I touched a bit on excitotoxins in the article, but decided to leave that for another one if there was enough interest. The major issue is that the biggest proponent of the excitotxin theory is Blaylock (based on some initial ideas from JW Olney). I do not see Blaylock as being at all credible and it was actually during the research for the article that I first stumbled on upon that idea.
By far most people are worried about the formaldehyde and mood/headache effects, so that's what I ended up reducing the article to.
Read the whole article.
Re:Aspartame and formaldehyde
by Daniel_Newby on Monday June 14, 2010 @08:04AM
(#1429440)
Probably not. Human and animal tests have been conducted with enormous doses and no obvious brain damage turned up. It does cause neurological changes, including migraines, in some people, but that is probably because the molecule resembles several neurotransmitters. That's quite common with molecules that resemble neurotransmitters.
But what about the excitotoxic effects? I've heard aspartame excites nerve cells in the brain in unusually increased levels which eventually causes the cells to burst and die. How about the truth on that?