Some Chronic Disorders More Common in Gulf War Vets

[The Straight Story]

Some Chronic Disorders More Common in Gulf War Vets

Reuters Health

Tuesday, June 7, 2005

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Ten years after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, physical and laboratory evaluations reveal an increased risk of fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, skin conditions and indigestion in deployed veterans compared with nondeployed veterans.

While many studies have suggested an increased prevalence of symptoms among Gulf War veterans, others have failed to find an increased risk of illness. Members of the National Health Survey of Gulf War Era Veterans and Their Families research project previously showed that deployed veterans reported a higher prevalence of 29 self-reported medical conditions and 48 symptoms than did nondeployed veterans.

As an extension of that study, Dr. Seth A. Eisen, with the St. Louis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and colleagues randomly selected 1,061 deployed veterans and 1,128 nondeployed veterans who underwent extensive medical and psychiatric examinations between 1999 and 2001. The findings are reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Compared with nondeployed veterans, deployed veterans were more likely to be diagnosed with fibromyalgia (2.0 versus 1.2 percent), chronic fatigue syndrome (1.6 versus 0.1 percent), skin conditions (34.6 versus 26.8 percent) and indigestion (9.1 versus 6.0 percent), respectively.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_25077.html

[4morewars]

1. Depleted Uranium ?

Nah, that can't be the cause, the government says DU is safe !

[lenidog]

2. Doubtful the French have never reported any Gulf War Syndrome in

their troops who served in Desert Storm even though they also used DU. Only the the US and the Brits have. This leads me to believe that it was from innoculations or the bug repellant aince both the British and US armies used the same types.

[4morewars]

3. I did not know that !

This the first time I've heard that explanation, but that might explain why the Patriot Act has a clause protecting the big pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits !

[lenidog]

4. That might be the reason

Now I am not saying that DU is not dangerous but with the French not having any cases that for me knocks it out of the running. Now the theory seems to run that either the innoculations, anti-chmical pills or the DEET insecticide could be the culprit, the variation on that theory is that when all three came together or a mixture of any of the two it resulted in Gulf War Syndrome. It seems to be the most likly culprit and the one that last I heard the Brits were studying the most. If that is the case then the pharmeceutical companies could be held liable. Which would explain the protection given them in the Patriot Act.

[4morewars]

5. Here's more :

"What the governments of America and Britain have done to the people of Iraq they have also done to their own soldiers, in both wars. And they have done it knowingly. For the battlefields have been thick with DU and soldiers have had to enter areas heavily contaminated by bombing. Moreover, their bodies have not only been assaulted by DU but also by a vaccination regime which violated normal protocols, experimental vaccines, nerve agent pills, and organophosphate pesticides in their tents. And yet, though the hazards of DU were known, British and American troops were not warned of its dangers. Nor were they given thorough medical checks on their return-even though identifying it quickly might have made it possible to remove some of it from their body. Then, when a growing number became seriously ill, and should have been sent to top experts in radiation damage and neurotoxins, many were sent to a psychiatrist."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051105K.shtml

[Frederik]

21. But some pass the illness on

to their children. This has been documented in the UK, at least. Which kind of rules out vaccines and insecticide and such. But of course, there could several factors or several "Gulf illnesses". As for the French, would they have been exposed to the same amount of radioactive dust as the US/UK troops? I remember the French weren't exactly leading the offensive.

[chknltl]

22. Frederik Some help here please????

can we speak through the message boxes, I have a suspicion I wish to discuss in private

[chknltl]

7. Do you have any links to substantiate that?

I would be very interested in seeing this. I believe DU to still be one likely candidate but I am open minded, please show me what you have found.

[lenidog]

8. Let me go dig some up for you

Most of the info I have in in hard copy form that I have gathered or been given over the years, things like reports, articles, printouts from websites. But I am sure I can find some for you.

[chknltl]

9. thanks lenidog, I'll keep checking in. nt

[lenidog]

10. While looking around for some sites

I just saw a new theory, Aspartame poisoning. That is the first time I have ever heard of that being forwarded as a possibility.

[merh]

14. I had read about that aspartame poisoning.

Something about the sodas being left in the dessert heat. :shrug:
I was involved with a fellow that served and had skin problems, but the VA told him it was all in his head, had nothing to do with the war.

We both knew better.

[lenidog]

11. Here are some intresting sites I discovered

I will keep looking because some of the the links I found were dead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War_syndrome

http://www.swmed.edu/home_pages/epidemi/gws/gws.htm

http://www.fibromyalgiasupport.com/library/showarticle.cfm/ID/5871

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/318/7179/274

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/318/7179/290



Some of these provide some alternative or intresting addendums to theories surrounding Gulf War Syndrome. Some of the Brits seem to believe that there will never be a single cause found for GWS.

