http://www.military.com/NewsContent?file=FL_gulf_092303
WASHINGTON - Veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War were at least twice as likely to be diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease as non Gulf veterans or other people younger than 45, according to studies published Monday.
The findings, reached separately, came almost two years after Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi decided, based on early findings, that the VA would offer health care and other survivor benefits to Gulf War veterans with Lou Gehrig's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. That marked the first time the government acknowledged a scientific link between service in the Gulf and a specific disease.
"The important thing is where do we go from here? We have to conduct more research into ALS to see if we can determine why this happened," Principi said. Principi also said he hopes "we can now increase funding for ALS research" at VA and at other institutions.
The VA study and one led by researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas appear Tuesday in Neurology, a peer-reviewed journal.
Always fatal, the disease causes the gradual death of nerve cells that control muscle movement and results eventually in paralysis and death. Its cause is unknown, and there remains no cure. It affects about 30,000 Americans and is commonly associated with baseball Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees, who died of the disease in 1941 at the age of 37.
The VA found 40 veterans with the disease. The University of Texas center's study found 20. Some cases may have overlapped. The Texas researchers did not have access to all records available to VA.
VA researchers found that military personnel deployed to the Gulf War region during the conflict stood twice the risk of suffering ALS compared with nondeployed military.
Members of the Army and Air Force had higher risk.
"What we have to ask now is why is there that elevated risk?" said Dr. R.D. Horner, an epidemiologist at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. He led the VA study.
The Texas Southwestern study, led by epidemiologist Dr. Robert Haley, determined that 17 of the 20 war veterans with the disease were diagnosed before they turned 45. Of those, 11 have since died.
Haley compared the number of cases of ALS in Gulf War veterans between 1991 and 1998 to the number of cases expected each year in the same age group - 45 or younger - in the general population.
From 1991 to 1994, the number of cases was no different from what would have been expected. But by 1998, the number was almost three times greater than what was expected, Haley said.
Haley emphasized that not every Gulf War veteran will be stricken. Researchers believe that people who contract ALS are susceptible genetically to it, he said.
"A lifetime of environmental exposure will build up and give you this disease in your 60s and 70s," Haley said. "What may have happened here is Gulf War veterans were exposed to some unusually toxic exposure that accelerated the process by 30 years."
Almost 700,000 U.S. military personnel were deployed for the conflict, both in the Desert Shield buildup from August 1990 to January 1991 and Desert Storm combat in January-February 1991. Some returned with complaints of unusual illnesses, including fatigue, diarrhea, dizziness and muscle weakness, which have come to be known as Gulf War Syndrome.
No one has been able to pinpoint a cause for the chronic health problems. And while some veterans, advocacy groups and researchers suspect troops were exposed to an environmental toxin or infectious agent, other researchers blame stress.
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