First regarding comments about Dr. John Olney, here is the Report For 
Schools:  http://www.mpwhi.com/report_on_aspartame_and_children.htm 
These are articles by the experts and toward the end you will see Dr. 
Olney’s original study which showed that aspartic acid, 40% of the 
aspartame molecule, caused holes in the brains of mice.  This is why 
Dr. Olney tried to prevent approval.

Here is a letter to the National Federation of the Blind  of Hawaii I 
wrote containing many of the articles by Dr. Morgan Raiford and Dr. 
H. J. Roberts.  Also go to www.dorway.com  under Doctors Speak 
Out  and pick up the article with Dr. H. J. Roberts name on it called 
“What’s Blinding the World”.

Also be alerted that Ajinomoto changed the name of aspartame to 
AminoSweet which is very deceiving because its the free methyl 
alcohol in aspartame that sweetens the toxin.

Also, the first weekend after Labor Day is Aspartame Awareness 
Weekend.  I will have a flyer ready soon, but a good project for the 
weekend is to email this letter to ophthalmologists, optometrists and 
organizations having to do with aspartame.
[]
[]

Regards, Betty
www.mpwhi.com, www.dorway.com, www.wnho.net
Aspartame Toxicity Center, www.holisticmed.com/aspartame

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND OF HAWAII – ASPARTAME AND VISION

Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum.
Mission Possible World Health International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
Telephone: 770-242-2599
E-Mail: <mailto:BettyM19@mindspring.com>BettyM19@mindspring.com

Posted: 31 December 2008

From: Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum., Bettym19@mindspring.com
To: rwhite.zis@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:18:10 -0500
Subject: National Federation of the Blind of Hawaii – Aspartame and Vision

Dear Ronalene,

I’ve notified the webmaster to take care of the issue you mentioned below.

I’m particularly happy that you wrote because it gives me the 
opportunity to explain the effect of NutraSweet on vision. You’re in 
a position to help a lot of people regain their sight if they are 
using aspartame (Equal/Spoonful/NutraSweet/E951/Canderel, etc.).

You may remember that during prohibition thousands went blind or died 
on wood alcohol. This is what is in aspartame. It’s a methyl ester 
which immediately becomes methanol or wood alcohol, and then converts 
to formaldehyde and formic acid in the retina of the eye and destroys 
the optic nerve. The medical text, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored 
Epidemic by H. J. Roberts, M.D., 
<http://www.sunsentpress.com>http://www.sunsentpress.com has a 
chapter on the eyes and goes through the many eye problems triggered 
by this deadly excitoneurotoxin from optic neuritis to macular 
degeneration to blindness.

On the show you may remember I spoke about an organic market that 
decided to help the effort by giving out thousands and thousands of 
free 16 page booklets titled “Killer Kola”. At least 2000 people a 
day shopped there and a booklet was added to each bag. Some people 
came in and got handfuls of them. A couple of months later I opened 
the door and a woman fell in my arms crying “I was blind and now I 
can see.” I didn’t even have my address in the magazine. The owner 
called that day and said, “You’re not going to believe what is going 
on down here. People are coming in by the thousands, calling and 
faxing, that they got off aspartame after reading the magazine and 
have woken up well from medical problems they had for years. Many had 
gone to physicians who couldn’t diagnose their problems.”

I went down to their establishment and the owner’s wife handed me a 
stack of papers and said: “Someone came in and said to give these to 
you. Dr. Morgan Raiford before he died said if anyone actually does 
something to get aspartame off the market see that they receive 
these.” Dr. Morgan Raiford was an ophthalmologist in Atlanta and “the 
specialist in methanol toxicity”. He owned the Atlanta Eye Hospital 
which is still here under a different name. He died some years ago. 
In one of his papers he mentioned that if vision was in the “wet 
stage” it can return if the victim is warned in time. Over the years 
I’ve seen so many regain their sight because we got to them in time. 
In fact, I was on a TV Talk Show in Texas with Mary Reiff, an 
aspartame victim. She was using aspartame and having seizures. One 
day because of the seizures she wrecked her car and ended up in the 
hospital. Eventually she was declared legally blind. Off aspartame 
the seizures stopped. I had her on the show about a year later and 
her vision had been restored.

Joyce Wilson is another woman who went blind on aspartame, suffered 
methanol toxicity, diagnosed with MS and eventually died like an 
Alzheimer’s victim. It was simply too late for her. In fact, I 
inherited her records. She was Aspartame Victims and Their Friends of 
Georgia. This is why I have spent 17 years warning the world. It’s so 
important to warn aspartame victims in time to save them.

Here are a couple of Dr. Morgan Raiford’s records:

May 20, 1987: FACTS ABOUT ASPARTAME

The above product is also manufactured as NutraSweet. This 
pharmological spin-off is as highly profitable item, with a growing 
market. These products are used as a sweetener, some 200 times as 
sweet as regular cane sugar.

