The Gun Counter

I rarely, if ever consume anything with aspartame in it. I don't drink soda in general and really don't like the taste of diet beverages.

Here comes the big "however": Today, on the jobsite I consumed about a liter and a half of diet Dr. Pepper. I was extremely drowsy and figured it would pick me up. There were no stores or cafes nearby where I could buy coffee. Well, it did wake me up and didn't taste half bad.

Fast forward to tonight. I woke up at 12:30 AM itching like crazy. No visible welts, wheals or bumps. Just skin crawling itchiness. I just popped to Benadryls, so I should be out soon.

No worries about anaphylaxis. Had it twice. Once due to wasp stings (I now get immunotherapy) and once due to a wrong dosage of medicine (long story). So I know the symptoms and have a few EpiPens handy if I need them.

Acute reactions to aspartame seem pretty rare from my preliminary (aka 20 minutes worth) research. But it's really the only new thing I've introduced into my diet in the last few days... Guess I'll lay off the diet drinks.

any chances that it was a reaction to the high intake of caffeine?

That's a possibility. I usually limit myself to 2-3 cups of coffee in the morning. Today I had 4 plus the Dr. Pepper. It's strange that the onset of the symptoms would take so long, either way.

I believe I am allergic to aspartame. It appears to cause bright 'flashes' in my eyes, severe migraine-type headaches, and the tips of my fingers and lips go numb.

could go either way on that... you took in probably triple your normal caffeine intake for the day... but you also took in a chemical you normally dont consume...

though skin irritation would be abnormal for both i would think except for the possibility of your body excreting excesses of the chemical out through your skin...

any chance that you came into contact via skin exposure to some other chemical throughout your day?

Chlorine does almost the exact thing that you described to me...

also, do you have any blood pressure issues?

a sudden spike or drop in your BP can do what you describe... specifically the capillaries near the skin open up more than normal and cause excess blood flow to the skin... you also get warmer than normal and might get reddening of the skin too.

from what info i can find, it could be either chemical...

Not an actual allergic reaction, but Mrs Denis finds that anything with artificial sweetener in it upsets her stomach. She therefore sticks to honey and real sugar. It's surporising how many medicines contain sweeteners, though; she has to special-order non-sweetened version of those.

workinwifdakids wrote:I believe I am allergic to aspartame. It appears to cause bright 'flashes' in my eyes, severe migraine-type headaches, and the tips of my fingers and lips go numb.

Have you been checked for diabetes lately?

The eye flashes and the numbness would be a big concern for me

Aspartame (like almost all artifical sweetners) is an excitotoxin with affects on your system very much like MSG.

Short answer good idea to stay away from artifical sweetners.

Diet RC and Diet Rite Cola don't have Aspertame, but may be harder to find in your supermarket.

Rich wrote:Diet RC and Diet Rite Cola don't have Aspertame, but may be harder to find in your supermarket.

And, I believe that both Coke and Pepsi have put out versions of their products using Splenda as the sweetener. It should be marked on the carton containing the cans.