Got checked out for retinal detachment today ...

[monopolova]

Well, I've had a large number of floaters ever since I can remember, and just recently I started to see flashes of light so I got checked out today. It turns out everything is fine, but a few things are on my mind tonight:

1) Please, future eye docs, warn us when you're going to give us the dilation drops. My God! It felt like the muscles in my eyes were straining or buckling or something. Also, with finals coming up, it would've been nice to have known ahead of time what they were going to do -- hence why I am up so late as I had to wait a few hours for the meds to wear off before I could continue studying again. Please tell patients what you're dropping in their eyes! Just a thought.

2) Has anyone heard anything regarding aspartame and retinal detachment? There's some stuff on the net, but I'd appreciate any opinions concerning whether or not there's any truth that diet soda can turn ye blind.

Thanks!

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[Andrew_Doan]

I always ask patients if I may dilate or when I administer drops.

Aspartame was shown to bind to tissues when given orally to rats. It was reported that aspartame bound to liver, plasma, kidney, brown and white adipose tissues, muscle, brain, cornea and retina. However, there are no published studies linking aspartame accumulation in the retina causes detachments. Interpret the studies as you wish.

If you're concerned, stop drinking diet soda!

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=9714421

Life Sci. 1998;63(5):337-49.

Formaldehyde derived from dietary aspartame binds to tissue components in vivo.

Trocho C, Pardo R, Rafecas I, Virgili J, Remesar X, Fernandez-Lopez JA, Alemany M.

Departament de Bioquimica i Biologia Molecular, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.

Adult male rats were given an oral dose of 10 mg/kg aspartame 14C-labelled in the methanol carbon. At timed intervals of up to 6 hours, the radioactivity in plasma and several organs was investigated. Most of the radioactivity found (>98% in plasma, >75% in liver) was bound to protein. Label present in liver, plasma and kidney was in the range of 1-2% of total radioactivity administered per g or mL, changing little with time. Other organs (brown and white adipose tissues, muscle, brain, cornea and retina) contained levels of label in the range of 1/12 to 1/10th of that of liver. In all, the rat retained, 6 hours after administration about 5% of the label, half of it in the liver. The specific radioactivity of tissue protein, RNA and DNA was quite uniform. The protein label was concentrated in amino acids, different from methionine, and largely coincident with the result of protein exposure to labelled formaldehyde. DNA radioactivity was essentially in a single different adduct base, different from the normal bases present in DNA. The nature of the tissue label accumulated was, thus, a direct consequence of formaldehyde binding to tissue structures. The administration of labelled aspartame to a group of cirrhotic rats resulted in comparable label retention by tissue components, which suggests that liver function (or its defect) has little effect on formaldehyde formation from aspartame and binding to biological components. The chronic treatment of a series of rats with 200 mg/kg of non-labelled aspartame during 10 days resulted in the accumulation of even more label when given the radioactive bolus, suggesting that the amount of formaldehyde adducts coming from aspartame in tissue proteins and nucleic acids may be cumulative. It is concluded that aspartame consumption may constitute a hazard because of its contribution to the formation of formaldehyde adducts.