Tag: Gulf War illness

Again the ill Gulf War Veterans are the ones doing the outreach and getting the word out, it is a shame they don't even provide grants for outreach work nor rooms for veterans to use when attending VA RAC GWI meetings. Nor do they encourage interaction and sharing of important health care providers and research being done at annual type meeting for Gulf War Researchers both Civilian and VA. Much less having Civilian and VA Providers also involved fully in caring for Gulf War Veterans. There is a need for these type meetings and meetings should be open to veterans. These meetings also need videoconferencing live and archived and available openly on the internet!

Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a rateable condition by the VA that falls under gulf war illness. The gulf war veterans also have a researcher at VA Minneapolis, Dr Ron Bach studying Hypercoagulation in Gulf War Illness. So the following news article on medical research today on Blood clots and Inflammatory Bowel diseases/disorders needs to be circulated to the Gulf War Veterans and to the health care providers and researchers that are concerned about our gulf war veterans 1990-91. The take home highlights of the article are in Bold and underlined to draw your attention to what is the most important items in the research.

As we look at twenty years since the Gulf War 1990-91/Operation Desert Storm the writer has to wonder have we made headway? The writer wants the President, the VA, the DOD, the legislators both US Senators and Representatives to hear from the veterans that counted on our government to do the right thing morally and ethically. If we had really been tuned into the history of the veterans of World War 1, Atomic Veterans, and Agent Orange Veterans we would not have been so deceived. Maybe the All Volunteer Force would not have been reality. Maybe a draft would still be in affect. But the troops felt it a DUTY, A Sacred Duty to serve their country. They were well educated and trained. Many were college graduates, almost all had completed high school and had a beginning on college level education, in total a different profile than the Vietnam Veterans. Many had families with military traditions and service.

The aim to tie the story of environmental hazards to all that have been concerned from the patient sufferers be it civilian or military, to the lead Senator that exposed the Plight of the Gulf War Veterans in 1994(Senator Reigle), to the doctors that cared to try to answer the needs despite government interference, to the researchers that are finally now being funded thanks to the Gulf War Veterans efforts, and to the government agencies that were to have our backs but that have interfered and delayed help to those that need it the most. This not a story about whiners, this is the investigative report that covers the science and the research that has taken over 20 years to finally have an awakening that millions are truly sufferring.

This is so good. While looking for problems with Irritable Bowel Syndrome that gulf war veterans suffer with Gulf War Illness, we may have found cure for Baldness. Maybe balding men will pay us money for the research fund for gulf war illness.

It has been 20 years and many gulf war veterans have died. Hundreds of thousands, close to 1/2 of all gulf war veterans have made claims to the VA and they wait years for help to continue to be able to even live above the poverty level. The war in Iraq is over and it is time for full transparency in this government and it will not happen without action by every veteran that ever served, their family members, their friends, and civilians that say they support the troops. Time to prove it!

Parkinson's Disease has been an issue of concern for Vietnam Veterans but the concern on pesticide (organophosphates) exposure and Gulf War Veterans should be tracked closely for rate of occurrence in the next generation of veterans. Developments in this research also highlights the need to examine mitrochrondial damage in the Gulf war veterans.

Depleted Uranium focus on the hill yet again. Below is the only bill right now on the hill in DC that has been introduced. Our job now is to communicate with our elected representatives in DC to ask them to get on board and join as cosponsors!

For years I have tracked those that were nondeployed and talked to hundreds of these veterans. As I also communicate with civilian groups with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and Chronic Fatigue/ME I wonder if the civilian sufferers have looked as closely as possibly as they should have at vaccines and environmental triggers. There are huge numbers of civilians suffering and they have their own groups and Advisory Committee. Dr Klimas is one of the researchers that has taken a lead role for civilians and the gulf war veterans at the University of Miami and the Miami VA. She is a researcher that is pushing ahead and all of us need to keep an eye on her research in both fields.

Encourage all the Veterans to get on facebook and form unit pages NOW. Use the Social Medium! List OIF/specific unit/location. Start now to reform your units virtually, do health surveys, use your military organization skills ie admin, family support, intel officer, communications, Claims help, referral network, and etc. Find all your unit members now. Put up surveys that can be done and compiled to take forward to the hill and to the media. It is time you all come together because the WAR AFTER THE WAR is more brutal that you can imagine!

