VA report: There is no Gulf War syndrome (AP/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

POSTED: 11:35 a.m. EDT, September 12, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- There is no such thing as Gulf War syndrome, even though U.S. and foreign veterans of the war report more symptoms of illness than do soldiers who didn't serve there, a federally funded study concludes.

U.S. and foreign veterans of the Gulf War do suffer from an array of very real problems, according to the Veterans Administration-sponsored report released Tuesday.

Yet there is no one complex of symptoms to suggest those veterans -- nearly 30 percent of all those who served -- suffered or still suffer from a single identifiable syndrome.

"There's no unique pattern of symptoms. Every pattern identified in Gulf War veterans also seems to exist in other veterans, though it is important to note the symptom rate is higher, and it is a serious issue," said Dr. Lynn Goldman, of Johns Hopkins University, who headed the Institute of Medicine committee that prepared the report.
***
Veterans can now claim those benefits only by making an undiagnosed illness claim, said Steve Robinson, a Gulf War Army veteran and government relations director for Veterans for America
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/09/12/gulf.illness.ap/index.html

[niyad]

1. agent orange didn't cause any problems either.

[Demeter]

dupe

[Demeter]

3. The Consensus Already is Depleted Uranium

and it's not looking good for the world, either.

[Recursion]

26. No, there are several theories

I lean towards the "aspartame-filled sodas in plastic bottles in the very hot sun" theory.

[babylonsister]

2. And the air around NY on 9/11 was pristine. nt

[niyad]

4. self-delete--dupe

[pepperbear]

5. OMG! Use 'm up and spit 'm out! n/t

[BOSSHOG]

6. And as any "conservative" will tell you

today's veterans are faking post traumatic stress syndrome and all those who died in iraq would have gotten killed in car wrecks in this country and they are all volunteers. Can't you feel the overwhelming support of our troops by those who call themselves "conservatives?"

[angstlessk]

11. I recall taking a train from RI to Fla in the 1980's and this guy on the

train was complaining that all those vets from Viet Nam who claimed to be ill from agent orange were just faking it. He was VERY vocal. Another passenger asked him. "What do you do for a living?" his answer "I am a disabled vet from Korea, I hurt my back!" Well this guy was on a train for 2 days sitting in a seat and his back was so bad he needed disability? The silence when he said he was a disabled vet was palpable...he was just afraid if the Viet vets needed money, maybe they would scrutinize HIS disability closer.

[onehandle]

7. Veteran Democrats in Congress need to jump on this.

More proof that this Administration and Congress doesn't support the troops.

[OneBlueSky]

8. to BushCo, military personnel are just "disposable resources" . . .

no different than bullets or staples . . . when they're no longer useful, just cast them into the refuse pile and forget them . . . thus the ongoing destruction of the VA, the depletion of medical care for wounded vets, etc. . .

disgraceful doesn't even begin to describe it . . .

[Jacobin]

9. I know a GWI veteran

He's about 35. He has no hair anywhere on his entire body. No eyebrows, no eyelashes, no hair at all, zip nada. He was an artillery guy and spent time in the desert dust blasting at things.

He is swollen up all the time. His face is so swollen that it almost shuts his eyelids. He can barely walk because his joints ache. He was once very active and enjoyed hunting and fishing. He can't do that anymore.

It takes him 4 months to get an appointment at the VA. They don't know what it is. They tell him they don't have a clue. They tell him its not related to the GW. They suggest that it is 'all in his head'. They've told him they are going to stop doing tests on him because they don't know what it could be. They give him medicine for the symptoms but it doesn't help.

They are about to cut off his $400/month disability check because there is no such thing as Gulf War Syndrome.

There is no such thing as Gulf War Syndrome.

There is no such thing as Gulf War Syndrome.

Say it loud. Say it clear. It will make us all feel better about sending kids off to war and then denying that it make them sick. It will make us feel better about not spending tax money to help them.

