Dear Dr. Mercola,

THANK YOU so much for your informative site! I am currently "detoxing" from using sucralose after a terrible reaction. It all began with purchasing a box of Splenda. The changes (in my opinion) were subtle.

However, my family and friends noticed immediately. I became withdrawn and disinterested in my usual hobbies. Everything became a "chore." I was tired during the day, but couldn‘t sleep at night either. I play flute which requires a quick mental process and fingering skills to match but suddenly I was struggling to play. Typing is difficult, as well.

During the past three weeks I noticed myself "zoning out." I‘d become forgetful and moody. I thought perhaps it was the Splenda, because that was the only thing different in my daily habits.

I quickly dismissed the thought - despite having experienced a similar situation with Equal a few years back. I called it "Jekyl v. Hyde Syndrome." But it seemed I noticed the changes much quicker with Equal than with Splenda.

I really suffered yesterday. I was an emotional wreck. I cried and cried. I felt like I was losing my mind. My husband and son discussed my disturbing behavior while I was in the shower. Our son, Tim, recalled that the changes began with that little yellow box. Steve, (my husband,) mentioned it to me. Little by little, things fell into place, including the unexplainable accident I recently had in our truck.

I had just stopped at a stop sign and the trooper said that I couldn‘t have been going over 15 miles an hour when I nearly rolled our truck. Even he said that I narrowly escaped injury. I nearly had a second accident last week.

My senses had become SO dulled, I could barely function.

I could not focus on anything. Even playing my flute was so hard. I normally stand to play, but for the past two weeks at practice, I sat a lot. I felt "dazed."

This morning, I feel MUCH better than I have in the recent weeks. Not quite "normal," but much better. Even the acne (on my otherwise clear skin) is fading away. Yep! I had a patch of acne, which appeared when I began using Splenda!

How many people are suffering from what appears to be diseases - or even acne, when it is simply a reaction to a chemical they are ingesting? If companies were forced to list the ingredients of these products, such as arsenic, they‘d sure be a lot more careful! I mean, who would intentionally poison themselves?

Sincerely,
Debby Fazekas

Dear Dr. Mercola,

Four years ago I began to have panic attacks and was on BuSpar for about a year. I started reading about aspartame and consumed the product daily -- mostly in diet drinks and was a big consumer of Diet Rite. After learning about problems other people were having I quit completely consuming the stuff. And have been panic free for 3 years.

In December I started using splenda and at the same time started having a great deal of anxiety and had a couple of panic attacks but didn‘t think about the link of Splenda and the anxiety until about a week ago. I also had my mom visiting and introduced her to Splenda -- guess what -- she started having panic attacks during her visit and actually cut her visit short due to her feeling bad.

I haven‘t consumed anymore of it for a week but am still having problems. Oh, I also was having an irregular heart beat which I did see my doctor about. He assured me that my blood pressure was excellent and cholesterol also good and I shouldn‘t worry about my heart.

I consume very little to no caffine. Local doctors don‘t put much faith in the idea that Nutra Sweet caused problems. I‘m sure my new theory about Splenda would carry even less weight. By the way, I have a very stess-free life-style. I run my own little business and set my own hours. I don‘t believe my environment is causing any irregular stress.

Sue

I found this website while researching the new sweetener SPLENDA, a sweetener included in the DIET ICE BOTANICALS drink made by Talking Rain Beverage Co., Preston WA. 98050 Ph. 1-800-734-0748, WWW.TALINGRAIN.COM, currently sold at SAMS warehouse club.

The shocking thing I read at the end of your article on this is the Food Poisoning like symptoms. I‘ve probably drank about 30 -16oz bottles of the stuff, which supposedly contains St, Johns Wort, Kava-Kava, and Ginseng, among other "good" things for you. My son has been sneaking a few bottles to past Mom, despite my apprehension.

We both came down with a similar food poisoning which lasted nearly 10 days for him, and is going on day 3 for me, and I‘m throwing the stuff out today.

Thanks for your information,

x6rj@bellsouth.net

My son was hospitalized four days after suffering from acute renal failure. An otherwise healthy 14-year-old with no family history of kidney problems, he had been consuming Splenda whenever we ran out of sugar. I had noticed his sugar binges (he adds the stuff to iced tea, lemonade, orange juice and cereals), and I decided to stop purchasing sugar to discourage his excessive consumption. He quickly found the box of Splenda.

