VA Changes Approach on Gulf War Illness

I think that it is time that they admitt that the possibility of Chemical weapons use by some of the Iraqi's during the 1st Gulf war. The Government has had their head up their arses on this one IMHO and I think it was due to $$$ reasons.


NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, Nov. 12, 2004
WASHINGTON � The Veterans Affairs Department said Friday that it no longer would pay for studies that seek to show stress is the primary cause of mysterious ailments afflicting thousands of veterans of the 1991 Gulf War.

For years the federal government has pointed to stress as the likely reason for the sicknesses. But Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi scheduled a news conference to announce the VA would set aside up to $15 million for a year of research into Gulf War illness, with the stipulation the money not pay for studies that propose stress as the only explanation for the ailments, said Stephan Fihn, the VA's acting chief research and development officer.

VA Changes Approach on Gulf War Illness

I don't believe that it has ever been proven that US troops were exposed to chemical weapons during the Gulf War. Given the known agents, those who were exposed should have shown readily identifiabe symptoms. However, if the syndrome was the effect of stress, why should the symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome have been markedly different than the recognized symptoms of PTSD.

Many thousands of Gulf War veterans have experienced undiagnosed illnesses with symptoms such as chronic fatigue, loss of muscle control, diarrhea, migraines, dizziness, memory problems and loss of balance.

I have seen films of men who suffered what was called Shell Shock during and after WWI. Some of these men had coarse tremors so profound that they could not stand or even sit erect, yet I have not heard of any cases of GWS that have been this severe.

It would seem to me that chronic loss of muscle control that is progressive or loss of balance would be more likely due to organic causes and if they were the result of stress alone, this syndrome would have been noted previously in the literature.

Clearly, having the VA admit that there is still much to learn about GWS is good news and we can hope that the cause can eventually be identified.



[edit on 04/11/12 by GradyPhilpott]

Here is some more info on it. Another article about it in the New Scientist Print Edition:

From Linked Story
According to leaks of a report, which is due to be released next week by the US Department of Veterans Affairs� Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans� Illnesses, �a substantial proportion of Gulf war veterans are ill with multisystem conditions not explained by wartime stress or psychiatric illness�.

Some 30% of Gulf veterans suffer from various combinations of fatigue, muscle and joint pains, headache, and gut and cognitive problems � over and above non-Gulf veterans, the report says.

It blames damage caused by nerve gas and its antidotes, and organophosphate insecticides (OPs), which all block the enzyme that normally destroys acetylcholine, an important neural signalling chemical.

Link

Goes into a bit more detail about the chemicals involved.