[KT2000]

30. To believe GWS exists

is to acknowledge that environmental exposures can be dangerous.
They are not dangerous and to suggest they can be is nothing but an all out attack on the profits of Exxon, Shell, Monsanto, Dow, Allied Chemicals, and on and on. Not one corporations will be left unscathed.
We would have to recognize that inadequately tested chemicals may have adverse consequences; that mixing the chemicals could be dangerous (better to pretend that the fact that there has been no testing of the synergistic effects of multiple chemicals means that nothing will happen); that genetics loads the gun and environment pulls the trigger.

I am sorry for the man you know and all the other people who are being thrown overboard to protect corporate profits.

Your friend will have to turn to alternative medicine if he wants to survive.
Please suggest this man look into the books by Majid Ali, M.D. as he is very familiar with this type of injury.
I believe he can improve and stop the vicious cycle that his immune system is currently engaged in with proper guidance.

[Monkeyman]

10. Once again they lie Depleted Uranium is been reported by returning troops

They must be covering their replugs butts now that the grades are in from the VSO's take a look they failed. http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_detail.php?sig_id=004044M


Larry Scott my brother and friend has storie of DU on his site
http://www.vawatchdog.org

[lebkuchen]

27. I know two young formerly healthy officers w/a year in Iraq

who now have cancer. One thought he had a bad-assed cold...sinuses wouldn't clear up. He's at Walter Reed now for treatment.

[pinerow]

12. Move along folks...nothing to see here....

nt

[Monkeyman]

15. What do you mean nothing to see here?

[pinerow]

20. In other words...

the VA. decided that since they don't believe in Gulf War Syndrome...it does not exists...hence the phrase..."move along folks, nothing to see here"...

[Corgigal]

13. well someone has to pay for this Iraq mess

It certainly isn't the rich through their taxes.

[fed-up]

14. VA "spits" on US vets again- this needs K/R nt

[Benhurst]

16. Move on! There's nothing to see here. George Bush is in the

White House -- All's well in the world!

[Nickster]

17. Well, I for one feel much better now that this whole mess has been solved.

:sarcasm:

[aquart]

18. They're vets.

I don't give a damn what symptoms they have, whether they complain loudly or not. WE OWE THEM. There should not be one single debate over their medical issues. Treat them, fix them, care for them. WE OWE THEM.

If we had national health care like a civilized nation, this would not be an issue.

[savemefromdumbya]

19. we don't believe anything the govt tells us

[speedoo]

21. This report will be widely criticized, IMO.

The criticism has already begun, according to the AP story linked:

>>"Veterans can now claim those benefits only by making an undiagnosed illness claim, said Steve Robinson, a Gulf War Army veteran and government relations director for Veterans for America.

"They keep saying it over and over, every year. We know that — we know that there is no single thing that made veterans sick. We know this thing is likely a combination of various exposures," Robinson said in pushing for new studies he hopes will find what ails tens of thousands of his fellow vets.

A member of the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, also chartered by Congress, called the report the "first step" in cataloging the studies done on veterans of the conflict.

"But the most prevalent problems in Gulf War veterans are the multisymptom illness/Gulf War syndrome-type problems that still affect a sizable proportion of those who served in the war. I am disappointed that the IOM report does little to analyze what these studies collectively tell us about the nature and causes of these conditions," said Lea Steele, a Kansas State University epidemiologist who is the committee's scientific director.">>

I don't know whether the VA "rigged" the study. This horrible administration is certainly capable of doing that, and it would not be he first time they screwed veterans. But organization that did the study appears to be unbiased... loaded with academic experts in the field. Of course, they probably did not actually perform the study, it was probably done by researchers vetted by the VA.

Which would make it similar to the Tom Kean/Path to 9/11 propoganda piece in terms of how it might have been rigged.

[alfredo]

22. Sent this to my veterans group.

Told them that it seems I've seen this movie before.

[Fly by night]

23. Squalene used as an adjuvent in anthrax vaccinations ....

.... has also been implicated. Read "Vaccine A" for a pretty convincing epidemiological analysis of the use of this unapproved (and known hazardous) substance added to the anthrax vaccine to "improve" it -- with the only improvement being the onset of auto-immune disease in soldiers who received the vaccine (with no such response among unvaccinated soldiers).