The doctors were (and still are) puzzled by his symptoms of lethargy, excruciating back pain (at the kidney level), vomiting and headaches with a blood creatinine level of 389H (almost four times the normal level) and blood urea of 15.6 H (twice the normal level). After four days of IV, his levels dropped to almost normal, and he was released from the hospital.

We have no proof that his ailment was caused by his consumption of Splenda. Ultrasounds and X-rays did not reveal anything, and the doctors deemed it was not necessary to perform a biopsy. It is, however, the only lead that I have. My son consumes no vitamins or other dietary supplements. There were no signs of infection. It is the only hypothesis that I can think of. Does anyone else have a similar story linked to sucralose?

--Worried parent in Canada

I have been experiencing extreme and unusual bouts of depression, anxiety, crankiness and fatigue lately. They are occasional but severe and can last for a day or more. I tried to think of what could be causing this depression. I cut out alcohol, reduced stress by cutting down on commitments, increased exercise, reduced caffeine and started eating fish oil.

But I still feel plagued by these dysphoric emotions. I used to be a very social person with lots of friends but over the past three months I‘ve been declining invitations and feeling paranoid or angry in social situations. What changed in my life that could be causing this? I couldn‘t think of anything.

I assumed that I had finally come down with the "clinical depression" that is common in my family and am now seeing a therapist. This morning I was reading the label of my sugar-free syrup, which contains Splenda, and it got me curious so I did a search. Coincidentally, all of these symptoms began about the same time I started buying this syrup. I put it on my pancakes and in my oatmeal--not everyday but occasionally.

This might explain why the symptoms are not present everyday. I‘ve also had inexplicable diarrhea lately. I will cut this product completely from my diet and report back if it makes a difference. I‘m not positive that this is the cause but the symptoms seem like too big of a coincidence to rule it out.

I had no idea that sweeteners could cause mental side effects. My therapist has put me on Prozac for the past week but I wonder if I need it? There are so many variables to consider here ... I hope further research will be done on this topic.

--Corinne, Austin

Thank you for posting all the information re: Splenda/sucralose. For the past several months I have been using this product in hope to stay away from sugar while my fiancé and I both changed our eating habits, moving totally away from any refined foods, white flour, etc.

He is not a coffee or tea drinker, but I am and so I have been ingesting this nightmare sweetener for months now and for the life of me could NOT figure out why I was GAINING WEIGHT hand over fist while he--who was eating more then I was--was losing weight.

Then a few days ago he took a sip of my iced tea, which of course had Splenda in it, and he really enjoyed the taste, after which he would occasionally sip from my drinks. He just got over what we thought was the worst case of food poisoning ever seen or heard of, violent PROJECTILE VOMITTING was the least of it, body pains that were excruciating and debilitating, cold sweats with the sweat running down his body--literally ice cold water. He still has the body stiffness, which we are hoping will go away soon as we are now both so NOT using Splenda anymore--EVER AGAIN! And I now know why all these months I had suffered increased pain in my knees and hips for no apparent reason, it just didn‘t make sense, but now it all makes sense. How dare they allow this on the market--this is a travesty of immense proportions.

--RK and Joule Fountain

A few months back my sister and I bought a liquid mix for making iced coffee--Just an impulse of something kind of fun to do. And yes I know ... not healthy food. It was supposed to be a treat, but we both got diarrhea. The first time we drank it we did not recognize it was from the drink, but after a couple of times it became obvious.

So I started reading the label and I found this weird thing called sucralose. This was not supposed to be a "sugar-free" product. I do not buy "sugar-free" products because I don‘t like the way I feel after eating or drinking foods with nutrasweet in them.

I did a Web search and found information on negative health effects from sucralose/Splenda. And I am very glad that all my sister and I got were a couple of bouts of diarrhea. Sounds like many people have far more dangerous reactions.

I am also very angry that they would put a low-calorie sugar substitute in a non-calorie-restricted food. Thank you for putting the info out there.

