Vets Have Specific Nervous System Damage

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Vets Have Specific Nervous System Damage

 

NewsRx.com

October 15, 2004

 

 

 

 

 

 

University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical

Center at Dallas researchers have uncovered damage in a specific,

primitive portion of the nervous systems of veterans suffering from

Gulf War syndrome.

 

UT Southwestern researchers reported that damage to the

parasympathetic nervous system may account for nearly half of the

typical symptoms - including gallbladder disease, unrefreshing sleep,

depression, joint pain, chronic diarrhea and sexual dysfunction - that

afflict those with Gulf War syndrome. Their findings are published in

the October 2004 issue of the American Journal of Medicine.

 

"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 UT Southwestern and lead author of the

new study.

 

The parasympathetic system regulates primitive, automatic

bodily functions such as digestion and sleep, while 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 Haley.

 

Previously, isolating pure parasympathetic brain function

was difficult. In the new study Haley and his colleagues used a

technique that monitors 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 veterans with Gulf War syndrome even though they

appeared to be sleeping. In a group of well veterans tested for

comparison, the 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," 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, also known as Seabees. Both ill and healthy

veterans from the same battalion were tested for comparison.

 

In addition, pure sympathetic nervous system functions were

tested. In these tests, there were no appreciable differences between

the two groups of veterans.

 

Haley first described Gulf War syndrome in a series of

papers published in January 1997 in the Journal of the American Medical

Association (JAMA). In previous studies, Haley and his colleagues

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 Gulf War. A recent report from the Government

Accountability Office confirmed that exposure to low-level sarin in the

1991 Gulf War was more frequent and widespread than previously

acknowledged.

 

Subsequent research from Haley's group showed that veterans

suffering from 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.

 

Haley and his colleagues have closely followed the same

group of test subjects since 1995. A new grant from the U.S. Department

of Defense will allow Haley's team to undertake a study in a much

larger sample of Gulf War veterans.

 

 

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