This product has some highly toxic reactions in the human visual 
pathway and we are beginning to observe the tragic damage to the 
OPTIC NERVE, such as blindness, partial to total OPTIC NERVE ATROPHY. 
Once this destructive process has developed there is no return of 
visual restoration. We are beginning to see and observe another toxic 
reaction, which affects the central nervous system which is related 
to PHENYLALANINE LEVELS IN THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. These 
observations are more vague, however, it stimulates the damaging to 
the brain and the central nervous system, having the manifestations 
as PKU NEURO DAMAGE. Over 3000 cases have been reported and the FDA 
to date has ignored this existence.

HUMAN VISUAL PATHWAY DAMAGE

The human visual pathway admits ninety percent of our intellectual 
input to the brain and central nervous system. All of the learning 
processes are centered during ones life time. The mechanism of this 
tragic damage to the human visual system from this product is and has 
been known for over a decade that visual loss takes place. When this 
drug enters the digestive tract, largely the upper portion, this 
ASPARTAME molecule spins off a by product known as METHANOL or 
METHYL-ALCOHOL. This product enters the blood stream and when these 
portions reach the highly metabolic region of the OPTIC NERVE AND 
RETINA, PARTIAL ATROPHY CAN AND DOES TAKE PLACE. The vision can not 
do without oxygen and nutrition for more than ninety seconds without 
revealing some damage. Total loss of vision is present and there is 
no return. In the very early stages in which is referred to as the 
“wet stage”, treatment can be given and will reserve the destructive 
pathology to the OPTIC NERVE and RETINA. This must be in the mind of 
the physician and he must understand the chemical ongoing process. 
The writer has seen many cases where the patent was allowed to go to 
the degrees of blindness, as this diagnosis of OPTIC NEURITIS was 
rendered, as the term IDIOPATHIC NEURITIS OF OPTIC NERVE was given, 
usually steroids until systemic gross body and facial moon developed.

This therapy has demonstrated the total lack of understanding of the 
basic lack of BIO-CHEMICAL PHYSIOLOGY AT THE MOLECULAR LEVEL.

The variability or onset of the OPTIC NERVE ATROPHY is of a type that 
one must first think of this pathology, and it requires a certain 
amount of listening to the patient. The quantity of symptoms vary 
with each patient.

Over the past year the writer has observed the fact that any portion 
of the central nervous system can and is affected. Since the chemical 
PHENYLALANINE is mixed up with some metabolic mess, we have seen 
symptoms of varying hue in the extremities, sensations of dullness of 
the intellect, visual shadows, evidence of word structure reversing 
and somehearing impairment is noted by the individual. This can and 
will in time cause problems in learning. The medical community must 
alert itself that we have a problem that has surfaced due to the 
factor of the drug industry. Parents must be alerted to the side 
reactions of this toxic product and its reactions.

Sincerely,

Morgan B. Raiford, M.D. D.Sc (Med) OPHTHALMOLOGY

________________________________________

Article 2:

Letter to Shannon Roth dated 10/10/86 which further explains vision 
problems due to aspartame:

“Dear Shannon:

The first time that I had the opportunity to see the effects of 
methyl alcohol toxicity was in the years 1952-1953 that resulted 
visual damage to the optic nerves and retina in over 300 cases and 
death of over 30 persons.

In the cases of the use of Aspartame the loss of vision varied, first 
affection to the optic nerve fibers from loss of vision and atrophy 
of the optic nerve fibers. The central fibers (225,000) of the total 
(137,000,000) optic nerve fibers resulted in partial the extent of 
total blindness. (see enclosed paper on the Macula physiology, a 
paper that I presented in Houston, Texas, and Outline of the Macula 
function.) The macula area of the retina and optic nerve fibers are 
highly reactive to the toxicity of methyl alcohol because of these 
fibers and nerve cells require from four to six times as much oxygen 
and nutrition and the visual pathways peripheral nerves. These fibers 
and nerves (Tods and Cones) can not go without oxygen for more than 
90 seconds without some visual loss. Aspartame is broken down by the 
upper portion of the digestive tract and methyl alcohol is then 
absorbed into the blood vessels of the region which travels through 
the bodies entire vascular system. This toxic effect causes extensive 
damage to the highly demanding metabolic requirements of the human 
visual pathway, ending with optic nerve atrophy as well as retinal 
starvation and visual loss.

The intensity of these toxic effects from the methyl alcohol spin-off 
causes impaired nerve damage that varies with intensity as to the 
amount of methyl alcohol the individual absorbs.

Beyond the extensive visual damage that aspartame can and does 
create, other organ systems are affected. Nerve damage to the arms, 
legs, central nerve impairment, resulting in impaired nerve function 
as well as neurosis and learning difficulties in school work as well 
as behavior(metabolic short circuits of the nerve/brain/visual cells)

The pressure put upon the Federal Drug Administration are well known. 
The Searle people are more interested in their greed factor of profits.

I have been told that this toxic methyl alcohol of aspartame has a 
market value of over $45,000,000. The human factor is being ignored 
and the moral is not presented.