--Jatina Challender

Dear Dr. Mercola:

Thank you so much for your webpage. I recently drank my first bottle of Virgin Diet Cola, and experienced a mind-numbing headache. I was literally seeing spots. I read the label, thinking there must be something crazy in the cola. The one ingredient I didn‘t recognize was "Sucralose." My husband, a doctor, said he‘d never heard of the ingredient either.

After having read your site, I‘ve cleaned my cupboards of Pure Protein bars, which I had no idea contained this deadly chemical, and, needless to say, will NOT be purchasing any of the other products you‘ve listed. Thank you for your thorough research and intelligent, accessible data.

Best -- Megyn Cotner

Dr. Mercola,

I was horrified to read some of the letters on your website. I was excited at first to find an artificial sweetener that did not give me Migraines like Aspartame (which also caused some depression). Although I did not use it a lot, after about 6 months of OCCASIONAL use, I detected a pattern in my Splenda use and severe altered emotional state. I became irate, impatient, hyper-sensitive to noise, clutter and children. I really thought this was a mental breakdown, or spiritual attack of some sort. These episodes only came periodically, but they really scared me. Then I noticed a pattern - use of sucralose, followed in hours (or the next morning) by one of these events (lasting 3 to 5 hours). What a relief! I‘m not really going nuts - and I can fix this, by never using the product again. What really upsets me is that how many people are suffering and will NEVER make any connection.

How many doctors are treating these people with anti-depressants? How many body-conscious teenagers are committing suicide because of this severe alteration of emotional function? I realize that not all people have the same symptoms, but I would really like to join a support group, or get involved in a chat room or join a campaign and GET THE INFORMATION OUT!!!

I also would be interested in knowing if there is any information on exactly what component of Sucralose affects the brain/nervous system and causes altered emotional states.

Thank you,
Lugene Azar

I was looking up the sweetener Sucralose which is in ACTII kettle corn. I was trying to find out if it was the same as nutra sweet or aspertine. Whenever I eat anything that has that in it, I get pains in my leg and knee. I can not sleep because of the pain, it hurts to walk up the stairs and so on. The pain will go away when I stop eating anything with that in it, within one to two weeks. I had a friend who got pain all over her body after drinking diet soda.

Thanks,
Elizabeth Romel

I wish to share with the medical field the terrible reations I experienced after eating the product "splenda" .

I do not know who to tell, but I do feel it is important.

I am not diabetic; however, I had two good friends come to dinner, and they brought this big "yellow box of Splenda"...my life, my health was so messed up for the next week I didn‘t know what was wrong.

I am healthy. I am 44, in great health, 125 pounds, no medicine presc. at all...and yet the morning after I ate this product "Splenda" I was in terrible, terrible pain.

I only ate it, because I cooked two pies for my diabetic friends.

The next 6 days were full of such excruciating pain, I hated to have to go to a doctor but I had to. I cried, the pain in my chest hurt so much.

I want someone that is doing research on this product to understand it really can hurt healthy people, without their knowing it.

I thought I had a heart problem. Forturnately it was a reaction to this product; yet the doctor I saw that ran all kinds of tests, never asked me if I had "ate" anything new!!!!

If I can provide you with anything else I would be pleased to; I don‘t want anyone else to have to experience the terrible pain in the chest that I did. It was "EXCRUCIATING"...no doubt about it.

Cynthia Nelson

You can add me to the list of people who have had a bad experience with sucralose. I purchased and ate a bag of jelly beans yesterday afternoon.

No carbs sounded wonderful, and they really did taste great, so I grabbed another bag on my way home

Unfortunately, a couple of hours later, I started experiencing food poisoning-like symptoms. It was clear to me that my system is trying to rid itself of something, so I looked at the packaging of the only thing I ate last night and found your web page. I was up all night and my normally flat and trim tummy is distended to the point that, when I lay on my back, I look seven months‘ pregnant!

I am grateful I now know what is causing my discomfort -- I will definitely avoid this product at all costs when shopping for my family!! Thank you for an informative article!!

