Sugar Substitute Relieves Joint Pain

Q. My wife has recently developed diabetes and watches her sugar intake carefully. She uses Equal to sweeten her coffee or iced tea.
We read that Equal might be helpful against arthritis pain, but her doctor has never heard of this. He prescribed Vioxx, but it is too expensive. Aspirin and ibuprofen are cheap but they give her heartburn. Is it true that Equal might work? If so, how much does it take?
A. Research published in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (May, 1998) showed that aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet) worked about as well as aspirin to relieve pain and inflammation. Unlike traditional anti-inflammatory drugs, aspartame does not irritate the stomach. The dose that researchers used ranged from four to eight tablets daily (76 to 152 mg).
One reader with a chronic back problem reported the following: “I began using aspartame for my backache and within a few weeks was free of pain for the first time in years. Then a holistic healer told me to avoid aspartame-containing products. Within four days my back started hurting again. I went back on aspartame, and the pain and stiffness disappeared.”