[eppur_se_muova]

25. Can you add a link for that?

I was under the impression that the Pentagon had more or less begun to capitulate on GWS back during the Clinton admin -- while still acknowledging they didn't know exactly what it was. Of course, that was back when we had a real president.

[Fly by night]

34. www.vaccine-a.com

www.vaccine-a.com

This well-researched book, by Gary Matsumoto, suggests that the tens of thousands of Gulf War veterans reporting a range of illnesses after their vaccinations with an anthrax vaccine developed these medical problems because of a non-approved (and known hazardous) adjuvent, squalene, included in those vaccines. BTW, this same formulation is still being injected into our service men and women today.

Who needs an enemy when we kill (and torture) our own military slowly with auto-immune diseases for which they have no legal recourse?

[eppur_se_muova]

35. Thanks -- bookmarked. eom

[mhatrw]

24. War is Peace. Ignorance is Strength. There is No Gulf War Syndrome.

DU also means depleted uranium.

[malmapus]

28. I can't believe that frickin headline or train of thought

behind that "study".

I can't even type my thoughts down they are all over the place right now...completely enraged.


Well if there is no Syndrome then there sure as hell was something in the water for quite a bit of soldiers who were there!!!

[allisonthegreat]

29. more lies...

Visit a Vet Hosp and tell me it's true. The Bush Regime has bought MSM...

[RamboLiberal]

31. I believe it could be more than one agent that caused

the Gulf war vets problems, from the shots they took before deployment to the toxic soup they were exposed to daily.
Cataloged well here:

Once in the region, those soldiers were exposed to a wide array of toxins and other potential health hazards, including smoke from hundreds of oil well fires, pesticides, depleted uranium ammunition and possibly the nerve agent sarin, released during the demolition of a munitions dump.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14801666/

[eppur_se_muova]

32. Report links vaccines to Gulf war syndrome (Guardian) {2004}

Press Association

Monday January 12, 2004
Guardian Unlimited

A senior army doctor has provided the first official support for claims that the cocktail of vaccines given to soldiers before the 1991 war in Iraq probably caused illnesses that became known as Gulf war syndrome, it was reported today.

For 13 years, the MoD has denied that vaccines could be blamed for the illnesses. Independent research has also failed to find conclusive proof of a common link between the vaccines and a Gulf war-related syndrome.

However, Lieutenant Colonel Graham Howe, clinical director of psychiatry with the British forces health service in Germany, has made a link between the vaccines and illnesses associated with claims of Gulf war syndrome.
***
Lt Col Howe wrote: "It seems most likely certain that Mr Izett did in fact receive classified 'secret' injections prior to his expected deployment, and that in turn these have most probably led to the development of autoimmune-induced osteoporosis."

No causes other than the vaccine were cited, because Lance-Corporal Izett did not go to war.
***
more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,11816,1121560,00.html

I know there are other DUers, especially vets, who are much more informed on this than I, but I saw this article from an overseas source and thought it deserved more attention. Apparently the British gov't are also evading responsibility, but their press is doing a better job than ours.

also: http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,11816,1236274,00.html

The one impression I got most strongly is that there is no SINGLE syndrome, so they are saying there is NO syndrome. This is not a logically justifiable conclusion! There may very well be several causes of illness, leading to multiple syndromes -- this is what multivariate statistical analysis is for. But not knowing more than that about statistics, I'll shut up and see if anyone else knows whether this has been done, or if a vet's group could fund such a study.

[Monkeyman]

33. I sent this one to

http://VETSFORMURTHA.ORG

[genie_weenie]

36. Thank Goodness! I just hope the Government

funds the next studies which conclude: Iraq is Paradise, Pi = 3, the universe was created on 9 OCtober 4004 B.C., up is down and black is white...

Of course I may then be killed at the next Zebra Crossing...

[Megahurtz]

37. I smell ANOTHER cover-up. n/t