I have juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. In the spring of 2005, I began spending time with a friend who drinks diet coke like a fish. I started drinking it - never having eaten anything with artificial sweeteners because I had read of instances where seizures had been caused by them. Neurologists had assured me that if this were true, people would be seizing all over the place - so I decided to take advantage of the zero calorie diet coke. Ten days later I had my first grand mal seizure. I hadn't had any seizure activity in over 10 years. There is a definite connection. Sudafed triggered the same reaction nearly a year later. Fortunately, I've been seizure free since. Sending you seizure-free energy...

S.Perkins

My son is 6 years old and out of nowhere started having seizures last year in July. I took him to a neurologist and he was diagnosed with Benign Rolandic Epilepsy, something he should outgrow. The last seizure he had was last year in October, then suddenly in June he started having them almost every other day. It scared me to death and when I spoke with the nurse she recommended this website. I have been looking for triggers that could cause him to have a seizure, like not getting enough rest, playing video games for a long period of time, changes in his routine. I was not told about aspartame either. I am somewhat of a health freak when it comes to feeding my kids especially when it comes to sugar. I was giving him Crystal Lite to drink with dinner and some times with lunch. I didn't realize that was a trigger until I had been making sure he was going to bed earlier, limiting his time on his Wi, and keeping a normal routine for him. I had been doing everything right, well the night before he had the last seizure, he drank about three cups of Crystal Lite, lemonade flavor. Then it hit me, what if aspartame had some connection to triggering his seizures. Well, I did some reasearch online and found out it does. People who have seizures rather they have epilepsy of have diabetic seizures, I read that aspartame and Splenda could trigger the seizures. Since I stopped giving him anything with artificial sweeteners in it, he hasn't had a seizure since. Try to eliminate this ingredient from your diet. Good luck.