I have always been a careful food label reader. For twenty years I have been reading the labels to eliminate foods that contain artificial ingredients from going into my system. A few years ago I got sloppy. I was busy working a corporte retail management job and purchased some peppermints at a well known coffee shop chain to help get me through the day. I scanned the label quickly and they passed the test. Those mints were a very refreshing almost stimulating strong peppermint flavor. I put a few of the tiny mints in my mouth each couple of hours as a pick me up.
After about a month of mint use I was suddenly struck with a sharp pain in my right ankle when I stepped down on it. I could not step down on my foot because it felt like a sharp object was stabbing my ankle. I decided that I would have to go home from work. I hobbled out to the car and hopped into the drivers seat. I put the car into reverse and pressed down on the brake pedal. Zowey Yeooowwwy! Sharp Pain! I wondered how I would drive the half a block home being in such pain. Tears poured down my face as I began to sob out loud. The stress and fear of realizing how long I would last at a busy retail job without being able to walk had just hit me. Walking home was not an option so I started to back up the car using a left and right foot combination on the break pedal. When I began to press down on the pedal the pain was so distracting that for a second I lost tract of everything around me. Crunch...the sound of buckling metal on someone's new Lexus. At this point I gave in and called my husband to drive me and my work cases half a block home.
The condition persisted and I made a visit to a doctor. They sent me for X-rays and could not determine what was wrong. The doctor said It seemed a little like Gout but did not have all the symptoms and I was too young to fit the typical patient profile. He gave me a note to stay home from work and keep off my feet. After a week I was not better and needed to go back to work or I would lose my job. The doctor gave me a note to go back to work but stay off my feet.
I went back to work and explained the situation to my District Manager. He said it would be ok to do for a couple of days, but that I could not fulfill my job requirements this way. Yikes!
A couple days later I tried took a high dose of fizzing Magnesium. The pain was gone in half an hour but would return when the magnesium wore off. I realized when the pain returned that it was like a form of muscle cramping. The magnesium worked well enough to get me back to work but did not solve the underlying problem. I stated thinking about possible dietary causes that would involve magnesium, calcium or other minerals like potassium. I then remembered a potassium something or other ingredient in the mints.
I went a got a tin of the mints. There it was Potassium Aspartamane! How could I be so careless! I quit eating the mints immediately. The ankle problem did not correct itself immediately, but after a week or so I was somewhat better. A month went by and I was only having pain every once in awhile. After two months I was back to normal.
The aspartame in the mints was acting as a potassium blocker interupting the function of my ankle muscles. There have been other cases of muscular MS like symptoms with the use of Aspartame. Read the labels carefully!
