# Gulf War Syndrome Vets - Damage In The Nervous System



## M&M (Jan 20, 2002)

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> quote:Gulf War Syndrome Veterans Have Damage in Specific Portion of Nervous SystemDescriptionUT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas researchers have uncovered damagein a specific, primitive portion of the nervous systems of veteranssuffering from Gulf War syndrome.Newswise UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas researchers haveuncovered damage in a specific, primitive portion of the nervous systems ofveterans suffering from Gulf War syndrome.UT Southwestern researchers report that damage to the parasympatheticnervous system may account for nearly half of the typicalsymptoms including gallbladder disease, unrefreshing sleep, depression,joint pain, chronic diarrhea and sexual dysfunction that afflict thosewith Gulf War syndrome. Their findings will be published in the Octoberissue of the American Journal of Medicine and are currently available online."The high rate of gallbladder disease in these men, reported in a previousstudy, is particularly disturbing because typically women over 40 get this.It's singularly rare in young men," said Dr. Robert Haley, chief ofepidemiology at UT Southwestern and lead author of the new study.The parasympathetic system regulates primitive, automatic bodily functionssuch as digestion and sleep, while the sympathetic nervous system controlsthe "fight or flight" instinct."They're sort of the mirror image of each other the yin and the yang ofthe nervous system that control functions we are not usually aware of.This is another part of the explanation as to why Gulf War syndrome is soelusive and mysterious," said Dr. Haley.Previously, isolating pure parasympathetic brain function was difficult. Inthe new study Dr. Haley and his colleagues used a technique that monitorschanges in approximately 100,000 heartbeats over 24 hours and measureschanges in high-frequency heart rate variability a function solelyregulated by the parasympathetic nervous system.After plotting the subtle changes in heart function using a mathematicaltechnique called spectral analysis, researchers found that parasympatheticbrain function, which usually peaks during sleep, barely changed inveterans with Gulf War syndrome even though they appeared to be sleeping.In a group of well veterans tested for comparison, the brain functionsincreased normally."The parasympathetic nervous system takes care of restorative functions ofthe body. During sleep it's orchestrating that process, which is why wefeel refreshed when we wake up," Dr. Haley said. "Its failure to increaseat night in ill Gulf War veterans may explain their unrefreshing sleep."The tests were conducted on 40 members of a Naval Reserve constructionbattalion, also known as Seabees. Both ill and healthy veterans from thesame battalion were tested for comparison.In addition, pure sympathetic nervous system functions were tested. Inthese tests, there were no appreciable differences between the two groupsof veterans.Dr. Haley first described Gulf War syndrome in a series of papers publishedin January 1997 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).In previous studies, Dr. Haley and his colleagues presented evidenceattributing the veterans' illness to low-level exposure to sarin gas apotent nerve toxin which drifted over thousands of soldiers when U.S.forces detonated Iraqi chemical stores during and after the Gulf War. Arecent report from the Government Accountability Office confirmed thatexposure to low-level sarin in the 1991 Gulf War was more frequent andwidespread than previously acknowledged.Subsequent research from Dr. Haley's group showed that veterans sufferingfrom Gulf War syndrome also were born with lower levels of a protectiveblood enzyme called paraoxonase, which usually fights off the toxins foundin sarin. Veterans who were in the same area and did not get sick hadhigher levels of this enzyme.Dr. Haley and his colleagues have closely followed the same group of testssubjects since 1995. A new grant from the U.S. Department of Defense willallow Dr. Haley's team to undertake a study in a much larger sample of GulfWar veterans.Other UT Southwestern researchers involved in the latest study include Drs.Wanpen Vongpatanasin, assistant professor of internal medicine; Gil Wolfe,associate professor of neurology; and Ronald Victor, chief of hypertension.Former UT Southwestern faculty members Drs. Wilson Bryan, RoseanneArmitage, Robert Hoffmann, Frederick Petty, and W. Wesley Marshall alsocontributed to this study, as did researchers from Phase 5 Sciences andLaboratory Industry Services, both in California.The research was supported by the U.S. Army Medical Research and MaterielCommand, the U.S. Public Health Service and the Perot Foundation.Keywords:GULF WAR SYNDROME ROBERT HALEY PARASYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM GALLBLADDERDISEASE UNREFRESHING SLEEP DEPRESSION JOINT PAIN CHRONIC DIARRHEA SEXUALDYSFUNCTION EPIDEMIOLOGYA picture to go with this release can be downloaded at: http://www3.utsouthwestern.edu/home_pages/news/haley.jpg The cutline reads:New findings by Dr. Robert Haley, chief of epidemiology at UT SouthwesternMedical Center at Dallas, reveal damage to the parasympathetic nervoussystems of veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. Dr. Haley led the study publishedin the Oct. 1 edition of the American Journal of Medicine.ï¿½ 2004 Newswise. All Rights Reserved.


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