Karen
Fort Lauderdale

Dear Doctor Mercola,

I‘m not expecting an answer to my email, however I do want to say thank you. After reading your site I am certain now that I was poisoned by Splenda. I knew I was poisoned and I knew it wasn‘t "food poisoning" from a bacteria. The pain in my body was definitely neurological. I am still experiencing some of the pain and am flushing my Splenda down the drain today. The pain was excruciating, in every part of my body. I am a nurse and I knew instantly that I was experiencing neurological symptoms. I had diarrhea for 3 days also. I came very close to calling 911. I am a 53 year old female in excellent health. These symptoms hit me like a brick very quickly. My blood pressure sky rocketed and I almost fell on my face in a parking lot. I‘m on my way now to whole foods to purchase some granular vitamin c to detoxify my body. You saved my life. Thank you again for your information.

Sincerely,

Gypsie Mahrou, RN
Houston, Texas

Hello,

I‘ve just been reading up on sucralose because I realized just this past week that I‘ve been having a bad reaction to a product I‘ve been using since December - Splenda. I started using Splenda in my coffed and tea since late December and shortly after I began itching in various place on my body and bright red rashed and welts appeared as well. It seemed to be the worst in the evening and only a little in the day. I didn‘t relate it to the Splenda at all, but I had my coffed in the morning, two cups, the second I rarely finished, and I would have two to three cups of hot tea in the evenings. I finally saw my doctor in March and after seeing my rash and how badly I itched and hearing what I discribed, he told me that I was allergic to something I was ingesting. I still didn‘t put it together, at least I didn‘t want to.

I knew that Splenda was the only thing I had changed and had still been using since the itching started, but I didn‘t want to go back to sugar and the other substitutes weren‘t options for me because of the aspertame. Splenda "had" to be alright since it was made from sugar, I thought. The doctor put me on some medication to stop the itching and clear up the rash. While I took it for a week and½, the itching stopped. The rash would still be visible, but now it just looked sort of like it was underlying the skin, as if it were just dormat. Two weeks after my first doctor visit, I had a follow-up and the doctor said I looked fine and to see him again in three months just to make sure, unless, of course, it started again.

Well, it did start again, that very night, in fact. I itched and itched. I waited a few days, but the itching got so bad, I took some of the medication that I still had, since I hadn‘t used it up. I would just take it at night so I could sleep and then only every two or three days so the pills would last until I could get to the doctor again. The rash would still appear and it would be that very bright red color, different size spots and some odd shapes as well. Sometimes I would get streaks. One day last week I had two streaks going up my neck side by side, each almost as wide as my finger and at the base of my neck a large red splotch.

Wednesday night the itching was terrible again and I finally gave in to the inescapable fact that Splenda had to be the root of this problem, so I stopped using it in my tea that night, and have not used it in anything since. I have still had the rash appear periodically as before, but not as often and not so bright red, no welts appear, and I have not been itching nearly as much or as badly. I‘m guessing that it may take time for the stuff to get out of my system completely. I guess I am writing this to you to have my experience with Sucralose documented in some way, even if it‘s just an email. I would love to know, though, if you know of anyone else who has had a similar experience. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Marcia

I just want to thank you guys, as without your Web site I‘d be in the mental ward right now! I‘m a big coffee drinker, but my family has a history of diabetes so I decided I should cut out the sugar I add to my coffee.

Well, I switched to using Splenda in my coffee about two months ago. Now I’m no wimp, and I’m not a health nut or anything like that! I’m a former football player, a vice president with a major banking institution and kind of a tough guy. Let me put it this way--the last time I cried was when the Green Bay Packers won the Superbowl!

So, anyway, I was using Splenda and I started getting withdrawn, had trouble focusing, and started to have problems with frustration. Gradually, I became more and more depressed. I thought it was stress or my job, something like that.

Well, last Thursday I completely fell apart! My girlfriend came over and found me crying uncontrollably for no reason, and all I could say was, "I‘ll be OK." She couldn’t get me to move, she couldn’t talk me down and I could not tell her what was wrong!

She was shocked as I had never done anything even remotely like this before and so she made me go to the hospital. The doctors there we so concerned about my condition they wanted to check me into the mental-health ward.

Being the way I am I refused but agreed to come back the next day and see a psychiatrist, which I did and he put me on a huge dose of Effexor. That night I was on the Web and for some unknown reason I did a search for Splenda and found the www.mercola.com Web site.

When I read your information on Splenda I was shocked--I simply had no clue! I am now 99.9 percent convinced that my mental health issues were a direct result of using Splenda. I even had the stomach cramps and chest pains that other people have mentioned after using Splenda, but I dismissed them as panic attacks and stress.

