artifical sweeteners/chewing gum

[MidnightMoon]

I've not been diagnosed yet.
I've had gradualyl worsening pain and frequency symptoms for a number of years. Recently its been at its worst pain wise.

I tend to notice that chewing gum makes a small bout start, within hours I will start to get pain.
This was OK for a while because I simply avoided the gum. But now I am back on the nicotine gum (got stressed out and nearly started smoking again- party due to the constant pain I was near tearing my hair out with it).
So I am chewing this gum and i think it is causing a lot of pain. The near constant pain started up recently before I started chewing this gum though.

Does anyone else notice artificial sweeteners or chewing gums make the pain worse?

I also get mouth ulcers a lot and can get quite sick with them. I have wondered if the two are connectd somehow. bladder/uretha pain and the mouth ulcers that is.

[vanilla]

Hi,

Artificial sweeteners are on the IC dietary list of food/products to be cautious about consuming. So, yes it could definitely be causing you urinary pain and frequency. I have dry mouth and chew gum throughout the day, and of course it's sugarless because my dentist would chew me out (ha ha) if it weren't.

Right now, I'm chewing Dentyne Pure because it contains maltitol and sorbitol, which don't appear on the IC cautious list. However, it does contain less than 2% of the bad stuff - aspartame, acesulfame.

I haven't noticed that it causes more symptoms in my case, but I'd like to find a healthier alternative.

[bjwright]

Ack artificial sweeteners esp aspartame!!

I WOULDN'T GO NEAR MOST OF THEM UNLESS I WERE DIABETIC! I ate a Starbucks after coffee mint w/o thinking it might be artificially sweetened... murder on the bladder for 12 hrs. It took a few days to figure out what the heck was going on b/c the mild flare symptoms were very different and I really can't describe them.

I ate maybe 3 over a course of a week. Couldn't figure it out... they're so small... then I glanced at the little tin and the light bulb went off!

I won't go NEAR chewing gum that's artificially sweetened.

One doctor I went to (not for IC) and a VERY brilliant guy said Aspartame can cause brain cancer. I tend to agree.

J

[Mothergoose]

i can't have sugar due to blood sugar issues, i have found i can't tolerate any artificale sweeetners but splenda, it dosen't seem to bother me at all.

i don't think i have seen any gum sweetened with splenda though.

maybe you should get a rx from your dr. for the nicotine patch, you don't want to start smoking again.

good luck mg

[sabstory]

Artificial sweeteners cause severe abdominal pain, bloating and diarrhea for me, for about 3 days, from 1 stick of gum. If I accidentally get more than that I have nausea and vomiting with the other symptoms. I have to read every single label.

[ICNDonna]

I'm diabetic so am very glad Splenda isn't a problem for me. Some ICers find it to be irritating however, so I suggest you approach with caution.

Donna