Gulf War Illness

Gulf War Illness (GWI), also known as Gulf War Syndrome (GWS), is a term used for unexplained illnesses occurring in veterans of the 1991 Gulf War in Southwest Asia. According to the Institute of Medicine in 2013, about one-third of US Gulf War veterans (250,000 of 700,000 personnel) suffer from chronic multi-symptom illness (CMI); a series of symptoms that cannot be medically explained. Science News summary of June 29, 2016, states: "Veterans of the Gulf War are more than twice as likely to have medically unexplained symptoms known as "multisymptom illness" (MSI), compared to Iraq/Afghanistan War veterans, according to an updated research."

Symptoms
The US Department of Veterans Affairs has a list on Gulf War Veterans’ Medically Unexplained Illnesses.
 * Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome            (ME/CFS) with long-term severe fatigue.
 * Fibromyalgia characterized by widespread muscle pain and may include insomnia, morning stiffness, headache, and memory problems.

Functional gastrointestinal disorders
A group of conditions marked by chronic or recurrent symptoms related to any part of the gastrointestinal tract. Functional condition refers to an abnormal function of an organ, without a structural alteration in the tissues.
 * functional abdominal pain syndrome
 * functional dyspepsia (indigestion)
 * irritable bowel syndrome

Undiagnosed illnesses
These symptoms may be connected to undiagnosed illnesses.
 * abnormal weight loss
 * cardiovascular disease
 * fatigue
 * headache
 * joint pain
 * menstrual disorders
 * muscle and joint pain
 * neurological and psychological problems
 * respiratory disorders
 * skin conditions
 * sleep dysfunction

Other symptoms

 * dizziness


 * memory problems

Cause of illness
The National Veterans Foundation lists several possibilities as causation which include depleted uranium, sarin gas, smoke from burning oil wells, vaccinations, combat stress and psychological factors. The Environmental Illness Resource also list decontamination solutions, pesticides and more.

Multisystem condition
In 2003, New Scientist 's March 29th print edition reported on Robert Haley and his team identifying three distinct syndromes in Gulf war veterans that caused brain damage. Syndrome 1: Symptoms are impaired cognition, distractions, and insomnia from the exposure of pesticide with basal ganglia damage. Syndrome 2: The symptoms are confusion, disorientation, ataxia, and vertigo due to exposure to sarin and pyridostigmine with damage to the brain stem and basal ganlia. Syndrome 3: Symptoms are pain, tingling, and numbness from exposure to DEET and pyridostigmine with damage to the brain stem. 175,000 of the 700,000 US Gulf War personnel are affected by the brain damage syndromes categorized by Dr. Haley and 75,000 are ill due to other exposures; in total 250,000 are chronically ill with GWI.
 * Gulf War Exposures - Gulf War (August 2, 1990 to present), includes Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm Oil well fires, depleted uranium, occupational hazards, and more contributed to GWI.

Research conclusions
The Conclusions and Recommendations of the Gulf War Illness and the Health of Gulf War Veterans: Research Update and Recommendations, 2009-2013 conclude "exposure to pesticides and pyridostigmine bromide are causally associated with Gulf War illness" as well as other hazardous exposures including gas agents sarin/cyclosarin. "Mixed exposures include not only mixtures of chemicals but also chemicals combined with heat, dehydration, infection and other environmental stressors."

Vaccinations
Vaccinations have been proposed as an etiological factor in Gulf War Illness, especially the mass vaccinations given prior to military deployment. Vaccination in the presence of elevated cortisol levels can drive cytokine expression toward TH2 dominance.

Other research findings

 * There is evidence of DNA damage in vets with GWI.

Risk of developing other conditions
The US Department of Veteran's Affairs found that "1990-1991 Gulf War deployment is associated with an increased risk for ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, skin conditions, and dyspepsia."