[chknltl]

12. Thank You, lenidog, I need to spend some time with these.

I have been wondering why this has not become a "plank" if you will, here in the Democratic Underground. I will read your posts, thank you again for these.

[lenidog]

13. None were exactly what I was looking for but I will keep trying to track

some more down. The sucks is that many of the Gulf war Syndrome sites are off line and the ones that remain are usually from the government.

[lenidog]

15. I am not sure why it hasn't become a plank

here but it is possible that because it has now been 15 years since the First Gulf War many of the younger members don't think its relevant anymore or they believe that they are carrying the banner by posting about DU.

[chknltl]

19. Preliminary research by the non-doctor...

...ME...on those links. First off thank you for doing that research.
Much of it looks very impressive. There was an item which supported your theory(?)(wrong word but the right one escapes me), that Depleted Uranium poisoning was not determined as a "major" factor in Gulf War Syndrome. I did not see the French example you spoke about but one study by British doctors on returning vets showed Gulf War Vets were suffering from Gulf War Syndrome symptoms 3 to 1 over returning vets from Bosnia. If the exposures were the same then that might be a "smoking-gun" against D.U. Of course I can not possibly know what the D.U. exposure levels were for those returning Bosnia vets.
I did see things in your links which both agreed and disagreed with the Doctors I cited. I intend to look closer into those. There were also some reports which have set off alarm bells for me, seriously muddying the waters as to the hazards of D.U. I would love to see that French study you referred to but please do not go to too much trouble on my part. So far I see nothing which changes my position on D.U., I feel that it's use to be a serious crime against humanity, as does a great many others. I feel it IS a Weapon of Mass Destruction for the same reasons that the United Nations does. Lastly I feel that a great many of our troops have been exposed and will or even are suffering from those effects.

[The Straight Story]

24. Thanks for the link and info

Much appreciated (and a thanks to all on the thread, you folks have some interesting ideas and information!)

[chknltl]

6. Depleted Uranium is one very likely suspect:

From what I have been reading on Depleted Uranium and the resultant uranium oxide, the very air in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and their neighbors is potentially hazardous to your health. I believe the new word is Omnicide. (graduated form of genocide) According to Leuren Moret, that same radioactive dust is now wafting around the world. Children born to exposed folks are experiencing higher and higher rates of birth defects, cancer rates are rising significantly. Here are some links, go look for yourself:
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm
and for some graphic photos of those babies:
www.web-light.nl/VISIE/extremedeformities.html
Here is a link to an article by the guy who wrote the military's book on this stuff:
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_16946.shtml
yet the band plays on...

[EFerrari]

16. Remember, the effects of DU and of the vaccines etc are

not mutually exclusive. There's most likely more than one thing going on here. And our government wants to be responsible for NONE of them.

They gave a monopoly to a cronie's company making an anthrax vaccine that was mandatory until some poor soldier to it to court -- because a bunch of people were getting sick and disabled from it! I have no links right now, sorry, but that's the deal as I remember it.

[chknltl]

17. Can not deny the multi-facets of gulf war syndrome but

My limited area of on-line research is in Depleted Uranium Munitions and it's effects. My step daughters ex-boyfriend swears up and down that his problems from the Gulf War comes from the vaccines he was given, not D.U. although he admits to likely exposure(s). Neither he or I are doctors. Like many folks, we depend upon the Internet to get info on topics of interest and concern. Leuren Moret, whom I have cited above has provided me with much concern about Depleted Uranium Munitions and the effects these munitions have on our troops, on noncombatants living in the area of their use, and on the world as a whole. Dr. Doug Rokke, (also cited) did write extensively on this topic while in the employ of the U.S. Military for the U.S.Military. I genuinely do not wish to downplay the effects of other things which most likely have contributed to what is called Gulf War Syndrome. I firmly believe our government does NOT have our soldiers better interests in mind. It is a safe bet that our government would prefer the things being discussed in this very thread not be discussed. An uneducated electorate is so much easier to control. My focus here is in warning folks about the D.U. hazard. If I was asked by someone who was considering joining the military what I thought, I would say HELL NO and point them to Dr. Rokke and Dr. Leuren Moret. If that didn't cure them... well I tried and at least they would have one reference base to consider should they come down with Gulf War Syndrome.

[EFerrari]

18. I heartily agree with you. And when our young people face

fertility problems and other complications of childbearing -- as are young people in Iraq since the Gulf War -- well, that will be a challenge as well.

I have never gone deep into the effects of DU or of the enforced vaccines. But the research I read was solid AND discounted by the very people charged with the welfare of our service people.

Shame on them.

[chknltl]

20. Yes shame on them

My hopes are that when the dust settles, (no pun intended), the criminals involved be taken to task for their crimes. Much money was made by this lot, money which could and should be put to better use I think.

[Karenina]

23. Kick!

:kick: