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Gulf War Syndrome real, Institute of Medicine concludes

leelaplay

member
Messages
1,576
kelly posted this to CO-CURE today

[kelly: Note: Dr. Simon Wessely, a professor of psychological (psychosomatic)
medicine has long championed the psychosomatic explanation for GWS as well
as other diseases with similar core symptoms. Former head of the CDC CFS
Research Program, Dr. Bill Reeves also did studies in the '90s attempting to
prove GWS was "not real." ]

Gulf War Syndrome real, Institute of Medicine concludes

By Janet Raloff

(Science News) - Hundreds of thousands of U.S. veterans who claim to suffer
from Gulf War Syndrome just received powerful new ammunition against
arguments that their symptoms are trivial, if not altogether fictional. On
April 9, the Institute of Medicine the health arm of the National Academy
of Sciences issued a report that concludes military service in the Persian
Gulf War has not only been a cause of post-traumatic stress disorder in some
veterans but also is associated with multisymptom illness.

That multisymptom illness is IOMs moniker for what the vets refer to as
Gulf War Syndrome.

"It is clear that a significant portion of the soldiers deployed to the Gulf
War have experienced troubling constellations of symptoms that are difficult
to categorize," according to neuroscientist Stephen L.
Hauser<http://neurology.ucsf.edu/brain/faculty/bios/hauser.aspx>of the
University of California, San Francisco. He chaired the IOM committee
that issued the new report.

"Unfortunately, Hauser said, symptoms that cannot be easily quantified are
sometimes incorrectly dismissed as insignificant and receive inadequate
attention and funding by the medical and scientific establishment. Veterans
who continue to suffer from these symptoms deserve the very best that modern
science and medicine can offer to speed the development of effective
treatments, cures, and we hope prevention.

The new report argues that medicines trouble in defining the nature or
precise cause(s) of Gulf War Syndrome does not negate its existence. Indeed,
the IOMs new analysis began with the premise that multisymptom illness is
a diagnostic entity. Its analysis then investigated evidence to determine
whether a link exists between multiple, unexplained symptoms and Gulf War
deployment.

And IOMs report now concludes that Gulf War Syndrome is real, based on data
documenting a high rate of symptoms in former U.S. troops who had served in
the Gulf War nearly two decades ago. High-quality surveys of Gulf War vets
from other nations, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, show many of
those men also have been suffering similar chronic symptoms, which could
include everything from gastrointestinal illness and mental confusion, to
attacks of sudden vertigo, intense uncontrollable mood swings, fatigue and
sometimes numbness or the opposite, constant body pain.

Last month, a team of researchers headed by Robert Haley of the University
of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
reported<http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/57073/title/Scientists_offer_compelling_images_of_Gulf_War_illness>new
brain-imaging confirmation of Gulf War illnesses, which it described
as
a trio of syndromes with puzzling symptoms.

Like the UT Southwestern scientists, the IOM committee could not pin down
the source of the vets symptoms. Equally puzzling was why some troops
sustained major chronic illness after a short tour of duty while others from
their military units incurred no such symptoms after many years in the
field. Indeed, it may prove difficult if not impossible to reconstruct
what happened nearly 20 years after the fact, the IOM committee noted.

But theres certainly a suspicion, it said, that multisymptom Gulf War
Syndrome(s) may reflect interactions between environmental exposures and
genes, such that genetics predisposed many troops to illness. IOM now
recommends that research commence immediately to investigate that genetics
angle. And there should be a big enough population to study this in, IOM
says, with more than one-third of the 700,000 Gulf War vets claiming
multisymptom illnesses associated with their military service.

The report also calls for a substantial commitment to improve identification
and treatment of multisymptom illness in Gulf War veterans. That would, of
course, first require that the Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledge
these syndromes as real disease.
 

Frickly

Senior Member
Messages
1,049
Location
Texas
Excellent news! I would not be surprised at all if GWI and CFS turn out to be from the same cause. I dated a guy in college that was diagnosed with GWI. Hmmm....I wonder if he made me sick?
 

JillBohr

Senior Member
Messages
247
Location
Columbus, OH
Good grief, took them 20 years to decide....
I know! That was the same thing I was thinking. As far as finding the cause, they should take a close look at the virus infected vaccines they administered to our fighting men and women. Unbelievable. Oh, the fact that 1/3 of the military have GFS, it should not be just genetics they are looking at. Seriously, these investigators must be on drugs or something. The autism rate for US Soldiers is double in the civilian population. I am so mad! I hope Dr. Nancy Klimas gets some test results back soon for the veterans she had tested for XMRV. She is one of the very few doctors that took this seriously.
 

