Gulf War Syndrome Report Released

I’m baaaaaaack…. been away from posting for too long… lots of reasons, a few excuses, and just too dang much in my life that has gone even further South than usual. Someday when it’s calmed down again I’ll post about it.

Maybe.

Onward.

The official recognition of Gulf War Syndrome as a biologically based illness has been a long time in coming. Too long. Finally, however, the official findings from the the U.S. Veteran Administration’s Congressionally mandated “Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses” were released on Monday, Nov. 17th, 2008.

My one-line version of the Executive summary: GWS sure ain’t psychsomatic or psychiatric in origin.

Well, duh!

It’s way past time for our medical community and citizens to quit misdiagnosing the victims of toxic exposures as slackers, malingerers and psychosomatic hypochondriacs.

Among the report’s conclusions:

“Evidence strongly and consistently indicates that two Gulf War neurotoxic exposures are causally associated with Gulf War illness: 1) use of pyridostigmine bromide (PB) pills, given to protect troops from effects of nerve agents, and 2) pesticide use during deployment.”

and

“Gulf War illness is associated with diverse biological alterations that most prominently affect the brain and nervous system. Research findings in veterans with Gulf War illness include significant differences in brain structure and function, autonomic nervous system function, neuroendocrine and immune measures, and measures associated with vulnerability to neurotoxic chemicals.”

and

“A question often asked about Gulf War illness is why some Gulf War military personnel developed chronic symptoms during and after deployment, while others who served along side them remained well. It is well established that some people are more vulnerable to adverse effects of certain chemicals than others, due to variability in biological processes that neutralize those chemicals, and clear them from the body. The enzyme paraoxonase (PON1) circulates in the blood and hydrolyzes organophosphate compounds such as pesticides and nerve agents, converting them to relatively harmless chemicals that are then excreted. Individuals who produce different types and amounts of PON1 differ, sometimes dramatically, in their ability to neutralize different organophosphate compounds.

In other words, if you are one of the unlucky 20 percent of the U.S. population who doesn’t have the form of the gene that tells your body to produce PON1, your body doesn’t have the ability to produce the enzyme that neutralizes chemicals like organophosphate pesticides - or at best has a severely reduced ability to neutralize these chemicals.

That means that vets who have Gulf War Syndrome – and individuals who have toxic injury, chemical injury and multiple chemical sensitivities – are literally missing the key enzyme that protects the rest of the population from the life-threatening effects of these substances.

It’s no wonder they’re ill – they’ve quite literally been poisoned.

For the full report in pdf format (it’s large – 450 pages, 7Mb), click here.

If you know a veteran who has GWS, or have a family member or friend that suffers from toxic injury, chemical injury, or multiple chemical sensitivies, tell them about this report. It’s a must-read.

The End of the Rainbow

Last Monday, even though it was raining, we decided to take a drive to find the new wind farm that was completed this summer in northeast Wisconsin. The wind farm was designed to generate 145 megawatts (MW) of electricity from 88 Vestas wind turbines, which means it’s capable of powering about 36,000 homes. In practical terms, that means that this wind field alone generates enough power to provide the electricity for two out of every hundred residences in Wisconsin.

Sounds like a winner to me.

Right as we approached, the sun came out from a break in the clouds behind us, creating a spectacular rainbow arching over the wind turbines.

Awesome.

Maryland, My Maryland

So, Oh Best Beloved, did you happen to watch “Fox News Sunday” today? We did, and after watching I sent the following email to Chris Wallace.

Dear Chris,

My husband and I were rather perplexed when Governor Kaine stated on your August 24th broadcast that, “Joe [Biden] comes from a state, Delaware, that borders Virginia. The eastern shore part of Virginia and Delaware are not only bordering but very, very similar.”

Really?

I’m not a geography major, but isn’t there a rather large chunk of real estate known as “Maryland” that lies between the two?

My husband created the attached map from US Government boundary data and, yup, that BIG white space in between Delaware and Virginia contains a little piece of property called “Maryland” and a reasonably sized chunk of water.

I’m more concerned about a Governor losing track of a whole state than Senator McCain not having an exact count of the housing units he owns as investments…

Best regards,

JAS

As an independent, I am equally annoyed by errors of this type made by either party. But when a governor who was one of the final candidates for the Democratic Party’s VP nomination loses track of an entire STATE in order to make some sort of political point, it makes me… well… queasy.

*sigh*

USNS Mercy

Ever hear of the USNS Mercy? No? Well, her missions are ones that can make every American proud. She’s one of two Mercy-class hospital ships that belong to the United States. She’s a state-of-the-art 1000 bed floating hospital with 12 operating rooms, a blood bank, CT scanner, recovery and ICU wards and medical transport helicopters.

USNS Mercy’s skipper has started a blog, the Skipper’s Scrivenings,
documenting the ship’s current humanitarian deployment.

It’s a fantastic real-time example of how well combining military resources with those of NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) works to help those in need.

Go. Read. It’ll make you proud of not only the USA, but also of all the different countries, NGOs and volunteers from all over that world that are working together to make good things happen.

If Packers Were Ponies

Yesterday I pointed out that that several NFL players would have to die each year during games for professional football to be as deadly as Thoroughbred horse racing is for the horses that race.

I underestimated.

Michael asked our local experts – the Green Bay Packers – if they could give us the actual data we needed to turn my estimate into a more accurate comparison. Since they are nicest team in the USA, (as well as the best – Go Pack!) they dug out the exact data that we needed.

Have I mentioned how nice the Packers are?

So – how deadly is professional football compared to Thoroughbred horse racing?

If the National Football League had the same fatality rate for their players during the regular season as racehorses have during races, more than 50 NFL football players would die each year from injuries sustained during games.

More than fifty deaths?

Football would get banned.

The individual Michael spoke to at the Packers office, btw, said that the only game-related player fatality in the NFL that he could personally remember occurred back in 2001, and it didn’t actually occur during a game: a Vikings team member died of heat stroke during a practice.

It’s time for the Thoroughbred racing industry to clean up its act. Provide cash incentives for longevity and soundness. Require synthetic surfaced tracks – which have already cut the fatality rate in half where they’ve been installed. And stop rewarding the genetics of greed.