kaffiend
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Extract:
After leaving the Army in 1992, he said his health continued to deteriorate, to the point where he could not hold jobs. Doctors diagnosed him with migraines, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome and chronic fatigue syndrome. They gave him medications that did not seem to help and offered treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, he said.
“I was told I had these problems because I was depressed. And yes, I was depressed,” Mr. Brown said. “But that’s part of having so many things wrong. That’s not what caused it.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/15/u...-gulf-war-illnesses.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0&hp
two groups within GWS: what's the bet one is organophosphate triggered, the other, by vaccines?
I wouldn't want to bet on this. However I also wouldn't want to presume that is right, or entirely right. I still think we might have surprises awaiting for us in this area of medical science. In particular we need to know, not just speculate on, why some people with rapid vaccination schedules or exposed to low levels of nerve gas or high levels of insecticides (the US Army uses them) get sick and not others.
But Dr. John Bailar, an emeritus professor at the University of Chicago who led a group that studied gulf war illness in 1996, said the new study did not provide enough data to determine whether the veterans’ symptoms were linked to their deployments to Kuwait, or something entirely different.
“I am not questioning whether a substantial proportion of veterans of Desert Storm have symptoms related to their service,” Dr. Bailar said in an e-mail. “I am questioning whether those symptoms have any cause other than the stress of war itself.”
After leaving the Army in 1992, he said his health continued to deteriorate, to the point where he could not hold jobs. Doctors gave him diagnoses of migraines, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome and chronic fatigue syndrome. They gave him medications that did not seem to help and offered treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, he said.
“I was told I had these problems because I was depressed. And yes, I was depressed,” Mr. Brown said. “But that’s part of having so many things wrong. That’s not what caused it.”
...After exercise, the ill veterans don't get the endorphin rush that appears in healthy people. Instead, they can be physically "knocked out for days," Rayhan said...
...Next, the study volunteers underwent an fMRI scan while completing a simple exercise to test short-term memory. An fMRI, or "functional" MRI, is a scan that measures activity by detecting how blood flows through the brain.
Again, the findings were unexpected. The control group's brains lit up in the expected manner, showing activity along the normal cognitive path. But both ill veteran groups showed brain activity in a circuitous route, which usually signifies that the normal path is dysfunctional...
..."We wanted to know why does exercise make these people completely fall off a cliff," Rayhan said. "It was as if you took the crutches away – those areas of the brain don't light up after exercise."
When they analyzed the brain scans further, they found atrophy to the brain stem and cerebellum in the abnormal heart rate group. This is the area that controls blood pressure and heart rate. In the pain group, they found a decrease in gray matter volume in the right superior parietal lobe, which is the area that processes pain...
...The scientists hope for funding to allow them to repeat the study with a new group of veterans to verify their findings. This study was funded by the Defense Department through the Congressionally Directed Research Programs.
In the meantime, Baraniuk recommends cognitive behavioral therapy to help the veterans come to terms with their illnesses, as well as triptan drugs to help with migraines. In the past, much research has been about psychological causes of Gulf War illness, which has led some doctors to assume the migraines are psychosomatic.
In previous research Baraniuk and Rayhan found differences in the white matter of the ill veterans by using an fMRI, which means there is an objective diagnosis for Gulf War Illness, they say.
"You can't fake it," Baraniuk said. "It's legitimate."
All GWI patients also met [Fukuda] criteria for CFS
I wouldn't want to bet on this. However I also wouldn't want to presume that is right, or entirely right. I still think we might have surprises awaiting for us in this area of medical science. In particular we need to know, not just speculate on, why some people with rapid vaccination schedules or exposed to low levels of nerve gas or high levels of insecticides (the US Army uses them) get sick and not others.
Hi Simon , yes I think its worth blogging about. Aside from possible links to ME, there are two good reasons to blog about it. First, we should be concerned about all neuroimmune illnesses. All of us get poor research, poor research funding, and poor support. Second, this paper sends another message to proponents of psychogenic views: yet again you are wrong, its not psychosomatic. Best wishes, Alex.
Luckily he's had extensive experience in avoiding biomedical research - I'm sure he's already got a mechanism in place to ignore this or explain why CBT is still the One True CureWill we hear anything from Mr Wessley do you think - given he was the expert at one point informing both the USA and the UK about the mental health of GW vets? I think not....
Will we hear anything from Mr Wessley do you think - given he was the expert at one point informing both the USA and the UK about the mental health of GW vets? I think not....