Jennifer (Mayerthorpe, Ab Canada) on 12/08/2010:

Last December (2009), I couldn't sleep because my arms ached so badly. I got up in the middle of the night and started searching on the internet. I found some anecdotal experiences with cutting out aspartame helping with many health issues. In my attempts to lose/maintain my weight, I had switched from drinking regular "brown pop" to diet. Some days, especially while I was enjoying the holiday foods, I would drink two or more cans of diet pop or beverages a day. That night, I decided to cut out foods and drinks with aspartame as much as I could. Within THREE DAYS, I felt no pain in my arms at all. I have tried to return to drinking the odd aspartame infused beverage, but by the next day, I am nearly in tears and can hardly work on any of my projects, whether at work or home doing my crafty stuff. Why the FDA and Canada's counterpart still allow this nasty chemical to be put into the food supply, I'll never know, but at least I know that I can live a nearly pain free existence thanks to my own little experiment.