This product Aspartame should be withdrawn from the market place and 
not for human use until the TOXIC METHYL ALCOHOL radical has been 
eliminated. Methyl alcohol has no place in a product, whole or in 
part, to be allowed to be produced by any manufacturer for human usage.

Sincerely, Morgan B. Raiford, M.D., D.Sc. (Med) Ophth

________________________________________

Here is another article you can read: “What’s Blinding The World”: 
<http://www.dorway.com/blinding.txt>http://www.dorway.com/blinding.txt

In l986 the Community Nutrition Institute in Washington, D.C. 
petitioned to have aspartame banned because so many people were going 
blind and having seizures. Here is an article from the Chicago Sun Times:

Subject: NUTRASWEET/BLINDNESS, Chi-Sun Times

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, Friday, October 17, 1986

Consumer group links NutraSweet to blindness
By William Hines
Chief, Washington Bureau
Chicago Sun-Times

Ban artificial sweetener, FDA is urged

WASHINGTON – Charging that aspartame – the widely used artificial 
sweetener marketed as NutraSweet – causes blindness, a consumer group 
yesterday petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to ban it.

The petition was another step in a long and so far fruitless campaign 
by the Washington based Community Nutrition Institute against 
aspartame, which also is sold in stores under the name Equal.

Three women who said their eyesight was seriously damaged or 
destroyed joined in the citizens’ petition to the FDA, which they 
asked “to expeditiously remove [the] product from the market without 
an administrative hearing.”

At a press conference called by the institute to announce this 
imminent-hazard petition, two of the women told of heavy use of 
aspartame-sweetened products and said their doctors had advised them 
the sugar substitute was the cause of their sight loss.

The NutraSweet Co., of Skokie, Ill., a subsidiary of Searle & Co., 
brushed off the institute’s complaint as “simply another round in 
their repeated efforts to gain publicity for their thoroughly 
discredited views on aspartame.”

A Washington-based group called the International Food Information 
Council said through its executive director, Thomas E. Stenzel, the 
allegations “that aspartame causes various side effects are not based 
on any scientific data or controlled clinical studies.”

James S. Turner, a Washington lawyer representing the Community 
Nutrition Institute in the petition, said the eye damage to the women 
named in the complaint was “a direct, causally related event to their 
consumption of NutraSweet.”

Both heavy users

Both women, Dana Cozad of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Joyce Wilson of 
Stockbridge, Ga., described themselves as heavy users of the sweetener.

Wilson, a real estate agent, said she no longer can take sales 
prospects to see property because her vision does not permit her to drive.

“It has cost me a lot, and I really want the public to know what a 
dangerous product it is,” Wilson said.

Cozad said that vision loss struck her suddenly in the right eye 
while she was driving home and that lengthy surgery and other sight- 
saving efforts followed.

She said vision is gone in that eye, and – after she has spent 13 
months on an aspartame-free diet – the condition of the left eye 
“remains relatively stable.”

Both women said their physicians had ruled out causes other than 
aspartame for their sight loss.

Methyl alcohol blamed

Dr. H. J. Roberts of West Palm Beach, Fla., said methyl alcohol is a 
component of aspartame and is responsible for vision damage, which he 
termed “the most serious complication” of those arising from aspartame use.

Aspartame, which is described as a “natural” product, contains two 
amino acids, phenylalanine and aspartic acid, which are components of 
protein. Under certain storage conditions, the sweetener breaks down 
in part and methyl alcohol is a byproduct.

Roberts said the visual reaction to methyl alcohol in heavy users of 
aspartame is the same as in drinkers of moonshine whiskey in 
Prohibition days: “They go blind.”

Of 360 patients he has diagnosed as having aspartame-related 
problems, Roberts said, about one-fourth had decreased vision or 
blindness, nearly half had severe headaches and substantial numbers 
had epileptic seizures, confusion or memory loss, extreme depression 
and marked personality change.

At FDA headquarters in Rockville, Md., spokesman William Grigg said 
the petition had been received but not yet studied.

Grigg recalled that Turner filed several interventions against 
aspartame in the past, none of which received favorable FDA action.

________________________________________

I’m sure the National Federation of the Blind have publications and 
if you could get the information far and wide a lot of people could 
regain their site. Unfortunately, aspartame is pushed on diabetics so 
when they lose their vision their physicians believe its due to 
diabetes when, in fact, its due to NutraSweet. In fact, aspartame 
actually can precipitate diabetes, simulates and aggravates diabetic 
retinopathy and neuropathy, destroys the optic nerve, causes 
diabetics to go into convulsions and even interacts with insulin. 
Diabetics are losing their limbs because of the free methyl alcohol. 
<http://dorway.com/dorwblog/?page_id=589>http://dorway.com/dorwblog/?page_id=589 
The aspartame industry uses ludicrous excuses for the free methyl 
alcohol like there is more methanol in oranges than in aspartame. 
What they don’t say is that in nature in fruits and vegetables 
methanol is always accompanied by ethanol, the antidote for methanol 
toxicity. Here is the journal article about it: Aspartame: Methanol 
and the Public Health by Dr. Woodrow Monte: 
<http://dorway.com/dorwblog/?page_id=1000>http://dorway.com/dorwblog/?page_id=1000 
Also, methanol binds to pectin in nature. Dr. Roberts has written 
many letters to the FDA about the “free” and unbound methanol in 
aspartame and they refuse to answer. Remember that the FDA gets over 
50% of their funds from Big Pharma. The IFIC mentioned in the Chicago 
article defending the manufacturer is a notorious front group.

