Sage, You have picked a great topic, and one that has been researched thoroughly, but not widely publicized because too much money would be lost. This is an addiction that nets billions for stockholders.

To answers your questions:
1) The blood brain barrier is a filter system to protect unwanted elements from entering the brain. There are two openings to the brain; one at the BBB for incoming, and the second at the base of the cranium at the spinal cord for outgoing nerve signals.

The BBB tries to prevent toxins and foreign bodies from entering the brain because once they get in without a purpose, they become a brain toxin. If a toxin attempts to enter, the BBB resists its entry; hence, a headache. The toxins are not supposed to enter the brain, and their specific weight, chemical compositions, their molecular structures, and the amount (dose) causes a headache as their presence in the brain is "felt."

Aspartame is NOT made of natural ingredients as marketers want us to believe. The "ingredients" may exist in nature, but the lab replicas are produced as cheaply as they are for additional profit margins, and the molecules larger than those found in nature. This  adds to the brain's interpretation of the molecules as toxic for brain entry.

Headaches literally signal the stress and pressure these foreign elements create inside the very precious and delicate human brain.

2) I became progressively sicker over a 1-year period, but I had NO clue it was the Diet Dr. Pepper until I went searching for answers why I was so sick. That's the last thing most people realize is the cause of their progressive health symptoms. Again, crafty marketing makes us feel these products are perfectly harmless. Think about the billion-dollar industry these "diet" colas and diet products have invented as a cultural fad.

3) My doctor was clueless to what caused my near-fatal disease. He refused to accept aspartame's dangers even after I cured myself. He said that he agreed that aspartame could be unhealthy, but he knew nothing about aspartame and didn't think that it caused my illness. (He couldn't tell me what did cause it, so how could he say what didn't cause it? Some docs are really dumbed-down these days.) I did NOTHING but remove the aspartame, and I cured myself - well, I NEVER HAD any disease to cure. I merely had a deadly reaction to aspartame. Once I removed the toxin, I healed.

4) My doctor gave me no advice other than to have my thyroid removed and remain on a lifetime of expensive medications. I refused, and I, alone, figured this out. I designed a way to detox my body from the toxins in aspartame, and I cured myself in 30 days once I removed all diet chemicals, detoxed, and took natural vitamins to replace what the aspartame had robbed from my body.

5) Hair analysis testing has been used in forensic medicine for decades to determine the mysterious causes of death. My lab figured out that if it works for the dead, it surely works for the living. I agree, and it does work very well to identify toxins that other lab tests cannot identify. It's another tool to use to determine the causes of disease, and it has worked very successfully for many people searching for answers traditional medicine hasn't been able to identify.

Good luck on your project!  Keep up the good work.

You bet. I assume that my answers came to you in time, before your project was due. Good luck to you in your future studies.

Sage, this is a great idea. It won't last a month, though - everyone will be so sick within a week, they might want to drop out. Record it all in detail, and chart who gets sick first, male or female for example, if they just ran the track or started their menstrual cycle - that type of thing.

I used white mice in my experiments when I taught at the university, and we fed one group regular feed and water, and one group aspartame in the feed and in their water. Then we constructed a huge maze and ran them in the maze once a week. By the end of one month, the unaltered mice blew through the maze to reach their kibble, but the aspartame mice had gained weight and were lazy, they fell over and couldn't run, they turned aggressive onto one another and bit each other drawing blood, and they NEVER made it through the maze.

Keep us posted on your findings. These sweeteners are toxic, no doubt, and people are reacting all over the world. Information and education is the key to bring awareness that can change a person's life. Good stuff, Sage, keep it up.

Dear Dr. Hull,
I have completed the final draft for the experimental design on testing aspartame links to headaches and would very much appreciate it if you could read it and give any suggestions that you have on bettering the overall experiment. Thank you for your time and I hope to hear back from you.

