19,000 people, the 4% of users of aspartame who drink average 5 cans daily, have more problems in NIH AARP study of 474,000 people: Murray 2007.09.21

19,000 people, the 4% of users of aspartame who drink average 5 cans
daily, have more problems in NIH AARP study of 474,000 people: Murray
2007.09.21
http://RMForAll.blogspot.com September 21, 2007
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1475


This is the first good data about the percentage of aspartame users
who use over 3 cans daily, averaging 5 cans daily at 200 mg per 12 oz
can diet soda.

About 4% of 473,984 is 19,000 people, with a peak intake of 17 cans
daily, and average 5 cans daily.

It would be worthwhile to investigate a wide variety of symptoms for
the 0.1% of highest level users, about 2,000 people.

For about 200 million USA aspartame users, this would be 200,000
people.

Table 1 reveals consistent increase in problems from

--------------------- zero to (400 - 600) to (over 600) mg/d
aspartame intake:

% of cohert ---------- 46 -------- 5 -------- 4 %

mean aspartame mg/d --- 0 -------441 ------ 986

16+ education -------- 37 ------- 40 ------- 34 %

diabetes history ------ 3 ------- 22 ------- 26 %

alcohol g/d ---------- 14 ------- 11 ------- 13

never smoke ---------- 36 ------- 31 ------- 29 %

Body Mass Index ------ 26 ------- 29 ------- 29

18.5 - 25 ------------ 42 ------- 21 ------- 19 %

30 - 35 -------------- 13 ------- 23 ------- 26 %

over 35 -------------- 4 ------- 10 ------- 13 %

Physical activity %:

under 3-4/mo --------- 32 ------- 32 ------- 37 %

under 1-2/wk --------- 22 ------- 21 ------- 19 %

over 3-4/wk ---------- 45 ------- 45 ------- 43 %

Calories kcal ----- 1,919 ---- 1,855 ---- 2,044 %

Caffeine mg/d ------ 393 ------ 364 ------ 424

There do seem to be many increases of problems
from the second to third row, as mean aspartame use doubles.

Granted, this is cherry picking the data, selecting interesting
patterns.

Correlations alone do not prove any direction of causation.

Nevertheless, it may be of value to study the correlations for
increasing aspartame intake among the 4 % using over 600 mg, the
equivalent of 3 cans 12-oz cans diet soda daily. The average use for
this group is 5 cans daily.

For instance, are a minority of these heavy users displaying the great
majority of the problems that are reflected in the mean for each level
of use, with most users only having little or no increase in problems?

This is a group of about 20,000 people.


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1141
Nurses Health Study can quickly reveal the extent of aspartame
(methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid) toxicity: Murray 2004.11.21

The Nurses Health Study is a bonanza of information about the health
of
probably hundreds of nurses who use 6 or more cans daily of diet soft
drinks -- they have also stored blood and tissue samples from their
immense pool of subjects, over 100,000 for decades.
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Unhee Lim 1,
Amy F. Subar 2, subara@mail.nih.gov,
Traci Mouw 1,
Patricia Hartge 1,
Lindsay M. Morton 1,
Rachael Stolzenberg-Solomon 1,
David Campbell 3,
Albert R. Hollenbeck 4
and Arthur Schatzkin 1

1 Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics,

2 Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer
Institute, NIH, Department of Health and Human Services;

3 Information Management Services, Inc., Rockville, Maryland; and

4 AARP, Washington, District of Columbia

Requests for reprints: Amy Subar,
Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences,
National Cancer Institute,
6130 Executive Boulevard, EPN 4005, Rockville, MD 20852-7344.
Phone: 301-594-0831; Fax: 301-435-3710. E-mail: subara@mail.nih.gov

http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/full/15/9/1654 free full
text

BACKGROUND:
In a few animal experiments, aspartame has been linked to
hematopoietic and brain cancers.

Most animal studies have found no increase in the risk of these or
other cancers.

Data on humans are sparse for either cancer.

Concern lingers regarding this widely used artificial sweetener.

OBJECTIVE:
We investigated prospectively whether aspartame consumption is
associated with the risk of hematopoietic cancers or gliomas
(malignant brain cancer).

METHODS:
We examined 285,079 men and 188,905 women ages 50 to 71 years in the
NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study cohort

Daily aspartame intake was derived from responses to a baseline self-
administered food frequency questionnaire that queried consumption of
four aspartame-containing beverages (soda, fruit drinks, sweetened
iced tea, and aspartame added to hot coffee and tea) during the past
year.

Histologically confirmed incident cancers were identified from eight
state cancer registries.

Multivariable-adjusted relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence
intervals (CI) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards
regression that adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, body mass index, and
history of diabetes.

RESULTS:
During over 5 years of follow-up (1995-2000), 1,888 hematopoietic
cancers and 315 malignant gliomas were ascertained.

Higher levels of aspartame intake were not associated with the risk of
overall hematopoietic cancer
(RR for >/=600 mg/d, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.76-1.27),
glioma (RR for >/=400 mg/d, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.46-1.15;
P for inverse linear trend = 0.05),
or their subtypes in men and women.

CONCLUSIONS:
Our findings do not support the hypothesis that aspartame increases
hematopoietic or brain cancer risk. PMID: 16985027

"We cannot exclude the possibility that higher aspartame consumption
than that observed in this study may be associated with an elevated
risk of hematopoietic or brain cancers.

In the laboratory study with positive findings, animals were fed doses
starting from 4 mg up to 5,000 mg per kg body weight.

Significantly elevated lymphomas and leukemias were observed in female
rats fed 20 mg of aspartame and higher (e.g., 1,200 mg for humans
weighing 60 kg or 132 lb; refs. 13, 14).

The reported aspartame intake in our data ranged from 0 to 3,400 mg/d
with sparse numbers in the upper intake categories
(1,200 or 2,000 mg/d, which is equivalent to ~7 to 11 cans of soft
drinks daily) compared with the lowest categories,
and the associations were similarly null in both men and women."
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"Of course, everyone chooses, as a natural priority,
to actively find, quickly share, and positively act
upon the facts 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

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