Artificial sweeteners symptoms and conditions

A couple of years ago I tried Singulair due to problems with oral yeast infections from my inhaler. I'm a athletic, health conscious 46 year old woman with a high-burn hypoglycemic metabolism, and often have unusual and extreme reactions to food and medications. I hallucinate on Diet Coke, for example. I waited until the weekend to try Singulair just in case I reacted, and it was a good thing I did. I slept about 10 hours in three days, and when I could sleep I had bizarre dreams. I felt like an ADHD woman having a manic episode! My boyfriend noticed behavioral changes right away, and fortunately he did all the driving that weekend! I stopped the drug on Sunday, and was barely able to sit up at work by Monday afternoon. The next weekend I broke the pills into quarters, but had the same problems even with only a fourth of the dose. Once all the drug was out of my system, which didn't take long, I was fine. I went back to my Claritin and Pulmacort Turbuhaler, and I've been fine ever since. I'm both surprised and not to find Singulair causes similar reactions in others. I thought it was just my strange metabolism, but apparently not. This is a sad, cold comfort way to find out I'm not as freakish as I thought. My condolences and best wishes to everyone dealing with children and family members on this drug and/or going through withdrawal.
P.S. I never drink soft drinks anymore, or eat or drink anything with artificial sweeteners, either.

I was sent to psychologist after psychologist as a child because I couldn't pay attention in grade school. I was finally put on Ritalin. I'm 45 now and a parent myself and suffer from mild, but unexplainable bouts of anger as a result of Ritalin. Here's some of what I've learned through experience: First, 99% of the time, pharmaceuticals are not the answer. They do a good job of masking symptoms and depriving you of quality of life, but not treating the larger problem. Second, public school is no place for intelligent children. The pace is so slow and uninteresting (and I might add un-necessary) that it is easy to diagnose nearly any child as ADD. Home schooling is the best option. Private school is next but really expensive. Second and most important is diet. A diet high in sugar is awful for attention spans. If you send your children to school after a breakfast of sugared toast, or sugared cereal, as mine did, they won't perform well and will "crash" in a couple of hours. Manufactured foods and artificial sweeteners are also part of the problem. Our brains and bodies are not designed to be run on things that are artificial. Last, ALL network TV, and most cable TV is a hopeless, mind-numbing, reprogramming tool. Turn it off and open the books. Enjoy music or the silence of nature. Your kids will be better off for your efforts.
Hope that helps. Rick ******

I was required to switch to Levothyroxine, after 15 years on synthroid,because my insurance co. would no longer cover synthroid. I started Levothyroxine Oct 1/04 and within about 2 weeks my knee, elbows, arms, hands, legs, ankles and feet started to ache constantly. The knee was so bad for 6 weeks, that I couldn't walk - it felt like a broken, achy bone. Sometimes the pain feels like a burn. The muscles feel weak too. The pain moves around. This all seemed to happen suddenly. I also can't sleep well and feel very tired through the day. I had blood tests, MRI, xrays, etc which showed no rheumatoid arthritis, only very mild cartilage wear in the sore knee. Nothing so far has explained the pain in the muscles. I have very good health in every area, low sugar, low cholesterol, good weight, take lots of vitamins, etc. I don't drink, and I avoid any drugs, even pain killers. I eat a healthy diet, mostly organic and no artificial sweeteners, lots of fresh and raw veggies, no fatty meat, etc. Levothyroxine is the only change in my lifestyle recenly that I can think of. I think I should ask my doctor to switch me back to synthroid. Has anyone tried Armour thyroid and do you like it and why?