Question: Does ingesting aspartame increase the evidence of a person’s chances of getting headaches/migraines?
According to Tufts University (2007), over 6,000 consumer products, world-wide, contain aspartame, and it is killing people. It is important for the world to know about the horrible side effects of the chemical additive aspartame, because aspartame is indicated in over ninety-two health problems, including eventual death (Hull, 2002). Aspartame is made up of phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and methanol. After researching aspartame, Drs. J. Balch and P. Balch, co-authors of Prescription for Nutritional Healing, state that the consumption of aspartame, especially in liquids may cause a flooding of amino acids in the body. When phenylalanine is consumed and not digested, it can accumulate and later cause brain damage. The authors state that methanol is extremely toxic to the body even if only a tiny amount is eaten or smelled.  Methanol can cause blindness, brain swelling, and inflammation of major organs such as the heart and/or pancreas. When asked how aspartame can cause headaches, Dr. Hull replied with, “The blood brain barrier is a filter system to protect unwanted elements from entering the brain. There are two openings to the brain; one at the BBB for incoming, and the second at the base of the cranium at the spinal cord for outgoing nerve signals. The BBB tries to prevent toxins and foreign bodies from entering the brain because once they get in without a purpose, they become a brain toxin. If a toxin attempts to enter, the BBB resists its entry; hence, a headache. The toxins are not supposed to enter the brain, and their specific weight, chemical compositions, their molecular structures, and the amount (dose) causes a headache as their presence in the brain is “felt.” A person can learn about the different effects of aspartame through various sources. The FDA defends that aspartame does no harm, but through meticulous research, it is found that aspartame may be the cause of headaches in aspartame users. Bodies have to be protected from imbalances, such as continuous headaches. Like Dr. Janet Starr Hull says, “Headaches literally signal the stress and pressure these foreign elements create inside the very precious and delicate human brain.”
    The reason for conducting this experiment is to see if there is a link between aspartame consumption and headaches/migraines. Because aspartame is in over 6,000 consumer products, without conscious awareness, it is nearly unavoidable to buy products containing it. The experiment is important to people who struggle with migraines or headaches. A person’s eating habits can be studied and charted. If a product contains aspartame, then that product can be cut out of the person’s diet. By isolating different ingredients in a diet containing aspartame, it is possible to discover whether aspartame does or does not have an effect on a person’s life. If this experiment can determine if aspartame can be linked to causing headaches/migraines, the lives of several people can be drastically changed. People with headaches, perhaps caused by aspartame consumption, can save money from doctor visits, medications, and other pain relievers just by considering the exemption of aspartame.
    The materials used in the experiment are as follow: six men and six women within ten years of the same age group, water, three 12oz. Diet Cokes per person for each day of the experiment (six people), a journal, and a pen to take notes. The independent variable is the liquid each experimenter consumes whether it is water or Diet Coke. The dependent variable is whether or not an experimenter experiences headaches/migraines and if it is unusual or not. The controlled variables are: the quantity of a drink that is consumed, how often, what time, and what type of liquid it is. The hypothesis for this experiment is: If a person ingests aspartame (three 12 oz. Diet Coke cans a day), then that person will show signs of a headache/migraine adding to the evidence that supports the headache/migraine effect from aspartame usage. Below is the experimental design:
1.Obtain twelve people willing to take part in the experiment (preferably six men and six women within 10 years of the same age group).
2.Record the current state of health for each person at the beginning of the experiment and ask of any history of headaches or migraines. For the six women, take note if any are ovulating or on their period and if it is normal for them to experience slight headaches during that time.
3.Separate the twelve people into two groups of six.
4.For two weeks, have one group of both three men and three women drink only water (unlimited) throughout the day, along with a normal diet.
5.In the same two weeks, have the second group drink Diet Coke when thirsty, until 3 12oz. cans of Diet Coke have been consumed. Only water is to be drunk in between each can (also along with normal diet).
6.Have the people consuming the Diet Coke have the first one at 9:00 AM, the second one at 1:00PM, and the third one at 6:00PM. Record the subjective state of health for each Diet Coke consumer before each drink and one hour after drinking a Diet Coke. 
7.Have each person report every night any change in health such as headaches or migraine- related symptoms and record information.
8.Keep track of the number of times a person charts a headache/migraine or symptoms of headache/migraine.
9.At the end of the two weeks, compare and contrast the number of headaches, migraines, or migraine-related symptoms of the group members who drank the Diet Coke containing aspartame to the group members who only drank water.

The reason the experiment is only conducted for a period of two weeks, is due to the fact that research has shown that such high amounts of aspartame ingestion can make a person incredibly sick after a period of a month (Hull).

Thank you so much. That is the sweetest reply. You are the only professional out of the five I had to E-mail who replied every time and supplied me with usable, quality information. Although I do not have to perform the experiment myself, I will be graded on the overall paper. Thank you so much for all of the help. I'll let you know how it works out.
~Sage

Pretty cool, dude!!!!

100!  Well, it was very well written and the subject was superb. You have a great future ahead of you. Good job!!

my comment re blog post Aspartame -- is it safe? by Amanda Johnson in New
Zealand, sciblogs.co.nz: Rich Murray 2010.06.21
http://sciblogs.co.nz/food-stuff/2010/0 … comment-44

I am pleased that my comments, based on recent mainstream medical journal
evidence, are being allowed here, since this supports discussion based on
publicly shared evidence and reason, seeking truth for the common good.

Vestibulocochlear toxicity in a pair of siblings [doctor & nurse] 15 years
apart secondary to aspartame: two case reports, Paul Pisarik & Dasha Kai,
Cases J 2009.09.15 free full text: Rich Murray 2010.05.04
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.htm
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
[ at end of each long page, click on Older Posts ]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1600
[ You may have to Copy and Paste URLs into your browser ]

recent aspartame (methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid) symptoms in English
professor: Kristi Siegel: Rich Murray 2010.04.17
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.htm
Saturday, April 17, 2010
[ at end of each long page, click on Older Posts ]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1599
[ You may have to Copy and Paste URLs into your browser ]

formaldehyde from 11% methanol part of aspartame causes severe allergic
dermatitis in boy, JE Jacob et al, Pediatric Dermatology 2009 Nov: Rich
Murray 2010.03.30
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.htm
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
[ at end of each long page, click on Older Posts ]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1597
[ You may have to Copy and Paste URLs into your browser ]

kid asthma related to formaldehyde, G McGwin Jr, J Lienert, JI Kennedy Jr,
Environmental Health Perspectives 2009.11.06 abstract: Rich Murray
2009.12.01
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.htm
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
[ at end of each long page, click on Older Posts ]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1590
[ You may have to Copy and Paste URLs into your browser ]

2 more studies re comment on blog Aspartame -- is it safe? by Amanda Johnson
in New Zealand, sciblogs.co.nz: Rich Murray 2010.06.21
http://sciblogs.co.nz/food-stuff/2010/0 … comment-44

older women drinking over 2 aspartame beverages daily had 30% decline kidney
function in 11 years, Nurses Health Study, Julie Lin, Gary C Curhan, Brigham
and Women's Hospital, Boston: Rich Murray 2009.11.02
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.htm
Monday, November 2, 2009
[ at end of each long page, click on Older Posts ]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1588
[ You may have to Copy and Paste URLs into your browser ]

consider co-factors (methanol, formaldehyde, and protective folic acid), re
UK FSA test of aspartame in candy bars on 50 reactors, Stephen L Atkin, Hull
York Medical School: Rich Murray 2009.09.29
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.htm
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
[ at end of each long page, click on Older Posts ]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1587
[ You may have to Copy and Paste URLs into your browser ]