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Add to Favoritesaspartame (methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid) toxicity research - enough folic acid prevents harm: Rich Murray 2009.02.02
It is certain that high levels of aspartame use, above 2 liters daily
for months and years, must lead to chronic formaldehyde-formic acid
toxicity.
Fully 11 % of aspartame is methanol - 1,120 mg aspartame in 2 liters
diet soda, almost six 12-oz cans, gives 123 mg methanol (wood
alcohol). The methanol is immediately released into the body after
drinking .
Within hours, the liver turns much of the methanol into formaldehyde,
and then much of that into formic acid, both of which in time are
partially eliminated as carbon dioxide and water.
However, about 30 % of the methanol remains in the body as cumulative
durable toxic metabolites of formaldehyde and formic acid - 37 mg
daily, a gram every month, accumulating in and affecting every tissue.
If only 10 % of the methanol is retained daily as formaldehyde, that
would give 12 mg daily formaldehyde accumulation - about 60 times
more than the 0.2 mg from 10 % retention of the 2 mg EPA daily limit
for formaldehyde in drinking water.
Bear in mind that the EPA limit for formaldehyde in drinking water is
1 ppm, or 2 mg daily for a typical daily consumption of 2 liters of
water.......
cofact ors re folic acid antagonist research include
methanol (quickly turns into formaldehyde and then formic acid in
humans) from tobacco and wood smoke, alcohol beverages, aspartame,
demethylat ion of caffeine: Rich Murray 2008.12.01
http://rmf orall.blogspot.com/2 008_12_01_archive.ht m
Monday, December 1, 2008
http://groups.ya hoo.com/group/aspart ameNM/message/1569
ht tp://www.eurekalert. org/pub_releases/200 8-12/cmaj-met112408. php
Public release date: 1-Dec-2008
Contact: Kim Barnhardt kim.barnhardt@cma.ca
613-731-8610 x2224
Canadian Medical Association Journal
Maternal exposure to folic acid antagonists increases risks
Exposure to folic acid antagonists during pregnancy is associated with
a higher risk of placenta-mediated adverse outcomes such as
preeclampsia, placental abruption, fetal growth restriction or fetal
death reports a retrospective cohort study published in CMAJ
http://www.cmaj. ca/press/pg1263.pdf .
Folic acid antagonists include a broad range of drugs used to treat
epilepsy, mood disorders, hypertension and infections. As
approximately 50% of pregnancies in industrialized countries like
Canada are unplanned, there is a risk of unintended exposure to these
medications.... ..
methanol impurity in alcohol drinks [ and aspartame ] is turned into
neurotoxic formic acid, prevented by folic acid, re Fetal Alcohol
Syndrome, BM Kapur, DC Lehotay, PL Carlen at U. Toronto,
Alc Clin Exp Res 2007 Dec. plain text: detailed biochemistry,
CL Nie et al. 2007.07.18: Murray 2008.02.24
http://rmf orall.blogspot.com/2 008_02_01_archive.ht m
Sunday, February 24, 2008
http://groups.ya hoo.com/group/aspart ameNM/message/1524
ht tp://www.blackwell-s ynergy.com/doi/abs/1 0.1111/j.1530-0277.2 007.00541.x
Alcoholis m: Clinical and Experimental Research
Volume 31 Issue 12 Page 2114-2120, December 2007
Bhushan M. Kapur, b.kapur@utoronto.ca;
Arthur C. Vandenbroucke, PhD, FCACB
Yana Adamchik,
Denis C. Lehotay, dlehotay@health.gov. sk.ca;
Peter L. Carlen carlen@uhnres.utoron to.ca;
(2007) Formic Acid, a Novel Metabolite of Chronic Ethanol Abuse,
Causes Neurotoxicity, Which Is Prevented by Folic Acid
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 31 (12), 2114-2120.
doi:10.111 1/j.1530-0277.2007.0 0541.x
Abstract
Backgr ound:
Methanol is endogenously formed in the brain and is present as a
congener in most alcoholic beverages.
Because ethanol is preferentially metabolized over methanol (MeOH) by
alcohol dehydrogenase, it is not surprising that MeOH accumulates in
the alcohol-abusing population.
This suggests that the alcohol-drinking population will have higher
levels of MeOH's neurotoxic metabolite, formic acid (FA).
FA elimination is mediated by folic acid.
Neurotoxicity is a common result of chronic alcoholism.
This study shows for the first time that FA, found in chronic
alcoholics, is neurotoxic and this toxicity can be mitigated by folic acid
administration.
O bjective:
To determine if FA levels are higher in the alcohol-drinking
popu lation and to assess its neurotoxicity in organotypic hippocampal rat brain slice
cultures.
Method s:
Serum and CSF FA was measured in samples from both ethanol abusing and
control patients, who presented to a hospital emergency department.
[ CSF = Cerebral Spinal Fluid ]
FA's neurotoxicity and its reversibility by folic acid were assessed
using organotypic rat brain hippocampal slice cultures using clinically
relevant concentrations.
Resul ts:
Serum FA levels in the alcoholics (mean SE: 0.416 +- 0.093 mmol/l, n
= 23) were significantly higher than in controls (mean SE: 0.154 +- 0.009
mmol/l, n = 82) (p < 0.0002).