Incidentally, it has been reported from an organization in Hawaii 
that an informant from Pfizer said that Dilantin had been 
reformulated and contains aspartame unlabeled. Dilantin is used for 
seizures and aspartame is a seizure triggering drug. The information 
we have received is that people in Hawaii are having more seizures on 
the drug and aspartame symptoms such as vision problems and male 
sexual dysfunction.

While the FDA is now simply Big Pharma’s Washington Branch Office, it 
wasn’t always that way. The FDA themselves tried to have the original 
manufacturer of Searle indicted for fraud but both US Prosecutors 
hired on with the defense team and the statute of limitations 
expired. Then they revoked the petition for approval. Don Rumsfeld 
was CEO of Searle and said he would call in his markers and get it on 
the market anyway. He did this through political chicanery and its 
discussed in the aspartame documentary, Sweet Misery: A Poisoned 
World, <http://www.soundandfury.tv>http://www.soundandfury.tv

Over 30 years ago, FDA toxicologist Dr. Jacqueline Verrett, who also 
testified to Congress that aspartame has never been proven safe, 
wrote the book Eating May Be Hazardous To Your Health: The Case 
Against Food Additives. Even then she summed up by saying, “What can 
be done to restore to consumers their right to safe food regardless 
of economic and political interests? . . . Probably the best 
solution, as some members of Congress have suggested, is to abolish 
the FDA and start over with a completely new agency free of some of 
the political pressures. . . . When science and the public interest 
win out, it is invariably only after the government has been pushed 
to the wall by consumer advocates and other public pressure.”

The FDA is responsible for every case of blindness due to aspartame 
because they know it blinds and refused to ban it when they were 
petitioned to do so for that reason. When those responsible to solve 
the problem ARE the PROBLEM, its a sad commentary. Dr. James Bowen 
told the FDA over 20 years ago: “..The only responsible action would 
be to immediately take aspartame off the market, fully disclose its 
toxicities, offer full compensation to the injured, public and 
criminally prosecute anyone who participated in the fraudulent 
placement of aspartame on the marketplace.” Imagine the millions of 
people worldwide who suffer blindness or vision impairments who could 
see again or improve their sight if they only knew to get off aspartame!

Thank you so much for calling in to the program and getting in touch. 
If I can ever help please let me know. You have the ability to help 
in many ways, publishing to get consumers off aspartame in time and 
regain their sight, and working to get Hawaiian legislators to get 
involved , sponsor the resolution and bill to ban aspartame, so the 
beautiful Hawaiian islands will be free of this deadly addictive 
excitoneurotoxic carcinogenic drug. Your organization can make a 
difference. I’ll send you a list by separate email. You can also make 
the aspartame documentary available to your organization, to those 
who can see it, Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World, 
<http://www.sunsentpress.com>http://www.sunsentpress.com because it 
tells the whole story of how this poison got marketed for human 
consumption. For those on aspartame, neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, 
MD’s detox program is 
<http://www.wnho.net/wtdaspartame.htm>www.wnho.net/wtdaspartame.htm 
His excellent books are listed on the bottom.

For those needing a sweetener, there is a safe one called Just Like 
Sugar, 
<http://www.justlikesugarinc.com>http://www.justlikesugarinc.com and 
its available in Whole Foods in Hawaii. It’s made of chicory which 
has been used for 70 years to improve the health of diabetics, and 
orange peel, Vitamin C and Calcium. Dr. Russell Blaylock wrote in his 
newsletter, The Blaylock Wellness Report, “Finally a safe sweetener.”

All my best,

Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum.
Founder, Mission Possible World Health International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
770-242-2599
E-Mail: <mailto:BettyM19@mindspring.com>BettyM19@mindspring.com
http://www.wpwhi.com
<http://www.wnho.net>http://www.wnho.net
http://www.dorway.com

Aspartame Toxicity Center: 
<http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame>http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame

—–Original Message—–
From: R White, rwhite.zis@gmail.com
Sent: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 6:16 pm
Subject: MPWHI website

Aloha! ;)

Thanks for the great show! ;)

I guess I communicate better in writing than on the air….

Could you please forward this e-mail to the appropriate person? Thanks! ;)

Sincerely,

Ronalene White

Aloha! ;)

Thanks for sharing all the great information about Aspertame on 
KIPO’s Town Square! ;)

I was the caller who commented that there was an easy way to make the 
MPWHI website accessible to blind & visually impaired visitors.

