MS PERSPECTIVES: Diet Soda and MS

By Ed Lash

Editor’s Note: This column in the print edition of Action prompted some readers to believe, incorrectly, that we endorse the view expressed in the e-mail cited in the second through fifth paragraphs. To be clear, neither Action nor United Spinal Association supports the claim that aspartame “causes” multiple sclerosis or has any adverse effect on that specific condition. For more information about the safety of aspartame, please go here.

While the aspartame–MS connection has been sufficiently debunked, the article cites two peer-reviewed studies that seem to show a correlation between diet soda and a non-MS–related health problem called metabolic syndrome. Please read the column for more information on that correlation.

Recently I received a shocking e-mail about diet soda and multiple sclerosis (MS). Be sure to read this one all the way through.

It said: “My sister started getting very sick. She had stomach spasms and was having a hard time getting around. To walk was a major chore. It took everything she had just to get out of bed because she was in so much pain. She had undergone biopsies and was on 24 various prescription medications. The doctors could not figure out what was wrong with her. She was in so much pain and so sick, she felt she was dying.

“She put her house, bank accounts, life insurance, etc., in her oldest daughter’s name, and made sure her younger children were to be with her oldest daughter. She wanted her last hoorah, so she planned a trip to Florida (basically in a wheelchair) on March 22nd. On March 19th I called her to ask how her tests went, and she said they didn’t find anything on the test, but they believe she had MS. I thought, ‘OH MY’. Then I recalled an article a friend of mine mailed to me, and I asked her, ‘Do you drink diet pop?’ She told me yes. As a matter of fact she was ready to crack one open at that moment. I told her not to open it and stop drinking the diet pop. I mailed her an article on that subject.

“She called me within 32 hours after our phone conversation and told me she stopped drinking the diet pop, and she can walk and she went up the stairs. The muscle spasms also went away. She said she didn’t feel 100% well, but sure felt a lot better. She also told me she was going to her doctor with the article I sent her and would call me when she got back home.

“When she called me, she said her doctor was amazed. He was going to call all of his MS patients to find out if they consumed artificial sweetener. In a nutshell, she was being poisoned by the aspartame in the diet soda, dying a slow death. If it says ‘SUGAR FREE’ on the label, DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! DON’T TAKE IT!”

In my own case, long before I was diagnosed with MS in 1969, I gave up drinking diet soda or using artificial sweeteners because it left a bad taste in my mouth. What caused my MS attack? That will be part of my next column.

When I first read the above e-mail, it was the first I heard about this subject and I thought it was more about allergy. Shortly thereafter, I read a newspaper article on the same subject, but not about MS in particular. It was entitled “Diet Soda Takes a Hit” by Maura Lerner, Scripps Howard News Service. It told about University of Minnesota researchers who found red meat, fried foods and diet soda to raise the risk of developing metabolic syndrome, a condition that negatively affects a number of parts of the body and is increasingly seen as a major health problem, including diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

Last year, a Boston University study found that diet soda raised the risk of metabolic syndrome by nearly 50 percent. But, the authors of the study said, it wasn’t likely that anything in the soda caused the risk. Rather it was the effect daily intake of diet soda seemed to have on “dietary patterns,” possibly making consumers of it more likely to crave and satisfy their cravings for other more fattening sweets.

As for aspartame’s effects on MS, the controversy still rages. For as many articles as you might read arguing in favor of a link, you’ll find an equal number arguing the opposite. On the one hand, Dr. Russell Blaylock, a retired neurosurgeon, argues in his book Excitoxins: The Taste That Kills that aspartame breaks down in the body into chemicals that can dangerously interfere with neuronal activity. But, according to the FDA’s website: “David Hattan, Ph.D., of FDA’s division of health effects evaluation, says there is no ‘credible evidence,’ to support…a link between aspartame and multiple sclerosis or systemic lupus. ‘Both of these disorders are subject to spontaneous remissions and exacerbation,’ says Hattan. ‘So it is entirely possible that when patients stopped using aspartame they might also coincidentally have had remission of their symptoms.’”

The likely cause of MS is considered to be a combination of complex factors which include genetics, environmental influences, probably early childhood diseases, and possibly other unknown factors. But rather than using the word “cause,” many authorities suggest that this combination gives us a predisposition for MS. Having a predisposition for MS, however, does not necessarily mean that a person will get MS. In order for MS to manifest itself, an additional precipitating factor or factors need to be present. This precipitating factor can be called a “trigger.” Stresses, such as concurrent illness, fatigue, severe losses, physical trauma, allergic reaction, undue fatigue, psychological stress.

Just be sure to take good care of yourself. And if it says “sugar free” or “diet” on the label, think carefully about it before you drink it. Remember, whether or not it affects your MS, it undoubtedly affects your health. Why not have a nice, cold, healthy glass of water instead?

Note: Self-help is not intended to replace medical treatment, but should be used together with the help of all appropriate professionals in a team effort.

Ed Lash is a United Spinal member who lives in Trumbull, Connecticut. For more information, or to order his book (Multiple Sclerosis – A Patient’s View) call 203-445-0118 or by e-mail: elash@unitedspinal.org.