTie

I too have Graves and Hashi's and cannot quite place it but the artificial sweeteners do affect me as well. I don't freak out or anything but I just don't feel quite right for a few days after consuming some quantity. It got noticable enough for me to switch back to real sugar and when I did, the side effects diminished.

I know you've heard it before but water, as boring as it is, is the best for anyone with any type of compromised immune system and yes, even the die hard soda fan will get used to it. I now am almost hooked on the stuff. When I started drinking mainly plain old water though I had to choke the stuff down - hated it.

Do you know that when I go through my "hyper" phases of Graves' my sugar is way off on the high side? The body is ramped up with Graves' Disease - everything speeds up and there is a tendency for sugar levels to stay high. I always know when Im hyper cause after dinner I test my blood and its let's say around 155. Normally when I am hypo my sugar will drop like a rock to around 72 shortly after my meal, say within 35 minutes. When I am hyper that same meal will keep me in the 140s+ for 3 or 4 hours typically. You might want to look intot hat aspect of the disease. I think if the Graves' gets fixed, the sugar will be much easier to handle.

Additionally.....there are very few doctors that are any good at treating thyroid let alone Graves. You need to have your son tested for TSI (Thyroid Stimulating Immunoglobulins). TSI is fairly established as the main test to diagnose Graves. Normal people should have no or very close to zero for TSI. Mine was 170, 160 and most recently 130, indicating Graves'.

dea4

Just wanted to add my two cents.....I have a friend that was married to a chemist, he basically said aspartame is glorified paint thinner, really should not be consumed by humans. I avoid it completely if at all possible, sad thing is, most gums etc are now sweetened with aspartame.

Robbit

We will just cut out the diet pop and sugar free stuff--there is no need for them anyway. This is a good excuse to re-evaluate what i am feeding my child. I was getting lazy, poor kid. Now he has the flu on top of it all, started Monday with upset tummy, and by today he is just tired and a bit of a headache.

There is even aspartame in his vitamins! I tossed them.

Thanks!

dea4

Sad isn't it, we are bombarded by the stuff. My kids have learned to read the ingredients and watch for it. They like to have gum every now and then, but more and more of it has aspartame in it.