Y’all have a lot of graphic links on the website. Please ask 
yourwebmaster to add the text on the graphic to the image’s “alt” 
attribute. For example, if one of your graphic links is a “Contact 
Us” button, s/he would add that text to the image’s “alt” attribute. 
This text would appear if someone moves their mouse over the graphic 
button, but it would also be read by the text-to-speech screen 
readers used by many blind & visually impaired people.

This is a much easier fix than converting the graphic links to text links….

Again, thank you for the great on-air info & I look forward to 
reading your online info! ;)

Sincerely,

Ronalene White
Anuenue Chapter Vice-President
National Federation of the Blind of Hawaii

From: Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum., Bettym19@mindspring.com
To: rwhite.zis@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:18:10 -0500
Subject: National Federation of the Blind of Hawaii – Aspartame and Vision

Dear Ronalene,

I’ve notified the webmaster to take care of the issue you mentioned below.

I’m particularly happy that you wrote because it gives me the 
opportunity to explain the effect of NutraSweet on vision. You’re in 
a position to help a lot of people regain their sight if they are 
using aspartame (Equal/Spoonful/NutraSweet/E951/Canderel, etc.).

You may remember that during prohibition thousands went blind or died 
on wood alcohol. This is what is in aspartame. It’s a methyl ester 
which immediately becomes methanol or wood alcohol, and then converts 
to formaldehyde and formic acid in the retina of the eye and destroys 
the optic nerve. The medical text, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored 
Epidemic by H. J. Roberts, M.D., 
<http://www.sunsentpress.com>http://www.sunsentpress.com has a 
chapter on the eyes and goes through the many eye problems triggered 
by this deadly excitoneurotoxin from optic neuritis to macular 
degeneration to blindness.

On the show you may remember I spoke about an organic market that 
decided to help the effort by giving out thousands and thousands of 
free 16 page booklets titled “Killer Kola”. At least 2000 people a 
day shopped there and a booklet was added to each bag. Some people 
came in and got handfuls of them. A couple of months later I opened 
the door and a woman fell in my arms crying “I was blind and now I 
can see.” I didn’t even have my address in the magazine. The owner 
called that day and said, “You’re not going to believe what is going 
on down here. People are coming in by the thousands, calling and 
faxing, that they got off aspartame after reading the magazine and 
have woken up well from medical problems they had for years. Many had 
gone to physicians who couldn’t diagnose their problems.”

I went down to their establishment and the owner’s wife handed me a 
stack of papers and said: “Someone came in and said to give these to 
you. Dr. Morgan Raiford before he died said if anyone actually does 
something to get aspartame off the market see that they receive 
these.” Dr. Morgan Raiford was an ophthalmologist in Atlanta and “the 
specialist in methanol toxicity”. He owned the Atlanta Eye Hospital 
which is still here under a different name. He died some years ago. 
In one of his papers he mentioned that if vision was in the “wet 
stage” it can return if the victim is warned in time. Over the years 
I’ve seen so many regain their sight because we got to them in time. 
In fact, I was on a TV Talk Show in Texas with Mary Reiff, an 
aspartame victim. She was using aspartame and having seizures. One 
day because of the seizures she wrecked her car and ended up in the 
hospital. Eventually she was declared legally blind. Off aspartame 
the seizures stopped. I had her on the show about a year later and 
her vision had been restored.

Joyce Wilson is another woman who went blind on aspartame, suffered 
methanol toxicity, diagnosed with MS and eventually died like an 
Alzheimer’s victim. It was simply too late for her. In fact, I 
inherited her records. She was Aspartame Victims and Their Friends of 
Georgia. This is why I have spent 17 years warning the world. It’s so 
important to warn aspartame victims in time to save them.

Here are a couple of Dr. Morgan Raiford’s records:

May 20, 1987: FACTS ABOUT ASPARTAME

The above product is also manufactured as NutraSweet. This 
pharmological spin-off is as highly profitable item, with a growing 
market. These products are used as a sweetener, some 200 times as 
sweet as regular cane sugar.

This product has some highly toxic reactions in the human visual 
pathway and we are beginning to observe the tragic damage to the 
OPTIC NERVE, such as blindness, partial to total OPTIC NERVE ATROPHY. 
Once this destructive process has developed there is no return of 
visual restoration. We are beginning to see and observe another toxic 
reaction, which affects the central nervous system which is related 
to PHENYLALANINE LEVELS IN THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. These 
observations are more vague, however, it stimulates the damaging to 
the brain and the central nervous system, having the manifestations 
as PKU NEURO DAMAGE. Over 3000 cases have been reported and the FDA 
to date has ignored this existence.

