Gulf War vets show signs of syndrome

Nutrition Health Review,  Summer, 2004  

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

Researchers from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have uncovered damage in a primitive portion of the nervous system of veterans with Gulf War syndrome.

The investigators reported that damage to the parasympathetic nervous system may account for nearly 50 percent of the typical symptoms, including gallbladder disease, unrefreshing sleep, depression, joint pain, chronic diarrhea, and sexual dysfunction, which afflict those with the syndrome. Their findings were published in the October 2004 issue of the American Journal of Medicine (2004; 117:531-532).

"The high rate of gallbladder disease in these men, reported in a previous study, is particularly disturbing because typically women over 40 get this. It's singularly rare in young men," said Dr. Robert Haley, chief of epidemiology at the university and leading author of the new study.

The parasympathetic system regulates primitive, automatic bodily functions such as digestion and sleep, whereas the sympathetic nervous system controls the "fight-or-flight" instinct.

"They're sort of the mirror image of each other--the yin and the yang of the 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 so elusive and mysterious," said Dr. Haley.

Previously, isolating pure parasympathetic brain function was difficult. In the new study, Dr. Haley and his colleagues used a technique that monitored changes in approximately 100,000 heartbeats over 24 hours and measures changes in high-frequency heart rate variability, a function solely regulated by the parasympathetic nervous system.

After plotting the subtle changes in heart function using a mathematical technique called spectral analysis, researchers found that parasympathetic brain function, which usually peaks during sleep, barely changed in these veterans even though they appeared to be sleeping. In a group of healthy veterans who were tested for comparison, brain functions increased normally.

"The parasympathetic nervous system takes care of restorative functions of the body. During sleep, it's orchestrating that process, which is why we feel refreshed when we wake up," Dr. Haley said. "Its failure to increase at night in ill Gulf War veterans may explain their unrefreshing sleep."

The tests were conducted on 40 members of a Naval Reserve construction battalion (the Seabees). Both ill and healthy veterans from the same battalion were tested for comparison.

In addition, in tests of pure sympathetic nervous system functions, there were no appreciable differences between the two groups of veterans.

Dr. Haley first described the Persian Gulf War syndrome in a series of papers published in January 1997 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In previous studies, he had presented evidence attributing the veterans' illness to low-level exposure to sarin gas--a potent nerve toxin-which drifted over thousands of soldiers when U.S. forces detonated Iraqi chemical stores during and after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. A report from the Government Accountability Office confirmed that exposure to low-level sarin in that war was more frequent and widespread than previously acknowledged.

Subsequent research from Dr. Haley's group showed that veterans with Gulf War syndrome also were born with lower levels of a protective blood enzyme called paraoxonase, which usually fights off the toxins found in sarin. Veterans who were in the same area and did not get sick had higher levels of this enzyme.

(Editor's Note: Please see Nutrition Health Review #87 for more information on Gulf War syndrome.)

COPYRIGHT 2004 Vegetus Publications
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group