Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness: May 15

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is nearly four times as common in veterans of the first Persian Gulf War as in nonveterans, according to a new study

Article: "Association of Medically Unexplained Fatigue with ACE Insertion/Deletion Polymorphism in Gulf War Veterans," Georgirene D. Vladutiu, Ph.D. and Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D., Muscle & Nerve;


The Persian Gulf War began in 1991, but more than 170,000 veterans still are battling Gulf War syndrome. For years, they battled stigma and disbelief, but finally in late 2008 a congressionally mandated panel concluded that Gulf War syndrome (GWS) is in fact "real" and is not a psychological condition

Symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome & Fibromyalgia/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Symptoms of Gulf War syndrome include:

•Chronic fatigue
•Cognitive dysfunction
•Joint and muscle pain
•Anxiety
•Depression
•Pain or discomfort related to sexual intercourse
•Bronchitis
•Asthma
Of those symptoms, bronchitis, asthma, and
pain related to intercourse appear to be unique to GWS.

Classes of Drugs Used as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Treatments
Several categories of drugs are used to treat ME/CFS. They include:

•Antimicrobial drugs (includes antiviral, antibiotic)
•Antidepressants (SSRIs/SNRIs and tricyclic)
•Anxiety or anxiolytic agents
•Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
•Blood-pressure medications

http://chronicfatigue.about.com/od/treatingfmscfs/a/cfsdrugs.htm

We must have VA office of Environmental Agents ;
VA office of Education and
VA office of Pubic Relations communicate this health problem to staff the veterans/stakeholders interact the most --
Primary Care Doctors/PA
and C&P Doctors/PA
VA Claims Adjuticators.

Will funds be found for new Clinic ?

Reminder from: Chemically_Wounded_ Warriors Yahoo! Group

Title: Clinic Information

Date: Wednesday July 23, 2008
Time: 8:00 am - 8:00 am
Repeats: This event repeats every day.
Notes: A new Chemically Wounded Warriors Clinic, is opened to all, chemically wounded veterans.

The nation's first and only clinic to test, diagnose and treat Chemical exposure diseases!!!! !

Call This Number to make an appointment, with North Texas Neurology Associates, at the new clinic."

(940) 322-1075

Will write V.A. Letters!!!!!
Will conference with your Doctors!!!!!

Early dection is critical!!
Call today!!!!

Ask for the "Chemically Wounded warriors Clinic," when making appt.

Danny Bartel, M.D., Neurologist
Texas State Board of Medical Examiners License #E6226
Board -Certified American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology #24-298 and American Board of Clinical Neurophysiology

Agent Orange and Chemically Wounded Warriors Clinic, North Texas Neurology Associates, Wichita Falls, Texas

"Medicare, Tricare, and most health insurance plans accepted."

Plan on approximately a 3-day stay. The time it takes for exam and evaluation is dependent upon test results. which will vary with each individual

IOM report links illness, Gulf War service

A link exists between Gulf War service and multisymptom illness, although the causes of these symptoms remain unclear, the Institute of Medicine concluded in a new report.

“Military service in the Persian Gulf War is also associated with
multisymptom illness;
gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome;” stated the report, which was produced by the IOM's Committee on Gulf War and Health.

Evidence also exists that service in the war may be linked to other conditions such as fibromyalgia and
chronic widespread pain,
sexual difficulties, and
death attributable to causes such as car accidents in years following deployment,
although data on this subject are limited, according to the report.

“It is likely that multisymptom illness results from the interactions between environmental exposures and genes, and genetics may predispose some individuals to illness,” the committee noted.

The panel recommended a renewed commitment to improve identification and treatment of multisymptom illness in Gulf War veterans.

“The path forward should include continued monitoring of Gulf War veterans and development of better medical care for those with persistent, unexplained symptoms,” it recommended.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20100409/NEWS/304099962#

How long before your Primary Care sees this ?
http://yourgulfwarvoice.uservoice.com/

multisymptom illness IOM’s moniker for GWS

When will the VA-GWVI-TF tell VA primary care doctors and Adjuticators of this disorder. Maybe then fewer Vets/Stakeholders will be driven away or denied claims.