HUMAN VISUAL PATHWAY DAMAGE

The human visual pathway admits ninety percent of our intellectual 
input to the brain and central nervous system. All of the learning 
processes are centered during ones life time. The mechanism of this 
tragic damage to the human visual system from this product is and has 
been known for over a decade that visual loss takes place. When this 
drug enters the digestive tract, largely the upper portion, this 
ASPARTAME molecule spins off a by product known as METHANOL or 
METHYL-ALCOHOL. This product enters the blood stream and when these 
portions reach the highly metabolic region of the OPTIC NERVE AND 
RETINA, PARTIAL ATROPHY CAN AND DOES TAKE PLACE. The vision can not 
do without oxygen and nutrition for more than ninety seconds without 
revealing some damage. Total loss of vision is present and there is 
no return. In the very early stages in which is referred to as the 
“wet stage”, treatment can be given and will reserve the destructive 
pathology to the OPTIC NERVE and RETINA. This must be in the mind of 
the physician and he must understand the chemical ongoing process. 
The writer has seen many cases where the patent was allowed to go to 
the degrees of blindness, as this diagnosis of OPTIC NEURITIS was 
rendered, as the term IDIOPATHIC NEURITIS OF OPTIC NERVE was given, 
usually steroids until systemic gross body and facial moon developed.

This therapy has demonstrated the total lack of understanding of the 
basic lack of BIO-CHEMICAL PHYSIOLOGY AT THE MOLECULAR LEVEL.

The variability or onset of the OPTIC NERVE ATROPHY is of a type that 
one must first think of this pathology, and it requires a certain 
amount of listening to the patient. The quantity of symptoms vary 
with each patient.

Over the past year the writer has observed the fact that any portion 
of the central nervous system can and is affected. Since the chemical 
PHENYLALANINE is mixed up with some metabolic mess, we have seen 
symptoms of varying hue in the extremities, sensations of dullness of 
the intellect, visual shadows, evidence of word structure reversing 
and somehearing impairment is noted by the individual. This can and 
will in time cause problems in learning. The medical community must 
alert itself that we have a problem that has surfaced due to the 
factor of the drug industry. Parents must be alerted to the side 
reactions of this toxic product and its reactions.

Sincerely,

Morgan B. Raiford, M.D. D.Sc (Med) OPHTHALMOLOGY

________________________________________

Article 2:

Letter to Shannon Roth dated 10/10/86 which further explains vision 
problems due to aspartame:

“Dear Shannon:

The first time that I had the opportunity to see the effects of 
methyl alcohol toxicity was in the years 1952-1953 that resulted 
visual damage to the optic nerves and retina in over 300 cases and 
death of over 30 persons.

In the cases of the use of Aspartame the loss of vision varied, first 
affection to the optic nerve fibers from loss of vision and atrophy 
of the optic nerve fibers. The central fibers (225,000) of the total 
(137,000,000) optic nerve fibers resulted in partial the extent of 
total blindness. (see enclosed paper on the Macula physiology, a 
paper that I presented in Houston, Texas, and Outline of the Macula 
function.) The macula area of the retina and optic nerve fibers are 
highly reactive to the toxicity of methyl alcohol because of these 
fibers and nerve cells require from four to six times as much oxygen 
and nutrition and the visual pathways peripheral nerves. These fibers 
and nerves (Tods and Cones) can not go without oxygen for more than 
90 seconds without some visual loss. Aspartame is broken down by the 
upper portion of the digestive tract and methyl alcohol is then 
absorbed into the blood vessels of the region which travels through 
the bodies entire vascular system. This toxic effect causes extensive 
damage to the highly demanding metabolic requirements of the human 
visual pathway, ending with optic nerve atrophy as well as retinal 
starvation and visual loss.

The intensity of these toxic effects from the methyl alcohol spin-off 
causes impaired nerve damage that varies with intensity as to the 
amount of methyl alcohol the individual absorbs.

Beyond the extensive visual damage that aspartame can and does 
create, other organ systems are affected. Nerve damage to the arms, 
legs, central nerve impairment, resulting in impaired nerve function 
as well as neurosis and learning difficulties in school work as well 
as behavior(metabolic short circuits of the nerve/brain/visual cells)

The pressure put upon the Federal Drug Administration are well known. 
The Searle people are more interested in their greed factor of profits.

I have been told that this toxic methyl alcohol of aspartame has a 
market value of over $45,000,000. The human factor is being ignored 
and the moral is not presented.

This product Aspartame should be withdrawn from the market place and 
not for human use until the TOXIC METHYL ALCOHOL radical has been 
eliminated. Methyl alcohol has no place in a product, whole or in 
part, to be allowed to be produced by any manufacturer for human usage.

Sincerely, Morgan B. Raiford, M.D., D.Sc. (Med) Ophth

________________________________________

Here is another article you can read: “What’s Blinding The World”: 
<http://www.dorway.com/blinding.txt>http://www.dorway.com/blinding.txt

In l986 the Community Nutrition Institute in Washington, D.C. 
petitioned to have aspartame banned because so many people were going 
blind and having seizures. Here is an article from the Chicago Sun Times:

Subject: NUTRASWEET/BLINDNESS, Chi-Sun Times

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, Friday, October 17, 1986

Consumer group links NutraSweet to blindness
By William Hines
Chief, Washington Bureau
Chicago Sun-Times

Ban artificial sweetener, FDA is urged

WASHINGTON – Charging that aspartame – the widely used artificial 
sweetener marketed as NutraSweet – causes blindness, a consumer group 
yesterday petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to ban it.

