Gulf War Vets Risk Lou Gehrig's Disease, Studies Say

[Guest guest]

> Gulf War Vets Risk Lou Gehrig's Disease, Studies Say

>

> By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

>

> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Veterans of the 1991 Gulf War

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> sites) may have an unusually high risk of a deadly and incurable nerve

> disease called ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease

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> sites), according to two U.S. studies published on Monday.

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>

> While ALS is far from common among the veterans, it has appeared more than

> expected and at younger-than-usual ages, the separate studies found.

>

> One of the studies was done by Dr. Robert Haley, of the University of

Texas

> Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas -- who has found much if not most of

> the published medical evidence supporting the idea of Gulf War Syndrome

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> A second study by the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs

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> sites) reaches similar conclusions Both were published in the journal

> Neurology.

>

> The VA released its preliminary findings in December 2001.

>

> " VA has contacted the Gulf War veterans identified in the study to help

> them file new claims or to expedite existing claims. We have granted

> disability to 37 Gulf conflict veterans for ALS, " A VA spokesman said.

>

> Haley said the finding was significant because it was " only the third real

> cluster of ALS cases that's ever been documented. "

>

> Amytrophic lateral sclerosis, also called ALS or motor neuron disease,

> attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, leading to muscle

> weakness, difficulty speaking, swallowing and breathing, and eventually

> total paralysis.

>

> It affects about 30,000 Americans, and is named after baseball Hall of

Fame

> member Lou Gehrig, who died of ALS.

>

> About 5 percent of cases are inherited but most are unexplained. But

> because ALS occurs at about the same rate globally, experts believe there

> must be a genetic weakness that underlies the disease.

>

> Haley identified 17 Gulf War veterans under 45 who were diagnosed with ALS

> between 1991 and 1998, 11 of whom have died. None had a family history of

> ALS or similar diseases.

>

> HIGHER THAN EXPECTED RATE OF ALS

>

> Haley calculated the expected rate of ALS among this age group and found

> 1.38 cases of ALS per year would be expected in the Gulf War veteran

> population in 1998. He found five cases that year.

>

> The VA study found that troops deployed to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the

United

> Arab Emirates, Turkey and the Red Sea area had almost twice the risk of

ALS

> as troops who stayed home.

>

> They verified 107 cases of ALS. Of these 40 were from the 696,000 deployed

> troops and 67 from the nearly 1.8 million not sent overseas.

>

> " This study addressed the question, 'Is there a problem with excessive

> occurrence of ALS among Gulf War veterans? " ' said Ronnie Horner of the

> National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, who led the

second

> study. " We found the answer to be yes. "

>

> Haley noted the studies involved very small numbers of people and did not

> mean that most or even many Gulf War veterans need to be worried.

>

>

>

> " The best thinking in the ALS research world is that ALS only occurs in

> people with a rare genetic susceptibility, " Haley said in a telephone

> interview.

>

> " If you have that genetic makeup and you are exposed to many years of

> environmental toxins of one kind or another -- and no one knows what they

> are -- then you get the ALS. That is why usually only older people get

it. "

>

> Haley said Sarin gas " appears to be central cause in Gulf War Syndrome, "

> affecting about one of seven Gulf War veterans.

>

> This may shed light on why ALS occurs.

>

> " One of the prime suspects in civilian ALS is organophosphate pesticides.

> Guess what Sarin is? It is an organophosphate pesticide for humans, " he

said.

>

> Earlier this year the Institute of Medicine

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> sites) reported that not enough studies have been done to link pesticides

> or any other chemicals to Gulf War Syndrome, a poorly defined group of

> illnesses seen in many veterans of the 1991 conflict.

>

>

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