Posted on 04/26/2010 6:48:38 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) is back in the news, thanks to a new study released by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and so is the persistent effort to label it a “mystery.” See, for example, the story by a HealthDay reporter headlined “Gulf War Syndrome Is Real, but Causes Unclear: Report.” Says the article, “its causes, treatment, and potential cure remain unknown.”
A definite mystery, right? Well, no.
There are two “causes” of GWS — the second of which is actually quite interesting, but not mysterious. The first explanation is a normal background rate of disease. That is, among the over 700,000 Americans who served in the Gulf War, there is no more sickness, and the death rate is no higher, than you’d expect in a group of that size and of those demographics after 19 years.
This has been repeatedly demonstrated. A massive 2006 review of studies from four types of data sets — health-care registries, hospitalization studies, outpatient studies, and mortality studies — on American, British, Canadian, Saudi, and Australian veterans found that after 15 years there was “no suggestion that a new unique illness was associated with service during the Gulf War.” What part of “no” don’t the mystery-mongers understand?
As I put it in an article for NRO in 2004:
Activists have attributed at least 123 symptoms to this “will-o’-the-wisp” syndrome, as former New England Journal of Medicine editor Marcia Angell described it to the New York Times. They include aching muscles, aching joints, abdominal pain, bruising, shaking, vomiting, fevers, irritability, fatigue, weight loss, weight gain, heartburn, bad breath, hair loss, graying hair, rashes, sore throat, itching, sore gums, constipation, sneezing, nasal congestion, leg cramps, hemorrhoids, hypertension, insomnia, and headaches.
Anybody who hasn’t had most of the above symptoms is probably an android. But when a non-vet gets a cough, it’s called “a cough.” If a Gulf vet gets one, it’s called GWS.
Still, there are different illnesses found among the Gulf vets, which brings us to the second cause. Like the 2006 review, the IOM report also found “no unique syndrome, illness, or symptom complex.” But it did find, on the basis of self-reports (rather than objective examinations), that Gulf vets had an unusually high incidence of “psychiatric disorders [such] as posttraumatic stress disorder, gastrointestinal disorders, joint pain, and respiratory disorders.”
These are all classic symptoms of “mass psychogenic illness,” points out University of Toronto medical historian Edward Shorter, the author of From Paralysis to Fatigue: A History of Psychosomatic Illness in the Modern Era.
But “psychogenic” or “psychosomatic” doesn’t mean “it’s all in your head,” as so many people believe. It simply means it originated in the mind. “There can be real subjective problems,” Shorter says. “It just means that they’re not organic — that they don’t have outside causes like depleted uranium or chemical exposure.” But the GWS “organic lobby,” as he puts it — meaning primarily veterans’ advocacy groups — “insists one or more of those have to be the cause.”
Probably all of us have suffered psychosomatic illness. I once had a case of urticaria (hives) that would rate in the Guinness Book of World Records. My face would swell up like the Elephant Man’s. My limbs would resemble Popeye’s. It was sheer agony, and all the doctors were baffled. Then somebody suggested to me it was caused by a specific stress I had been suffering, and I realized he was right. Within days, the hives and the horror were gone forever.
Mass psychogenic illness has been documented since the Middle Ages and today occurs frequently. Introduce a noxious odor into a high-school building, provide the least hint it may be harmful, and watch the kids start falling over like tenpins. “That’s how suggestion works,” says Shorter. “Tell people they’ll come down with X or Y, and then by golly they will.”
And that’s just what our Gulf vets have been told, both by the press and by the lobby that thinks it’s helping them. That’s why Shorter calls GWS a “mediagenic” epidemic. In 17 years of covering this story, I’ve traced GWS from its initial outbreak among Indiana reservists, whence it went nationwide. Then after a pause it jumped to the U.K. and other English-speaking countries. Then finally, after another pause, it jumped to countries where the media are primarily non-English.
Reporters, unfortunately, usually don’t understand what psychogenic means and think they’re doing vets a favor by offering outside agents as causes, no matter how unlikely they are. (Scud missile fuel, anyone?)
