MY SAN ANTONIO
Military 
Vets still have no answer
By Matt Crenson
Associated Press

To veterans, it's a cruel mystery: Which of the countless pesticides, pollutants, microbes and poisons they encountered during the Persian Gulf War has left one in seven of them sick with a debilitating and persistent illness?

On Capitol Hill, it's an outrage: Why, after spending more than $200 million on hundreds of studies, can't the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department determine what pollutant or microbe is causing the panoply of symptoms known as Gulf War illness?

Most scientists who've studied the chronic health problems of Gulf War veterans say they have answers to both questions: There is no environmental toxin or infectious agent to blame. A decade of research overwhelmingly points to another cause — stress.

Yet many veterans don't believe it.

"I know a lot of people who are sick, and stress is not what's killing them," said Stephen Robinson, who served in special forces during the Gulf War and now heads the National Gulf War Resource Center, an advocacy group for ill veterans.

Part of the problem, many Gulf War illness experts say, is that many veterans have the wrong idea about stress. They think experts are telling them their illness is all in their heads.

Actually, scientists say, stress causes real, physical problems. Hormones released into the bloodstream when a person is under stress can cause harm to both nervous and immune systems that lasts long after life returns to normal.

Unpersuaded, Robinson has joined many veterans and their advocates, including a handful of scientists, in insisting more studies be done. Congress has responded by continuing to authorize millions of dollars for research into alternative causes of Gulf War illness — money many scientists say is wasted.

That veterans deserve to know what's making them sick isn't disputed. But what should the government do now that scientific research has produced evidence that leaves many veterans resolutely dissatisfied?

Data show that Gulf War veterans are no more likely to die or be hospitalized than their peers who never served in the region. Their rates of cancer and other serious diseases are no higher than expected in 700,000 people of their age and background.

The VA did announce in December that Gulf War veterans are twice as likely to suffer from Lou Gehrig's disease as their peers, but many experts question the finding because no scientific paper has been published to back it up.

Even if it's borne out, says University of Iowa epidemiologist Gregory Gray, the Lou Gehrig's disease finding doesn't topple stress as the most likely cause of Gulf War illness because it applies to only a few dozen people.

Still, no one disputes that Gulf War illness is real.

Researchers have verified veterans of the Persian Gulf War are more likely to suffer from a range of chronic symptoms including memory and thinking problems, fatigue, joint pain, depression, anxiety, insomnia, headaches and rashes.

But why? In the 11 years since the Gulf War, myriad possibilities have been advanced, investigated and found wanting.

Government, university and independent investigators have looked at pesticides, parasites, insect repellents and pills the troops took to protect themselves from chemical attack. Also examined: Contaminated vaccines, infectious bacteria, depleted uranium ammunition and smoke billowing from oil wells that were set alight by retreating Iraqi troops.

Those who've proposed such agents as the cause of Gulf War illness have run up against a major obstacle: the estimated 100,000 victims have no single thing in common except that they all became ill after serving in the same war. Symptoms have been reported by veterans who were stationed thousands of miles apart and who performed widely differing duties.

Experts say it would have been virtually impossible for such a wide cross-section of troops to have been exposed to the same thing.

The multitude of symptoms veterans report also makes it extremely unlikely a toxin or microbe is involved, most experts say. A microbe or toxin would produce one well-defined illness.

Yet stress is known to produce nearly all the symptoms reported by Gulf War veterans.

It has been implicated in cardiovascular disease, immune system disorders, chronic headaches, memory and cognitive problems. Some researchers believe it's the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, two so-called "mystery diseases" that are similar to Gulf War illness.

Studies show symptoms of Gulf War illness are most frequently reported by those who had particularly stressful war experiences. A British study of war pension files going back to 1872 found evidence for ailments similar to Gulf War illness among veterans of every major conflict since the Boer War.

Unconvinced, members of Congress continue to approve funds for research into various theories. For example, Rep. Robert Livingston, R-La., now retired, attached $3.4 million to the 1996 defense budget to investigate the theory that Gulf War illness is caused by infectious bacteria.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, has earmarked a total of $10 million in the past two defense budgets to establish an independent research institute at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center so the theory on toxic chemicals can continue to be studied.

05/12/2002

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