Objective: The purpose of this review was to assess the current evidence regarding the effect of aspartame (APM) consumption on Parkinson’s Disease (PD) severity.

Background: A recent 10-year prospective cohort study found long-term daily diet-soda use significantly increased risk of dementia (HR = 2.89) and stroke (HR = 2.96) after controlling for diet, physical activity, and smoking status(1). Other observational studies have reported increased risk of thyroid cancer(2) and cardiovascular disease(3) with regular consumption of non-nutritive sweeteners, APM among them. Despite these findings on the negative health effects of APM, research on the effect of APM on PD is limited.

Method: A total of 19 studies were assessed in this review. First, studies demonstrating the behavioral and physiological effects of APM that parallel PD pathology including monoamine deficiencies, oxidative stress, and cognitive changes were reviewed. In addition, we reviewed the few studies that directly assessed human PD patients and PD animal models.

Results: Multiple studies demonstrated decreased brain dopamine, increased oxidative stress, increased lipid peroxidation, and decreased memory function in rodents after APM use. In addition, PD animal models have also been found to be more sensitive to the effects of APM.

Conclusion: Review of these studies confirms APM use in rodents is associated with physiological changes also observed in PD. Additional research is needed to determine if APM use has the capacity to impact PD disease severity. Overall, studies of APM use over time yielded more consistent results, however no study has examined long-term effects on APM in human PD patients. Based on the current evidence, long-term human base observational research is needed to further investigate the potential effect of APM on PD patients.

References: 1. Pase MP, Himali JJ, Beiser AS, Aparicio HJ, Satizabal CL, Vasan RS, et al. Sugar- and Artificially Sweetened Beverages and the Risks of Incident Stroke and Dementia: A Prospective Cohort Study. Stroke. 2017 May;48(5):1139–46.
2. Singh N, Singh Lubana S, Arora S, Sachmechi I. A study of artificial sweeteners and thyroid cancer risk. J Clin Med Res. 2020 Aug;12(8):492–8.
3. Azad MB, Abou-Setta AM, Chauhan BF, Rabbani R, Lys J, Copstein L, et al. Nonnutritive sweeteners and cardiometabolic health: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials and prospective cohort studies. CMAJ. 2017 Jul 17;189(28):E929–39.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/effect-of-aspartame-on-parkinsons-disease-progression-and-severity/