And, yes, people have a taste for mysteries, and so the media want to perpetuate the GWS “mystery,” complete with riveting, though impossible, tales — as indeed they’re now doing with the Toyota “mystery.” (Cosmic rays, anyone?)
With marauding Toyotas, no tale is too outlandish to be believed. The California “runaway Prius” driver tells credulous reporters he was “afraid” to try to shift into neutral because he needed both hands on the steering wheel; yet they know he had a cell phone in his hand almost the entire time. Subsequently, newspapers worldwide carried a story about a Norwegian driver who claimed he had to smash his runaway Prius into a guard rail at over 100 mph to stop it; yet accompanying photos showed mere scratch marks on the fender.
GWS gave us “Brian Martin and the Amazing Technicolor Vomit.” Pfc. Martin, who belonged to my old airborne brigade, told Congress in 1996 — and told me twice, and therefore almost certainly every other reporter who interviewed him — that after returning from the Gulf, “every morning” for ten straight months “I would vomit Chemlite-looking fluids” during the daily run in physical training, and “an ambulance would pick me up, putting IVs in both arms.” Chemlites are sticks that glow in the dark when you snap them.
Do we really believe that his superiors would force him through such an ordeal more than once, let alone every day for ten straight months? The media acted as if they believed it. As far as I’ve seen, nobody but me ever questioned this or Martin’s other amazing stories. Indeed, when I called an AP reporter and asked if she didn’t think the glowing-vomit remark impugned Martin’s credibility, she said no. “You have to remember he’s been on talk shows, and they’ve written a lot about him.”
John Hanchette, then with Gannett News Service and a 1980 Pulitzer Prize winner, also wrote about Martin’s testimony. And while (like the AP reporter) carefully excising mention of the glowing vomit, Hanchette did list a number of bizarre symptoms Martin had claimed, saying they had been confirmed by “federal medical exams.” That gave them a real air of authority. Yet Martin’s doctors told me that some of the symptoms hadn’t been complained of by any other of their Gulf vet patients. Hanchette did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment. His editor, Jeffrey Stinson, told me, “I’m not going to sit here and go over this kind of stuff with you. You can sit here and nitpick. He’s a Pulitzer Prize winner.” Stinson then hung up. Obviously winning a Pulitzer means never having to say you’re sorry.
Perhaps you can argue that if we demand mysteries, the media are merely doing us a service in providing them. But there can be a dark side. Is this how we should repay 700,000 people who sacrificed of themselves for us? Says Shorter, “I don’t think you’re doing these men any favor by encouraging them to think they have a terrible organic disease they don’t have.”
— Michael Fumento (U.S. Army Airborne, 1978–82) is director of the National Journalism Project, where he specializes in health and science issues. He was also embedded three times in Iraq and once in Afghanistan. His website is www.fumento.com.
Good post.
The Military kind of brought some of this on themselves by denying REAL illness brought on by REAL actions that were denied for nearly a decade in the Agent Orange debacle.
Now they can’t sit back and say “Why won’t they trust us?”
fumento needs to explain how returning men who went home to wives:
When they had sex, it burned like an nfection during the act after one or two time together, as if the man’s discharge had something in it that inflammed or irritated the woman
Goldenhar syndrom in babies being the greatest birth defect that GWS familys have in their children
Lou Gerighs Disease was also high among those vets by percentage
I wont dispute that some of it was psychosomatic, some symptoms, after all, most people came back with SOME deisease or ailment they didn’t have when they left, I just find it curious how so many different symptoms appeared in so many people and not common symptoms among units
The other thing that everyone knew then, but never made much talk in the media, is the chemical alarms going off all the time, being labelled false alarms, yet there was no scandal of faulty equipment, only ‘false alarms’
lets see, we are blowing up bunkers filled with weapons grade chemicals, mustard gas, sarin gas, and when the alarms go off, it is only FALSE alarms??
And all the oil fire residue, just what was in that smoke and how many chemicals did these guys inhale?