Hundreds of thousands of U.S. veterans who claim to suffer from Gulf War Syndrome just received powerful new ammunition against arguments that their symptoms are trivial, if not altogether fictional. On April 9, the Institute of Medicine – the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences – issued a report that concludes military service in the Persian Gulf War has not only been a cause of post-traumatic stress disorder in some veterans but also is “associated with multisymptom illness.”

That multisymptom illness is IOM’s moniker for what the vets refer to as Gulf War Syndrome.

"It is clear that a significant portion of the soldiers deployed to the Gulf War have experienced troubling constellations of symptoms that are difficult to categorize," according to neuroscientist Stephen L. Hauser of the University of California, San Francisco. He chaired the IOM committee that issued the new report.

"Unfortunately,” Hauser said, “symptoms that cannot be easily quantified are sometimes incorrectly dismissed as insignificant and receive inadequate attention and funding by the medical and scientific establishment. Veterans who continue to suffer from these symptoms deserve the very best that modern science and medicine can offer to speed the development of effective treatments, cures, and – we hope – prevention.”

The new report argues that medicine’s trouble in defining the nature or precise cause(s) of Gulf War Syndrome does not negate its existence. Indeed, the IOM’s new analysis “began with the premise that multisymptom illness is a diagnostic entity.” Its analysis then investigated evidence to determine whether a link exists between multiple, unexplained symptoms and Gulf War deployment.

And IOM’s report now concludes that Gulf War Syndrome is real, based on data documenting a high rate of symptoms in former U.S. troops who had served in the Gulf War nearly two decades ago. High-quality surveys of Gulf War vets from other nations, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, show many of those men also have been suffering similar chronic symptoms, which could include everything from gastrointestinal illness and mental confusion,to attacks of sudden vertigo, intense uncontrollable mood swings, fatigue and sometimes numbness – or the opposite, constant body pain.

Last month, a team of researchers headed by Robert Haley of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas reported new brain-imaging confirmation of Gulf War illnesses, which it described as a trio of syndromes with puzzling symptoms.

But there’s certainly a suspicion, it said, that multisymptom Gulf War Syndrome(s) may reflect interactions between environmental exposures and genes, such that genetics predisposed many troops to illness. IOM now recommends that research commence immediately to investigate that genetics angle. And there should be a big enough population to study this in, IOM says, with more than one-third of the 700,000Gulf War vets claiming multisymptom illnesses associated with their military service.

The report also calls for a substantial commitment to improve identification and treatment of multisymptom illness in Gulf War veterans. That would, of course, first require that the Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledge these syndromes as real disease.

http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/04/12/gulf-war-syndrome-real-institute-of-medicine-concludes.html

The report was terrible people. It drew meaningless conclusions based on lack of evidence. Of which VA quickly picked up on.

The important items are listed as inadequate evidence or no
association. The ones that would get a real service connection.
Then look what they did to ALS, dropped it to limited evidence
when there are hotspots in the region where more got it than
others. This is the first ever evidence of a cause of ALS and
the IOM wants to back away from that.

Multisymptom illness, that like a 10% to 30% diagnosis at best.
Its not taken seriously.

What do they push the most - PTSD. Please, this is a psychiatric
diagnosis that gets on average 30% then gets you cut out of
other clinics as Somatic. Does it have a physiological cause, yes.
But it wont be treated as physiological as if to try and chemically
rewire the brain of the physical damage. They will put people
on antipsychotics and send them to psychiatry were the clinician
writes damaging notes in there medical files that wont help. This
then compounds as many are railroaded and the research
begins to reflect the trend. PTSD service connection in VA is
a bad thing and they tried to force it on us in the early 90's as
a easy diagnosis to get service connection. Its not even handled
the same as for OIF.