Kati

Patient in training
Messages
5,497
In my opinion, this is law suit material. For all these years, these poor vets (from all around the world) have been told this is PTSD, somatizing, have been denied benefits and proper care. Like us, these guys have lost their lives. Only in their case, their employers have as a whole, failed them. And the employer is the government. I really hope the governments will be gracious and compensate these people for pain and suffering, amongst other things.
 

Dreambirdie

work in progress
Messages
5,569
Location
N. California
In my opinion, this is law suit material. For all these years, these poor vets (from all around the world) have been told this is PTSD, somatizing, have been denied benefits and proper care. Like us, these guys have lost their lives.

What Kati said.

They certainly don't deserve any awards for FINALLY getting it. And yeah, a big hunking law suit, would serve them well.
 

Dr. Yes

Shame on You
Messages
868
Some of the major findings that helped garner this (very LATE) validation for GWI victims came from thorough, well-funded brain imaging research. I bring this up whenever I can -- WHY isn't anyone putting money into those kinds of studies (fMRI, Bold MRI, SPECT, PET) for ME/CFS???
 

JillBohr

Senior Member
Messages
247
Location
Columbus, OH
Some of the major findings that helped garner this (very LATE) validation for GWI victims came from thorough, well-funded brain imaging research. I bring this up whenever I can -- WHY isn't anyone putting money into those kinds of studies (fMRI, Bold MRI, SPECT, PET) for ME/CFS???
Great question (and point) Dr. Yes. I know Dr. Goldberg out of LA found a link between ME/CFS and autism many years ago when his wife came down with ME/CFS and then he observed in the 90's all these children with "autism" and having seizure disorders. He then observed that the immune panels of "ASD" children were very similar to his wife and other patients with ME/CFS. Just another example of how doctors that have family members with ME/CFS actually get it. Anyway, he orders spect scans on his patients and if you see his lectures, you can actually see the differences in the blood flow of the brain compared to controls. There was just another study published in Italy on viruses in brains of ASD children. This was a post-mortem study and I would love to see post-mortem studies on ME/CFS subjects. Why this has not been done, I am at a lost. I have always been an overly optimistic person (just can't help it - it's in the genes), but I think times are changing and we will see some great progress shortly.
 

jimbob

ME/CFS84-XMRV+
Messages
321
Location
myrtle beach, s.c.
I'm half way through goldberg's lecture. this guy is pretty amazing! we should hook him up with dr. J! i'll finish other half tmrw, eyes are tired.
 

spindrift

Plays With Voodoo Dollies
Messages
286
I'm half way through goldberg's lecture. this guy is pretty amazing! we should hook him up with dr. J! i'll finish other half tmrw, eyes are tired.

I emailed Judy Mikovits about Dr. Goldberg and within in an hour at 10 pm (she seems to work around the clock, incredible lady) I had this response:

Dear xxxxx
Thank you for your kind note. Dr Goldberg is a friend and has been a clinical colleague of the WPI since its inception. Whenever, I am in LA I make certain to visit with him. He is indeed a visionary as well as a passionate and dedicated physician. Thank you for the video link and for reminding me, it has been too long since I called Dr Goldberg and told HIM he was amazing! I have learned everything about this spectrum of diseases from incredible dedicated people like Dr Goldberg.
Warmest regards
Judy
 

Kati

Patient in training
Messages
5,497
What a classy woman!!! it's nice to see the networking the scientists have between one another.
 

JillBohr

Senior Member
Messages
247
Location
Columbus, OH
I emailed Judy Mikovits about Dr. Goldberg and within in an hour at 10 pm (she seems to work around the clock, incredible lady) I had this response:

Dear xxxxx
Thank you for your kind note. Dr Goldberg is a friend and has been a clinical colleague of the WPI since its inception. Whenever, I am in LA I make certain to visit with him. He is indeed a visionary as well as a passionate and dedicated physician. Thank you for the video link and for reminding me, it has been too long since I called Dr Goldberg and told HIM he was amazing! I have learned everything about this spectrum of diseases from incredible dedicated people like Dr Goldberg.
Warmest regards,Judy

Wow spendrift, that you so much for writing Dr. Judy. She IS amazing. I would love to have her cloned. Hee hee.
 

fred

The game is afoot
Messages
400
What a great doctor. If there were more like him, we'd have most diseases licked by now.

Was it a medic in the audience who shouted out "What's an NK cell?"