It is no surprise that people got sick, it is just a surprise how many different ailments they had with no apparent cause or connection.
We've been there for seven years this go around.
About a year ago, my cousin was diagnosed with lung cancer. He was a door gunner in Vietnam, and he isn’t a smoker. The surgeons at the VA hospital told him it was probably due to Agent Orange.
Was he ever surprised. Agent Orange????? Whoda thought it?
My daughters still are affected by it, or at least strongly suspected. My ex-father in law is dying from the Agent Orange disease now and my ex-husband was conceived within a few months of his return from the jungles in Vietnam. He was there when it was sprayed.
My ex was in and out of St. Jude all of his childhood due to seizure disorder that was non-epileptic. My oldest has Spina Bifida with kyphoscoliosis and my middle daughter has the same seizure disorder, although not as severe, as her father.
My pediatrician sent in my oldest daughter’s name to some program that was trying to accumulate data on third generation Agent Orange because they are finding it is not as severe, but still there. Children of Vietnam vets with spina bifida are entitled to a college scholarship. Of course Spina Bifida occurs even without that, but I read some study that showed it was like 50% higher incidence in Vietnam Vet’s children. And the children in Vietnam that have had to drink the water have suffered terribly from it.
Thankfully, my cousin seems to be doing okay, but who knows down the road? My cousin and his wife have a son. I’m sorry to hear about your family’s medical problems. I didn’t realize that it could affect vets’ children to such an extent.
LOL, this article is a sham. They claim Morgellons is an internet disease, that is people read about it and then “catch” it, hard to believe they’re trying to write off GWS the same way.
But we were forced to take pyrodistigmine, mefloquine, and the then-experimental anthrax vaccine for months prior to the outbreak of hostilities. This is not mentioning the possible exposure to the chemical weapons that Saddam had in his arsenal at the time.
I don’t believe it for a minute. I had more than one fellow soldier that served in GW1 and they passed along their miriad of symptoms to their offspring.
I’m glad he is doing ok too. Cancer sucks regardless of where it comes from, but to know it could have been prevented... I will add your cousin and his family to my prayer list. Can you Freepmail me their names, even just first names. Don’t have to or anything, but you know, lifting them up in a chorus of prayers and all.
Thanks for that about my kids. I had never even heard of children, much less grandchildren of vets being affected until I met my ex. I knew about his situation, but was reassured that it would not pass down to our children. HA! So much for that doctor’s reassurance. I didn’t have the benefit of the internet (well, it was around, just not a lot of data available like now-mostly just chat rooms and stuff) before I got pregnant. If I had known the dangers of increased spina bifida, I would have taken even higher doses of folic acid. Might not have made a difference, but who knows. My daughter with the seizures is doing better since she seems to be outgrowing them as her dad did. We just have to watch her with fevers. Most kids outgrow febral (fever induced) seizures at about four, but she still suffers with them at 12. My oldest though is looking at a rod in her back and pins to support the portion of vertebrae in five of them. Five vertebrae is only half formed, so she can’t run or participate in sports or anything since a higher risk of back fracture. I posted a panicked thread here a while back on her because she was having loss of feeling in her legs and I was terrified a nerve had slipped. They are waiting on her to grow more (she is 14) and then work on the rod. No need to risk a back surgery twice if they don’t have to. But in order for her to carry a child, she will need some support.
you forgot your sarc tag.
OIF vets had to take mefloquine in the begining too.... trust me, I know first hand. The anthrax vaccine is the same one that has been around since Vietnam; it was licensed in 1970.....hardy experimental 21 years after it was licensed. Stop believing everything tv tells you.
I've made it through all of the initial series of anthrax vaccines and have gotten an annual booster since 2003; as have most of the folks I work with.
Last I checked Iraq was still Iraq the chemicals that were found would've been no differnet than the ones there in the 1990s.
Further, with the multiple rotations, today's troops would've had MORE exposure to things in Iraq.
The only thing you listed that I wasn't subjected to (nor do I know anyone that was) is pyrodistigmine, which is given prior to potential exposure to nerve gas.
“The other thing that everyone knew then, but never made much talk in the media, is the chemical alarms going off all the time, being labelled false alarms, yet there was no scandal of faulty equipment, only ‘false alarms’”
I was on the ground on the front lines with a Marine Corps battalion dealing with positive alarms.
The alarms were reagent coated strips that changed color when exposed to chemical agents. It was never made clear how specific the strips were.
There were several times that the techs brought me strips that were discolored and we had to figure out if they were positive or not. A positive alarm is not as clear cut as you would think. And deciding to react to a postive alarm is not as simple as it should be either.
In the end we just documented the strips, decided not to change our MOP posture and moved on. As far as I know we all came out OK. We only had a handfull of people claim Gulf War Sydrome and they were all in the rear with the gear.
No sarcasm was intended.
The anthrax vaccine is the same one that has been around since Vietnam; it was licensed in 1970.....hardy experimental 21 years after it was licensed. Stop believing everything tv tells you.
Maybe it has been around since the 70's, but half my team was down with flu-like symptoms after we were forced to take that vaccination. My team medic refused to give further anthrax vaccinations and (Thankfully) just signed off on our records.
I've made it through all of the initial series of anthrax vaccines and have gotten an annual booster since 2003; as have most of the folks I work with.
I'm happy for you. BTW, do you mean THIS anthrax vaccine?:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11988433
Save your money. Cipro is much better tolerated, less expensive, and doesn't require refrigeration.
Last I checked Iraq was still Iraq
Can't deny that. I've been here since August this time around.
Further, with the multiple rotations, today's troops would've had MORE exposure to things in Iraq.
They haven't been given all the drugs that we were in '90-'91, plus, they aren't exposed to burning oil wells or chemical residue from Saddams arsenal.
Pyrodistigmine was given "in case of exposure". Since you don't know when the bad guys are going to drop it on you, commanders decided to have the troops take it regularly.
bfl
His specific case killed McVeigh and at least 168 others, just as dead as the US Constitution.
Now explain the FOX vehicles alarms, they were much more precise than those strips, right? :)
Those are common side effects. I personally don't like to get the shot because it usually makes me sick for a couple of days; with flu-like symptoms. Although, this last time (in Jan) it didn't.
My wife was also a medic and had to administer anthrax. And from talking with her, they didn't have any major reactions other than the flu-like symtems that not everybody gets.
Save your money. Cipro is much better tolerated, less expensive, and doesn't require refrigeration
DoD (taxpayers) foot the bill. I have no control over how they chose to spend the money. I also don't have control over what they require for pre-deployment vaccinations
plus, they aren't exposed to burning oil wells or chemical residue from Saddams arsenal.
I would beg to differ on both of those. And with the extended stay, many of the FOBS (and even larger bases) burn trash, and fecal matter. Which I'm sure had to be done during the GW.
I've done four rotations through Iraq. 2003 (short time as part of the MEU), 2004, 2006-2007, and 2007-2008.
I'm not trying to be a hard ass. I'm not doubting that some people got sick, but as the article mentions, the numbers were no higher than average sampling of the population.
My point is, that if these cases were based on something with the Gulf War, it would stand to reason there would be a higher prevalnce among OIF veterans because of the multiple rotations, higher probability of being in different areas with each deployment, and extended periods of stay.
We still use much of the same munitions that were used during the Gulf War. The same chemicals were present then as they are now. There were oil fires during OIF as well. The only difference that I mentioned was in OIF (to my knowledge) pyrodistigmine was not administered (as you stated it was during the GW).
I will say, that I don't doubt at all pyrodistigmine was administered frequently. This is the usual DoD knee-jerk.
As per your unit not receiving the anthrax vaccine, you were lucky to not be exposed to anthrax. Here is another story about some Marines that didn't take their anti-malarial pills....
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/08/health/main572116.shtml
The story stipulates that the Marines taking the pills incorrectly was one of three possibilities for the outbreak. I was on that ship and can say that many either A. didn't take them as they were supposed to. B. didn't take them at all.
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