Anyone grabbing at this straw is sending us back to the early
90's rather than trying to make real changes. Because this
report was not a victory for us and now VA will make sure that
the "Undiagnosed Illness" law reflects this to keep things
vague and of low percentage rating value. Grabbing at this rather
than fighting harder for the other categories is a sell out.

I have stocking glove neuropathy, congestive heart failure, respiratory
problems, and among others. 46 years old with a bunch of geriatric
conditions - of which by this reports definition says there is no association
evidence. They are telling me "screw you" on my health conditions I
didn't have before the war. How is PTSD and multisymptom ratings going to
help with some of my conditions. It wont. Yet, where is there conclusive
evidence on how these aren't a problem. They don't have that, they just
decided for VA to make them not a issue by ignoring the lack of evidence
against. Damn researchers focused on brain imaging and ignored most
other conditions anyways.

Once again, Ship of fools on both sides.

Review confirms PTSD, other syndromes in Gulf vets

War is a Racket and some Gulf War Vets paid the Price!
How to decrease the amount of GWV seeking health care and benefits ???

announce that everyone so seen in VA or DoD health Clinics for any
health complain has PTSD. The well warrior attitude will send them
running to a private health care provider.

Review confirms PTSD, other syndromes in Gulf vets
Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

A US soldier watches two Blackhawk helicopters leaving forward operating base Loyalty in Baghdad February 8, 2007.
Credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Studies confirm that Gulf War veterans suffer disproportionately from post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychiatric illnesses as well as vague symptoms often classified as Gulf War Syndrome, a panel of experts reported on Friday.

Health

The Institute of Medicine panel said better studies are needed to characterize a clear pattern of distress and other symptoms among veterans of the conflicts in the Gulf region that started in 1990 and continue today.

"It is clear that a significant portion of the soldiers deployed to the Gulf War have experienced troubling constellations of symptoms that are difficult to categorize," said Stephen Hauser, chairman of the department of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco.

The committee declined to say that there was any such thing as Gulf War Syndrome but did note many veterans had "multisymptom illness."

"Unfortunately, symptoms that cannot be easily quantified are sometimes incorrectly dismissed as insignificant and receive inadequate attention and funding by the medical and scientific establishment," Hauser added in a statement.

"Veterans who continue to suffer from these symptoms deserve the very best that modern science and medicine can offer to speed the development of effective treatments, cures, and -- we hope -- prevention."

Hauser and the rest of the panel reviewed 400 studies in-depth for their report and concluded that in many cases there was tantalizing evidence, but just not enough data to back it up.

BOWEL, SLEEP DISTURBANCES

They found many reports of "seemingly related symptoms, including persistent fatigue, chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, memory problems, headache, bodily pains, disturbances of sleep, as well as other physical and emotional problems."

But doctors struggle to categorize as they have no known cause, no diagnostic biomarkers and no way to find traces in tissue.

Studies showed sufficient evidence that veterans suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and substance abuse, particularly alcohol abuse and gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome.

There is also clear evidence of "multisymptom illness" among U.S., British and Australian veterans but not enough evidence to show what may have caused it.

"It is beyond dispute, however, that the prevalence of symptoms such as headaches, joint pain, and difficulty concentrating, is higher in veterans deployed to the Gulf War theater than the others," the report reads.

The experts, including epidemiologists who study patterns of disease, neurologists and psychiatrists, found limited but suggestive evidence that Gulf War veterans have higher rates of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease -- a crippling, progressive and fatal nerve disease.

Veterans also appear to risk fibromyalgia and chronic widespread pain, sexual difficulties and deaths from car accidents.

Inadequate evidence could be found of links to cancer, blood disease, hormone imbalances, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, birth defects, pregnancy or fertility problems.

Better studies are needed to follow veterans long-term and catalog their illnesses. "A second branch of inquiry is also important," the report added.

"It consists of a renewed research effort to identify and treat multisymptom illness in Gulf War veterans."
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6383RF20100409