FA was not detected in the controls' CSF (n = 20), whereas it was
>0.15 mmol/l in CSF of 3 of the 4 alcoholic cases.
Low doses of FA from 1 to 5 mmol/l added for 24, 48 or 72 hours to the
rat brain slice cultures caused neuronal death as measured by propidium
iodide staining.
When folic acid (1 umol/l) was added with the FA, neuronal death was
prevented. [ umol = micromole ]
Conclusions:
Formic acid may be a significant factor in the neurotoxicity of
ethanol abuse.
This neurotoxicity can be mitigated by folic acid administration at a
clinically relevant dose.
Key Words:
Formic Acid, Folic Acid, Methanol, Neurotoxicity, Alcoholism......
"Of course, everyone chooses, as a natural priority, to enjoy peace,
joy, and love by helping to find, quickly share, and positively act
upon evidence about healthy and safe food, drink, and environment."
Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmforall@comcast.net
505-501-2298 1943 Otowi Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505
http://RMForAll .blogspot.com new primary archive
http://groups .yahoo.com/group/asp artameNM/messages
gro up with 136 members, 1,569 posts in a public archive
http://groups .yahoo.com/group/asp artame/messages
group with 1,148 members, 23,179 posts in public archive
http://www.sf complex.org Santa Fe Complex
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No
I'm sure that everyone remembers the McDonald's class-action lawsuit from a few years ago; if you don't, then you've been co-habitating the underside of a rock. Somehow, a group of Americans gathered their funds together and decided to lay legal blame for their corpulent bulk to quintessential capitalist corporation of the century. I can almost hear the CourtTV testimonies now, had they actually been allowed to go down:
"Yes, Your Honor, you could say that I was commanded by the cheezy smile of that red-haired man sitting right over there to shove fistfuls of fries, unwillingly, I might add, down my engorged throat."
Please.
Ameri ca, this is the land of the free and the home of the brave. Did I mention the land of the free? Yes, you can vote for you like, pray what you like, assemble where you like, and, yes, consume what you like. You can, literally, have your cake and eat it too.
One of the characteristics that identifies this generation of America is that we are not the hard-nosed and self-critical patrons that our parents were. We are a society that, for one reason or another, has sunk to the murky depths of entitlement and lack of personal responsibility, and any sight of the surface is but an image in our memories. As it stands currently, smokers are not to blame for their lung cancer, morbidly obese citizens are not to blame for their lack of self-control, reckless women are not to blame for the abortions they might require, and parents who don't know the meaning of discipline are not to blame for their "ADHD" son or daughter whose behavior cannot be tamed.
Fighting the urge to get technical in this article, I'd just like to skim over some known truths about the food supply in general. Red meat has been linked to an increase in cholesterol and heart disease. Salt has been linked to an increase in blood pressure. Diets high in certain kinds of fish have been linked to birth defects. Diets high in sugar have been linked to obesity, and obesity has been linked to a multitude of health problems, the most severe perhaps heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. In fact, anything in excessively gross amounts can probably be linked to cancer. It should become apparent, without me needing to exhaust my resources in doing any google-ing that someone else's fingers could not do, that so-called "dangerous substances" in our food exist and have existed for quite some time - especially in the kinds of food that Americans are know the world over for loving. Hey Mister, put down that twinkie - that's cancer-in-a-stick.
If you're really all that concerned with what's going into your body, as far as food is concerned, I have a novel idea for you: "Stop eating out for the 7-10 meals a week that the average American eats."
I really love how we so readily blame the "big bad government" for all of our problems. I come from the so-called "beginning of Appalachia," I can tell anyone with full honesty that there's more choices in food stamps than there are grains of sand on any given beach. It's not that we have to eat Taco Bell home taco kits with the genetically-altered yellow and white corn, it's that we choose to. It's not that we have to stuff our children silly with fattening macaroni and hot dogs, it's that we're too lazy to take the hour it would require to make a vegetable stew. It's not that we have to polish off the entire bag of potato chips in one sitting, it's just that we don't want to stop. I see a pattern emerging.
Buyer beware - the government will not be at fault for your stupidity, laziness, or cowardice. Read the ingredients label on that can of spam the next time you get the chance. If you don't like what's going into your body, you have the power to change it. Maybe next time you'll be a little more careful when you go grocery shopping. Or maybe you'll cut down on your visits to Applebee's. Hey, go to extremes if you like. Sell the ferrari and the estate with the four tennis courts. Buy a farm. Grow your own garden. Raise your own cattle. Milk your own cows. If you think that the food industry is trying to poison its own patrons, then you're probably right, and that's the danger in living in a capitalistic society. We, however, are not cattle. That thing behind your forehead? It's not just there to prevent your ears from collapsing inwards on your head. This is what separates man from his animals counterparts, man's ability to think.
Of course, Pepperidge farm is not going to throw decayed uranium into their batch of Goldfish. That's just not going to pass regulations. But maybe they'll start baking their milano cookies with artificial sweetener, which has been linked to cancer but has not been yet banned by the FDA. Do your homework. Pick up the box and read before you toss it carelessly into your cart. A good rule of thumb to live by, as my 83 year-old grandfather still swears by to this day: the farther from the ground it came, the worse it probably is for you.
You know, steamed broccoli doesn't taste as good as a big mac. It doesn't mean I can't choose the broccoli, though.
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