The petition was another step in a long and so far fruitless campaign 
by the Washington based Community Nutrition Institute against 
aspartame, which also is sold in stores under the name Equal.

Three women who said their eyesight was seriously damaged or 
destroyed joined in the citizens’ petition to the FDA, which they 
asked “to expeditiously remove [the] product from the market without 
an administrative hearing.”

At a press conference called by the institute to announce this 
imminent-hazard petition, two of the women told of heavy use of 
aspartame-sweetened products and said their doctors had advised them 
the sugar substitute was the cause of their sight loss.

The NutraSweet Co., of Skokie, Ill., a subsidiary of Searle & Co., 
brushed off the institute’s complaint as “simply another round in 
their repeated efforts to gain publicity for their thoroughly 
discredited views on aspartame.”

A Washington-based group called the International Food Information 
Council said through its executive director, Thomas E. Stenzel, the 
allegations “that aspartame causes various side effects are not based 
on any scientific data or controlled clinical studies.”

James S. Turner, a Washington lawyer representing the Community 
Nutrition Institute in the petition, said the eye damage to the women 
named in the complaint was “a direct, causally related event to their 
consumption of NutraSweet.”

Both heavy users

Both women, Dana Cozad of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Joyce Wilson of 
Stockbridge, Ga., described themselves as heavy users of the sweetener.

Wilson, a real estate agent, said she no longer can take sales 
prospects to see property because her vision does not permit her to drive.

“It has cost me a lot, and I really want the public to know what a 
dangerous product it is,” Wilson said.

Cozad said that vision loss struck her suddenly in the right eye 
while she was driving home and that lengthy surgery and other sight- 
saving efforts followed.

She said vision is gone in that eye, and – after she has spent 13 
months on an aspartame-free diet – the condition of the left eye 
“remains relatively stable.”

Both women said their physicians had ruled out causes other than 
aspartame for their sight loss.

Methyl alcohol blamed

Dr. H. J. Roberts of West Palm Beach, Fla., said methyl alcohol is a 
component of aspartame and is responsible for vision damage, which he 
termed “the most serious complication” of those arising from aspartame use.

Aspartame, which is described as a “natural” product, contains two 
amino acids, phenylalanine and aspartic acid, which are components of 
protein. Under certain storage conditions, the sweetener breaks down 
in part and methyl alcohol is a byproduct.

Roberts said the visual reaction to methyl alcohol in heavy users of 
aspartame is the same as in drinkers of moonshine whiskey in 
Prohibition days: “They go blind.”

Of 360 patients he has diagnosed as having aspartame-related 
problems, Roberts said, about one-fourth had decreased vision or 
blindness, nearly half had severe headaches and substantial numbers 
had epileptic seizures, confusion or memory loss, extreme depression 
and marked personality change.

At FDA headquarters in Rockville, Md., spokesman William Grigg said 
the petition had been received but not yet studied.

Grigg recalled that Turner filed several interventions against 
aspartame in the past, none of which received favorable FDA action.

________________________________________

I’m sure the National Federation of the Blind have publications and 
if you could get the information far and wide a lot of people could 
regain their site. Unfortunately, aspartame is pushed on diabetics so 
when they lose their vision their physicians believe its due to 
diabetes when, in fact, its due to NutraSweet. In fact, aspartame 
actually can precipitate diabetes, simulates and aggravates diabetic 
retinopathy and neuropathy, destroys the optic nerve, causes 
diabetics to go into convulsions and even interacts with insulin. 
Diabetics are losing their limbs because of the free methyl alcohol. 
<http://dorway.com/dorwblog/?page_id=589>http://dorway.com/dorwblog/?page_id=589 
The aspartame industry uses ludicrous excuses for the free methyl 
alcohol like there is more methanol in oranges than in aspartame. 
What they don’t say is that in nature in fruits and vegetables 
methanol is always accompanied by ethanol, the antidote for methanol 
toxicity. Here is the journal article about it: Aspartame: Methanol 
and the Public Health by Dr. Woodrow Monte: 
<http://dorway.com/dorwblog/?page_id=1000>http://dorway.com/dorwblog/?page_id=1000 
Also, methanol binds to pectin in nature. Dr. Roberts has written 
many letters to the FDA about the “free” and unbound methanol in 
aspartame and they refuse to answer. Remember that the FDA gets over 
50% of their funds from Big Pharma. The IFIC mentioned in the Chicago 
article defending the manufacturer is a notorious front group.

Incidentally, it has been reported from an organization in Hawaii 
that an informant from Pfizer said that Dilantin had been 
reformulated and contains aspartame unlabeled. Dilantin is used for 
seizures and aspartame is a seizure triggering drug. The information 
we have received is that people in Hawaii are having more seizures on 
the drug and aspartame symptoms such as vision problems and male 
sexual dysfunction.

