From: "Virgil M. Hulse" Dear Scott (Fagan, Producer, Ask Dr. Weil, Time Inc. New Media):  I sent you Dr. Blaylock's transcript about aspartame and at least read that if you won't link to www.dorway.com . Actually, whenever you write about aspartame if you link for more information to http://www.dorway .com and www.holisticmed.com your readers will get everything about aspartame.  Because it is such a deadly poison and destroys the central nervous system, brain and optic nerve and ravages every organ in the body its hard to write a brief article but you can link to these Godzilla web sites that have all the documents, protest of the National Soft Drink Association (who knew it would break down to poisons before they put it in soft drinks and turned around and lobbied for NutraSweet after their protest), the FDA audit, Bressler Report, that shows the horror of the original studies that were the target of an indictment for fraud that was never carried out because two U.S. Prosecutors went to work for the law firm defending the case (when the District Attorney goes to work for the godfather except acquittal) - the very studies that approved aspartame when a FDA Commissioner (Arthur Hayes) overruled a Board of Inquiry that told him not to do it, and the damning CDC investigation.  A phony summary was put on the CDC investigation that contradicted the report, so we added it in entirey to web. Even the FDA report of 92 documented symptoms from coma to death is on DORway. Okay, about PHENYLALANINE, please bear with me because its hard to be brief and have full understanding.  Dr. Weil wrote that phenylalanine was okay unless you were PKU.  Every physician that has researched and worked and exposed aspartame agrees that phenylalanine in aspartame is neurotoxic.  It doesn't even matter if you are PKU, it does the same damage to most people. There are three amino acids you cannot isolate from the other amino acids in protein and they are cysteine, aspartic acid and phenylalanine - they go beyond the blood brain barrier and deteriorate the neurons of the brain causing brain damage of varying degrees. I am sending a copy of this to four of the most renowned physicians on the subject who are on the Mission Possible list so if you don't hear from them you know they are standing in agreement and, in fact, I'm quoting some of them. They are Dr. John Olney, world famed researcher who founded the field of neuroscience called excitotoxicity and who made world news in l996 explaining the escalating in brain tumors of the variety that the rats sustained in the original studies.  Here's a good point, when you use phenylalanine in food it doesn't break down into diketopiperazine, a brain tumor agent, as it does in aspartame, because it is insinct with the other amino acids, - it may be 4% of phenylalanine, not 50% flooding the brain, as Dr. H. J. Roberts, has said many times.  A copy is going to Dr. Roberts who has written many of the books on aspartame and has declared it a disease and WORLDWIDE PLAGUE.  His new medical text on the epidemic will be published to the general public in the near future at which point we will send press releases to 100 countries of the world.  From Dr. Roberts book, kAspartame (NutraSweet) Is It Safe?, page 28 he's telling you what I said, speaking about phenylalanine and asparti acid and says:  "These are pround differences in both the rates of digestion and the degree of absorption depending on whether these amino acids are provided by food or by aspartame.  The usual forms of protein (such as meat) contain four or five percent phenylalanine - not 50%, as does aspartame.  Moreover, they are slowly digested within the gastrointestinal tract, and in tandem with other neutral amino acids.  This precludes an unbalanced flooding of the system with single amino acids.  The situation is quote different with aspartame, where the body is suddenly deluged with large amounts of two amino acids."  IMPORTANT:  To understand that even though those with PKU cannot metabolize phenylalanine its not much different for the rest of the population.  Here it is in Dr. Roberts book: Page: 33:  "Under normal conditions, phenylalanine is broken down by the body to another amino acid known as tyrosine.  An enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase is necessary to accomplish this conversion.  If there is a lack of this enzyme, as in the inherited disorder called phenylketonuria (PKU), phenylalanine cannot be metabolized.  It then accumulates in the blood and tissues.  High concentrations of phenylalanine can cause severe mental retardation in children.  In fact, about 1% of patients in mental institutions have this condition.  The point being stressed here is that in this and certain other circumstances aspartame products can elevate blood phenylalanine levels significantly, albeit not as high as in PKU. Furthermore, a high intake of phenylalanine tends to depress the activity of the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase (Harper l970).    *High phenylalanine concentrations are ofund in patients with chronic kidney failure (uremia), attributed to impairment of conversion. (Furst l980). *Phenylalanine levels may increase in the absence of sufficient insulin, which stimulates the synthesis of phenylalanine hydroxylase (Tourian l975). This clearly could be significant for some diabetic patients. (Chapter 25) When analyzing experimental data, it also is necessary to be aware of the marked species differences that exist in phenylalanine hydroxylation.  For example, this process is about five times slower in man than rodents.." On page 34 with regard to phenylalanine loading:  "Plasma phenylalanine concentrations increase as much as ten times when normal adults and PKU carriers are gien loads of 100-200 mg. aspartame/kg body weight (Matalon l987).  Using 6 per cent phenylalanine as the blood level that is probably harmful to the outcome of a pregnancy, 14% of normal persons and 35 per cent of PKU carriers exceed this concentration after such exessive amounts enter the body (Matalon l987).  Phenylalanine tolerance testing is used to demonstrate a reduced capacity for metabolizing phenylalanine.  Subjects ingest a single dose of this amino acid, such as 100 mg/kg body weight (Koch l982). VERY VERY IMPORTANT; Page 35 Brain Levels of Phenylalanine: "Consuming phenylalanine as dietary protein does not significantly elevate phenylalanine concentrations in the brain.  Paradoxically, she eating of customary proteins even tends to decrease brain phenylalanine due to the concomitant increase in plasma concentrations of other neutral amino acids - especially valine, leucine, isoleucine,tynine for brain uptake in the lining cells of the small blood vessels that make up the blood brain barrier.  By contrast, ingesting an aspartame containing soft drink with foods rich in carbohydrate and oor in protein (such as dessert  can increase - PERHAPS DOUBLE - phenylalanine in the brain (Yokogoshi l984). The very high affinity for phenylalanine of the system that transport amino acids into brain capillaries (Pardridge l987b) is emphasized.  Indeed, phenylalanine has the highest affinity for ransport across the blood brain barrier of all the circulating amino acids.  Its selective increase then can alter brain concentrations of the amino acid-derived neurotransmitters (Choi l986)." This is the end of this quote in the book.  But under the phenylalanine in aspartame lowers the seizure threshold of the brain and depletes serotonin. Lowered serotonin triggers manic depression, rage, panic attacks, anxiety su icidal tendencies, etc.  Remember, that you are changing brain chemistry!  Aspartame changes the dopamine level of the brain! Imagine what this does to a Parkinson patient on L-dopa! While I know I'm not brief, I'm giving you references so you know you are right in what you say, and I hope you appreciate this.  Also, my computer is cutting out so I'm going to send this, and go on to part 2.  I'm also sending this to Dr. Russell Blaylock who wrote Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, neurosurgeon, of whom I sent you the interview that goes into phenylalanine.  this is so important you really should read it.  Also, this is going to Dr. Ralph Walton who was on 60 Minutes and did a study on aspartame.  With real world aspartame the study had to be stopped because of the complaints from the subjects who said they were being poisoned and such things as conjunctival bleeding from the eyes and retinal detachment. Also, he said on 60 Minutes that of the 90 independent studies on aspartame not funded by the manufacturer, 83 showed problems with aspartame. I will quote Dr. Blaylock's comments on phenylalanine on part 2.  Please please read all this to understand how big a mistake it was, and so you will understand how deadly aspartame is and phenylalanine's part in this toxin, this very deadly drug.  Other doctors are also receiving a copy of this in case they want to comment. Regards, Betty