US Department of Veterans Affairs cover-up
"WASHINGTON — Department of Veterans Affairs officials purposely manipulate or hide data that would support the claims of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan to prevent paying costly benefits, a former VA researcher told a House subcommittee Wednesday.""'If the studies produce results that do not support the office of public health's unwritten policy, they do not release them,' said Steven Coughlin, a former epidemiologist in the VA's public health department.""'This applies to data regarding adverse health consequences of environmental exposures, such as burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, and toxic exposures in the Gulf War,' Coughlin said. 'On the rare occasions when embarrassing study results are released, data are manipulated to make them unintelligible.'"
 * Aug 28, 1997, THE COVER-UP OF GULF WAR SYNDROME -- A QUESTION OF NATIONAL INTEGRITY
 * Mar 13, 2013, Whistleblower: Veterans Affairs Covered Up Data on Mental Health, Gulf War Syndrome
 * Mar 13, 2013, Researcher says officials covered up vets' health data
 * Apr 12, 2013, Dr. Robert Haley spoke about the United States Department of Veterans Affairs cover-up of US Gulf War personnel being ill due to environmental exposure. 25% of the 700,000 US personnel sent to the Gulf War suffer from brain damage. In 2010, a report by The National Academies of Science Engineering Medicine had reported a total of 250,000 military personnel suffer from persistent unexplained symptoms.


 * Mar 14, 2014, Congress Confronts VA Over Gulf War Illness Research
 * Mar 30, 2015, Former VA Chief Of Staff Linked To Gulf War Scandal

Simon Wessely's past stress related beliefs in GWI
Professor Simon Wessely, psychiatric paradigm researcher of chronic fatigue syndrome, believed that stress was the common denominator of GWI. "Wessely told New Scientist: “There is not one single cause for the ill health,” adding that he believes we may never fully know what happened to the people who became ill.""Wessely asked both Gulf and non-Gulf veterans about 50 standard symptoms. “Gulf veterans reported every symptom twice as often,” he told the Lloyd inquiry. If there were a unique Gulf syndrome, some would be relatively more frequent in the Gulf group. “But they are just experiencing more ill health. There is no unique syndrome here.”""Wessely favours psychological explanations for Gulf war illnesses. The only thing that could have affected so many different people, he says, was stress, especially anxiety about chemical weapons, misinformation about Gulf war syndrome afterwards, and the many vaccinations Gulf troops received. His team found the more vaccine Gulf, but not non-Gulf veterans, received the more likely they are to be ill.""Haley says the questions in Wessely’s study were too vague to distinguish between a real syndrome and people who have, say, occasional dizziness or joint pain. He says this will confound efforts to uncover a meaningful pattern behind the veterans’ symptoms." "For regular personnel in the UK armed forces, deployment to the Iraq war has not, so far, been associated with significantly worse health outcomes, apart from a modest effect on multiple physical symptoms. There is evidence of a clinically and statistically significant effect on health in reservists." "Symptoms of common mental disorders and alcohol misuse remain the most frequently reported mental disorders in UK armed forces personnel, whereas the prevalence of probable post-traumatic stress disorder was low. These findings show the importance of continued health surveillance of UK military personnel." "Professor Simon Wessely is director of the King's Centre for Military Health Research in London and an adviser to the Ministry of Defence. He does not believe Gulf War Syndrome exists as a distinct illness.""Even so, he has no doubt that a significant number of Gulf veterans became ill as a direct result of their military service.""'The evidence is incontrovertible that there is a Gulf War health effect,' he says.""'Something to do with the Gulf has affected health and no-one serious has ever disputed that.""'Is there a problem? Yes there is. Is it Gulf War Syndrome or isn't it? I think that's a statistical and technical question that's of minor interest.'""The Ministry of Defence echoes Professor Wessely's view."
 * 2004, Interview with New Scientist:
 * 2006, A study published in The Lancet that Wessely was involved with, The health of UK military personnel who deployed to the 2003 Iraq war: a cohort study interpretation:
 * 2010, A second study What are the consequences of deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan on the mental health of the UK armed forces? A cohort study, published in 2010 in The Lancet, had this interpretation:
 * 2011, A BBC report Two decades on, battle goes on over 'Gulf War Syndrome' showed Professor Wessely still held the same stress related views of GWI.

Learn more

 * 2004, Independent Public Inquiry on Gulf War Illnesses (The Lloyd Inquiry) (REPORT RÉSUMÉ) (FULL TESTIMONY)


 * 2008, Gulf War Illness and the Health of Gulf War Veterans Scientific Findings and Recommendations
 * 2014, Advisory Group: Exposures, Not Stress Caused Gulf War Illness
 * 2015, GULF WAR RESEARCH STRATEGIC PLAN 2013-2017


 * 2016, Testing nine potential treatments for Gulf War Illness pain and fatigue
 * Vaccine
 * Wikipedia