While the FDA is now simply Big Pharma’s Washington Branch Office, it 
wasn’t always that way. The FDA themselves tried to have the original 
manufacturer of Searle indicted for fraud but both US Prosecutors 
hired on with the defense team and the statute of limitations 
expired. Then they revoked the petition for approval. Don Rumsfeld 
was CEO of Searle and said he would call in his markers and get it on 
the market anyway. He did this through political chicanery and its 
discussed in the aspartame documentary, Sweet Misery: A Poisoned 
World, <http://www.soundandfury.tv>http://www.soundandfury.tv

Over 30 years ago, FDA toxicologist Dr. Jacqueline Verrett, who also 
testified to Congress that aspartame has never been proven safe, 
wrote the book Eating May Be Hazardous To Your Health: The Case 
Against Food Additives. Even then she summed up by saying, “What can 
be done to restore to consumers their right to safe food regardless 
of economic and political interests? . . . Probably the best 
solution, as some members of Congress have suggested, is to abolish 
the FDA and start over with a completely new agency free of some of 
the political pressures. . . . When science and the public interest 
win out, it is invariably only after the government has been pushed 
to the wall by consumer advocates and other public pressure.”

The FDA is responsible for every case of blindness due to aspartame 
because they know it blinds and refused to ban it when they were 
petitioned to do so for that reason. When those responsible to solve 
the problem ARE the PROBLEM, its a sad commentary. Dr. James Bowen 
told the FDA over 20 years ago: “..The only responsible action would 
be to immediately take aspartame off the market, fully disclose its 
toxicities, offer full compensation to the injured, public and 
criminally prosecute anyone who participated in the fraudulent 
placement of aspartame on the marketplace.” Imagine the millions of 
people worldwide who suffer blindness or vision impairments who could 
see again or improve their sight if they only knew to get off aspartame!

Thank you so much for calling in to the program and getting in touch. 
If I can ever help please let me know. You have the ability to help 
in many ways, publishing to get consumers off aspartame in time and 
regain their sight, and working to get Hawaiian legislators to get 
involved , sponsor the resolution and bill to ban aspartame, so the 
beautiful Hawaiian islands will be free of this deadly addictive 
excitoneurotoxic carcinogenic drug. Your organization can make a 
difference. I’ll send you a list by separate email. You can also make 
the aspartame documentary available to your organization, to those 
who can see it, Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World, 
<http://www.sunsentpress.com>http://www.sunsentpress.com because it 
tells the whole story of how this poison got marketed for human 
consumption. For those on aspartame, neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, 
MD’s detox program is 
<http://www.wnho.net/wtdaspartame.htm>www.wnho.net/wtdaspartame.htm 
His excellent books are listed on the bottom.

For those needing a sweetener, there is a safe one called Just Like 
Sugar, 
<http://www.justlikesugarinc.com>http://www.justlikesugarinc.com and 
its available in Whole Foods in Hawaii. It’s made of chicory which 
has been used for 70 years to improve the health of diabetics, and 
orange peel, Vitamin C and Calcium. Dr. Russell Blaylock wrote in his 
newsletter, The Blaylock Wellness Report, “Finally a safe sweetener.”

All my best,

Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum.
Founder, Mission Possible World Health International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
770-242-2599
E-Mail: <mailto:BettyM19@mindspring.com>BettyM19@mindspring.com
http://www.wpwhi.com
<http://www.wnho.net>http://www.wnho.net
http://www.dorway.com

Aspartame Toxicity Center: 
<http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame>http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame

—–Original Message—–

Aloha! ;)

Thanks for sharing all the great information about Aspertame on 
KIPO’s Town Square! ;)

I was the caller who commented that there was an easy way to make the 
MPWHI website accessible to blind & visually impaired visitors.

Y’all have a lot of graphic links on the website. Please ask 
yourwebmaster to add the text on the graphic to the image’s “alt” 
attribute. For example, if one of your graphic links is a “Contact 
Us” button, s/he would add that text to the image’s “alt” attribute. 
This text would appear if someone moves their mouse over the graphic 
button, but it would also be read by the text-to-speech screen 
readers used by many blind & visually impaired people.

This is a much easier fix than converting the graphic links to text links….

Again, thank you for the great on-air info & I look forward to 
reading your online info! ;)

Sincerely,

Ronalene White
Anuenue Chapter Vice-President
National Federation of the Blind of Hawaii

<http://www.mpwhi.com/articles-bmartini.htm>
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In the 1950’s, two opthalmology residents published a paper on the 
effects of aspartate and glutamate on the retina of baby mice.  It 
killed nerve cells in the retina.  Later Dr. John Olney repeated the 
study confirming the retinal damage plus discovering lesions in the 
hypothalamus and hippocampus.  Swiss cheese brain.

Google: Lucas and Newhouse for  a list of articles and citations 
based on their original article.