Dear House Health Committee

I am writing to tell you my personal story with aspartame. I am a victim of aspartame poisoning, but unlike many others, I survived to tell my story. I began consuming diet sodas early 1999 in an effort to lose weight. My nightmare began approximately 2 years later. I began suffering heart palpitations, severe dizziness, daily headaches, hypoglycemia symptoms, chronic fatigue, head in a fog, tingling/numbness in my legs, flu-like and many other symptoms. I constantly felt like I was going to pass out. I had to drive with my head pressed against the headrest because I was so dizzy. I can't count the number of times I had to pull over to the side of the road for fear of killing another driver. I visited my GP on many occasions. She ran blood tests, EKG, etc. but could not find anything wrong. I suffered every day. I awakened every morning feeling like I had been hit by a truck. It was almost impossible to continue with daily life. In January 2001, (age 37) I passed out and had some sort of seizure episode for the first time in my life, lost control of bowels, etc. The doctor said that I was dehydrated, treated that and sent me home for bed rest. The symptoms continued, sometimes more severe than others.

Sept 29, 2004 my husband and I were in a restaurant. I had been feeling really bad the previous week and actually told my husband that I felt like I was being poisoned. My doctor ordered a heavy metal screening, which was negative. I knew I was dying, and no one would ever know why! Back to the restaurant, we had just finished our dinner, when all of a sudden I told my husband that I was going to pass out. I said this twice. I felt as though the blood was draining from my head to my feet rapidly. I turned white, then blue, was not breathing, then began having another seizure. This attack was very serious. When emergency arrived, I barely had a pulse and was rushed to ER. I then had the million dollar workup performed, but guess what? I was healthy as a horse. Heart, lungs, brain, blood, every test revealed normal results. The neurologist finally said that he did not know for a fact that it was a seizure and he sees people like me every day. I personally believe that my heart just stopped beating from the aspartame.

After I was discharged from the hospital, I was afraid to drink anything but water and I certainly did not have any diet sodas while in the hospital either. After 3 days of abstinence, I awakened feeling wonderful. My head was so clear, I felt great. But of course, I did not make the connection of a reaction to the poison aspartame. I eventually began consuming diet sodas again, I was addicted. Then the systems began to return almost immediately. It was finally Easter of 2005 that I learned through the internet of the dangers of aspartame. I immediately quit consuming the toxin and am getting back to good health and have not had ANY seizures and feelings of black outs.

I have suffered for at least three years, almost lost my job, without ANYONE able to help! It was a total nightmare that came on gradually and almost took my life. Please, please do not dismiss these testimonies or look the other way. Aspartame is seriously damaging health and taking lives. Please do the right thing, take the step to remove this poison from our food supply.

Thank you so much for your time.

Kim Dellisz
Mebane, N.C.