So the next morning I got up and had some more Splenda and, low and behold, I started feeling the symptoms of a deepening depression again! It was clearly due to the Splenda, so I tossed it out.

I just want to say thank you. I would love to help get this product off the market! By the way, I missed work because of my ordeal, so I had to tell my boss about my problems and now I have to explain to him that I’m not nuts or having a break down--how embarrassing!

Thanks again!
Steve G.

I am so grateful that I am not alone in my experience with Splenda. I started the Atkins approach back in December 2003 with seemingly decent success, at least in terms of weight loss. But I also noticed that I wasn‘t "me." I even had other family members take notice of the "new" me. I never made a connection with the evil sweetener. My sister e-mailed me with your site and an article about the perils of sucralose. I was amazed that Dr. Atkins would embrace such an awful product (God rest his soul). So I switched to a different sweetener until I discovered I was pregnant in January.

Unfortunately, I was diagnosed with a molar pregnancy and am now undergoing weekly blood draws to rule out cancer. Any correlation to these terrible artificial products? I don‘t know. But I do know that I am sad for a whole host of reasons. I am taking comfort in new knowledge and for the brave souls who dare to share their stories.

Thanks Dr. Mercola and everyone!
Brenda Ulmer

I am subscribed to your twice weekly newsletter and the other day up comes Splenda and its many complications. I was surprised about the information, as I am in my fourth week of intermittent diarrhea for no apparent reason. So you can see that I was surprised, and pleased in a way, to find what I believe is the cause of my diarrhea, and it is Splenda.

I have never had a problem of this nature for such an extended length of time, and now I know the reason. I just hope that my stopping the use of Splenda will do the trick for me, and it will probably take some time. I dumped the remaining packets that I had on hand.

I have read the other possible side effects of using Splenda and hope that I do not have any of them, however I have noticed lately that I have had an excessive amount of depression. I am hoping that there is a way to put out some sort of bulletin to the outlets that sell Splenda, like Costco where I bought it. I may go to their Web site and tell my story.

Thanks for the information and love your bi-weekly newsletters.

Douglas Gaines

My 5-year-old son drank a flavored water at his Grandmom‘s yesterday that was sweetened with Splenda. It was the only thing available for him to drink. I have avoided it since I have had previous bad reactions to aspartame and therefore do not use any artificial sweeteners of any kind.

When we got home Sam was behaving very erratically. He was whining, thrashing--he literally did not want to be in his clothes! He talked about wanting to kill himself and told me he hated his hamster, Bertie, and was going to kill him too. He was throwing his toys and saying "I hate ... " (everything). It was clear that he was miserable and out of control. He calmed considerably after dinner, but into the evening was still not acting like his cheerful, cuddly self.

He was having trouble listening, spilling drinks, and refusing hugs or holding. Both of my children were difficult to get to sleep last night (my 7-year-old daughter had about half a bottle of the juice and weighs about twice what my son does) and spent a restless night (we practice family bed, so I know their overnight habits).

I went onto the Mercola Web site because I really did not have any information up to this point about Splenda/sucralose. I am generally very careful as to the amount of additives, preservatives, processed foods, etc. that my children and I ingest. My children do not consume "diet" products and were breastfed. I am thankful that this site exists as a forum for people to share their experiences with the chemically altered, over-processed items that are touted as "healthy food" in this country. I definitely consider a lot of children‘s behavior issues to actually be adverse reactions to something they have ingested.

--Leslie Cree
Mechanicsburg, PA

I am so grateful for all the information you provide regarding Sucralose (Splenda).

I myself have had a bad experience recently. I have bad teeth, so I have to stay away from sugar. So I decided to start using "sugar-free" products to sweeten foods like syrup for pancakes and so on. I started buying "Log Cabin Sugar-Free Syrup" (which has a ‘sweetened with Splenda‘ logo on the label). Lately, whenever I consume this syrup within two hours I come down with terrible diarrhea. The accompanying side effects are identical to food poisoning and the stomach flu. I even had body aches, a headache and nausea. Each AND every time!

No more chemically engineered foods for me. Thank you for the great health forum.

--R.H. from Troupsburg, NY