[serf]

forgive me for asking perhaps an obvious question , but did you reduce overall caffeine intake by switching from diet coke, or did you stick to something with similar caffeine levels and still experience the reduction in seizures?

[darcyparker]

I was 8 years old and my family rarely drank soda. I went from having a diet coke occasionally to occasionally having a regular coke, ginger ale, root beer, etc... So I don't recollect changing my periodic intake of caffeine.

I didn't do a thorough study of it... and I recognize that the logic that aspartame was a trigger could be wrong. But when you find something that appears to work and later hear of others who identified the same potential trigger and fix, then you start to believe it may be true. Personally I don't think there have been sufficient studies to show a connection or not. But people who have seizures shouldn't rule it out.

[maxerickson]

But people who have seizures shouldn't rule it out.

People that have any symptoms that correlate with consumption of foods shouldn't rule out anything a priori.

Depending on the severity of the symptom and their desire to eat certain foods, they may want to experimentally narrow down the trigger. I guess I would not be inclined to eat artificial sweeteners in an attempt to see if they triggered a seizure.

[throwwit]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylketonuria