The FReeper Foxhole - Gulf War Syndrome: Fact vs. Fiction - Dec 9th, 2002

http://www.fumento.com/gwspro.html ^ | Michael Fumento

[SAMWolf]

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Remove the Myth and Look at the Science

It is time to put to rest the myth of Gulf War Syndrome (GWS), another meaningless collection of illnesses attributed to serving in the Gulf War. This editorial is based upon the excellent article on GWS found in the March 1997 issue of Reason magazine.

It is important to first consider the evidence to date and why the media in America has been so biased in its reporting of this "syndrome." The broadcast and news media (notably USA Today, the New York Times, and ABC's Nightline) constantly publish a barrage of pro-Gulf War Syndrome stories, peppered by individual accounts of soldiers who were there and now claim to have "it."

Naturally, like multiple chemical sensitivity disorder, there are over 100 symptoms of GWS, ranging from hair loss, graying hair, weight gain, weight loss, irritability, heartburn, rashes, sore throat, sore gums, constipation, insomnia, and a foot fungus, among others. The people claim to have GWS are not doctors, not medical experts, and not scientists. Yet the media consistently push their side of the story, only mentioning the scientific studies which have examined their claims as an afterthought.

A popularly quoted soldier, Pfc. Brian Martin, claims, for instance, that he "would vomit Chemlite-looking fluids every time I ran [in prescribed physical therapy]; an ambulance would pick me up, putting IVs in both arms, rushing me to Womack Community Hospital. This happened every morning after my return from the war" (transcript from a Congressional panel headed by Rep. Chris Shays, on September 19, 1996).

Chemlite refers to a glowing tube, so Martin is claiming his vomit glowed. Would any respectable medical doctor continue to prescribe physical therapy for a patient who was vomiting every morning in fluorescent colors? Sounds unlikely. Yet this is the most widely-quoted soldier in stories on GWS. Hasn't any reporter thought to question the reliability of some of this information?

Taking away the handful of case-study testimonies given before Congress, we're left with a half-dozen or so controlled, scientific studies to examine. The New England Journal of Medicine reported in its November, 1996 issue that cancer rates among Persian Gulf veterans is slightly below that of comparable vets who didn't deploy to the Gulf. In the same issue, it was reported that hospitalization rates for Gulf War vets are the same as non-Gulf War vets.

The final report from the Institute of Medicine, released in October, 1996, concluded that there was no "scientific evidence to date demonstrating adverse health consequences linked with [Gulf War] service." The Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illness draft of the final report, leaked in November, 1996, found "no support for the myriad theories proposed as causes of illnesses among Persian Gulf war veterans, or even evidence there is a 'Gulf War Syndrome.'"

These studies are only the most recent which have been published which show no discernable link between serving in the Persian Gulf war and any higher incidence of disease or illness.

What about the recent accounts of nearly 15,000 troops possibly being exposed to sarin nerve gas after a repository was destroyed in the war? No soldier in the 37th Engineer Battalion (which was responsible for blowing up those bunkers) reported any acute symptoms of nerve gas poisoning at the time. Could slight exposure (since nobody complained of any problems after the explosion) to a known and well-understood nerve gas now be responsible for the wide-spread harm and mayhem related to GWS? Unlikely.

The Institute of Medicine concluded in an October 1996 report that "there is no available evidence in human or animal studies to date that exposure to nerve agents at low levels that do not produce any detectable acute clinical or physiological manifestations results in any chronic or long-term adverse health effects." Did we ever see this as a headline in a newspaper or the lead story on the evening news?

No, it is far more interesting (and therefore, newsworthy) to claim something is causing harm than to claim there is no basis for the harm. For instance, the news media are much more likely to report on so-called Internet Addiction Disorder (despite no scientific evidence that it exists) than on the self-help support groups which quietly save hundreds of lives each year online. This is an ongoing and troubling bias in the media. By focusing on the negative (look at all the attention given to the verdict in a civil trial of a private individual), regardless of whether people care or not, the media often tries to make the news rather than report on it.

So what's causing all the symptoms complained about by these veterans? What is this if it isn't Gulf War Syndrome? The alternative to GWS is often misunderstood and stigmatized, hence the reason it is rarely mentioned.

Individuals who suffer from these very real physical symptoms are looking to an external, rather than internal cause. As the Reason article noted, you "can get diarrhea because you're worried about tomorrow's final exam or because you ate a week-old taco." The first cause is related to stress and internal thoughts; the latter is related to an organic mechanism. Dozens of research studies in psychology over the past few decades have illustrated the link between one's thoughts and one's physical state or well-being.

There are a lot of theories, in fact, about how physical ailments may be caused simply by our thoughts and feelings about ourselves. This is not to say that we intentionally look to create these problems within ourselves, or that the problem is "all in our heads." On the contrary, the problems and symptoms are just as real as the thoughts are and need treatment.

After the debate has been left behind, we are still left with the problem of vets having physical symptoms. Instead of focusing attention on what causes these problems, however, the solution lies in proper care and treatment of these problems. Treatment should likely include a psychological component, given what we know about the possible medical causes to date.

The important facet of all of this to realize is that there is a psychological component to this problem. It may be that some of these problems are psychosomatic in cause, or a social hysteria which some of the vets have come to firmly believe in and identify. In fact, a handful of vets have built their post-war lives around their disorders. Anything which becomes an integral and important part of one's life is not easily given up, no matter what is discovered about GWS in the future.

GWS likely does not exist, nor has it ever. Scientific research to date illustrates this more clearly than any testimonial given before Congress. This fact needs to be realized and the myth discarded before any long-term healing may begin.

[SAMWolf]

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS FINDS DESERT SHIELD, DESERT STORM VETS HAVE HIGHER RATE OF ALS

According to a news release on December 10, 2001 from the Department of Veterans Affairs, researchers conducting a large epidemiological study supported by both the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense have found preliminary evidence that veterans who served in Desert Shield-Desert Storm are nearly twice as likely as their non-deployed counterparts to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

This study, begun in March 2000, involved nearly 700,000 service members deployed to Southwest Asia, and 1.8 million who were not deployed to the Gulf during the period August 2, 1990 to July 31, 1991.

The study found 40 cases of ALS among deployed veterans. Although the researchers found the risk of ALS to be twice as high for deployed veterans, it is a rare disease and the number of affected individuals is small. Scientists would expect to find 33 cases in a similar-sized population over the same time period.

"These findings are of great concern and warrant further study," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi. "I intend to make certain that VA's medical resources and research capabilities are fully focused on this issue."

Here's a link to the Dept. of Veterans Affairs Study:

Study of ALS Among Gulf War Veterans (CSP#500)

[liberallarry]

The Gulf war offers a truly startling contrast with previous wars. Do you have a preferred explanation?

[Jeff Gordon]

I thought it was a well known fact the GWS was caused by Diet Soft Drinks. When raisded to a temperature of over 180 degrees for sevearl hours, the articifial sweetner turns to a formaldahide like substance. This substance is known to cause most of the GWS symptoms. It is also known that literally milllions of diet soft drinks say for days to weeks in shipping containers where the temperatures reached well over 180 degress.

[SAMWolf]

I don't buy into the "it's all caused by stress" theory, I think there was a good chance that some of the troops there were exposed to chemical of biological agents of some sort.

There was also a lot of controversy about the new drugs used to innoculate the troops so there may be something there also.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for your service g'nad and your input.

I believe there's something we're not being told, the Vitenam Vets went through the same thing with Agent Orange.

[SAMWolf]

The first I heard of that was in an earlier post. (#33)

It seems that this can account for some of the illnesses.

[MistyCA]

Thank for this thread, Sam! I am skeptical of the stories I have read, but I am also very skeptical of the diagnosis of fibromyalgia that seems so frequent now days. I think sometimes when doctors either don't know what causes something or are too busy to run tests, or are shut down by insurance companies who won't allow adequate tests, or are having their diagnosis sought by some who tend to be hypochondriac, the diagnosis of fibromyalgia is thrown out there. That doesn't mean the symptoms are not real...just that people are being bulked into a diagnosis that is pretty meaningless, imo.

I was reading another account of GWS where the person admitted that lung cancer ran in the family and had similar symptoms, yet he vet in this case preferred to think his symptoms were from the war. Of course! The pockets are deeper.

[MistyCA]

What a neat post! Thanks!

[MistyCA]

Thanks for the link,Tonk.

[editor-surveyor]

Do you accept Reason Magazine as an unbiased source?

Do you think that all these GW vets are just malingering?

Don't we get enough of this anti-personnel propaganda from the Govt. without making FreeRepublic a free sounding board for it?

[MistyCA]

Thanks for coming by!

[MistyCA]

Let's hope not.

[MistyCA]

Thanks for your post.

[MistyCA]

I put nothing past "bubba" also! I would hope, however, that your theory is not true.

[SAMWolf]

Do you think that all these GW vets are just malingering? <

NO I don't believe that, the article was posted to allow discussion on this subject.

[MistyCA]

You know, the other thing you have to think about, imo, is the dust storms and microbes that our men and women in the military are exposed to. As well as depression and shell-shock. If you look at the past history of wars and the percentage of people who come back from war with symptoms of one thing or the other, you have to wonder about the psycologically impact of war on people and how it manifests itself, imo.

[MistyCA]

thanks for coming by, and thanks for the bump!

[MistyCA]

Thanks for your post. It's good to see you here!