So much is going on behind the scenes and time to update all American Citizens and especially the Gulf War/Desert Storm Veterans. It has been 20 years and there are battle lines on the isue of Gulf War illness not just in the US but with each coalition force that were part of the Coalition that went to Saudi/Iraq 1990-91. But with the US government being the main Log Jam to getting information out.

What is needed now is an urgency in medical care and clear cut solutions to the VA claims for the total group of gulf war veterans. Not endless investigations that go now where to addressing the critical need for action to get their claims through and at the same time a true need for the best medical diagnosis and care and treatment. Which includes using the best cutting edge medical work now. The effort at UTSW Medical Center in Dallas was stopped at a critical junction. Efforts to get the truth on how many cancers and what types that the gulf war veterans are enduring and dying from NOW is needed for the medical care providers and the veterans. The same can be said for how many have died or experienced cardiac infarctions, cardiac surgery, stroke data, DVT data, pulmonary embolism, renal problems, GI diagnostic data, Liver diagnostic data, respiratory system data, and the rest of all the diagnostic illnesses is needed now!

Most recent published pilot research project on Gulf War Illness by combined research between University of Miami, Miami VA and University of Alberta in Canada is showing a complex disorder involving the nervous, endocrine and immune regulation systems points stronger to an auto immune component to Gulf War Illness. This was a small pilot study to test their hypothesis which involved 9 Gulf War Veteran and 11 control subjects, but it does appear to confirm their connection. It also boost the gulf war veterans that this is indeed REAL. Autoimmune disorders can involve the total of body systems and the list of autoimmune disorders are quite numerous.

The results are out from the DOD Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program on Gulf War Illness for the 2010 funded studies. These are the list of those studies that have passed the two panel review process. Details will come as they progress to actually getting the funding and getting set up to proceed. Sometimes that can take several months or more. Our congratulations to the researchers and their institutions for their applications to receive funding consideration. The list of researchers and institutions :

Gulf War Veterans 1990-91/ Desert Storm Veterans that are suffering from gulf war illness are searching for answers and only through their own continual push to find answers has there been a response at all from their government. Through their efforts a law was passed to get the Veterans Affairs Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illness which meets February 28- March 1 in Washington DC. Their efforts have led to the push for research into biomarkers, the best diagnostic tools, and possible treatment modalities for their illnesses. Dr Bach at the Minneapolis Va has been busy examining their blood for clues and has found some clues and has found so far they have a low level chronic coagulation activation problem. Dr Martin Pall in Washington State is working on oxidative stress as a problem in chronic fatigue, gulf war illness and other undiagnosed illnesses. Dr Bach's research continues and publication of his findings are eagerly awaited. The VA RAC GWI has also reviewed the chronic inflammatory nature of these illnesses at their last meeting in Boston.

Organophosphate (OP) nerve agents such as sarin, soman, tabun, and O-ethyl S-[2-(diisopropylamino) ethyl] methylphosphonothioate (VX) do not react solely with acetylcholinesterase (AChE). Evidence suggests that cholinergic-independent pathways over a wide range are also targeted, including serine proteases. These proteases comprise nearly one-third of all known proteases and play major roles in synaptic plasticity, learning, memory, neuroprotection, wound healing, cell signaling, inflammation, blood coagulation, and protein processing.

On the 28Th February 2011 at 10am, many veterans and supporters will be marching from the Union Jack Club, Sandell Street, Waterloo to Old Palace Yard, Westminster. This is to highlight the injustice suffered thus far by the Veterans of the 1990/1991 Gulf War. We believe the successive Governments since the end of the war until this anniversary (exactly 20 years to the day) have engaged with the Ministry Of Defence in denial and word play to negate proper testing, treatment and compensation for thousands who are blatantly ill, many with identical and similar conditions to each other and US Veterans of the same conflict. We need access to independently run chromosome tests; bone marrow depleted uranium tests; mercury testing; organo-phosphate testing and immune deficiency testing.

What does Gulf War Veterans and Super Bowl Have in Common? Twenty years ago our military active duty and reservists placed on active duty and many reserve units working on mandays/active duty time for reserve manning stateside, in route flying missions, overseas in Europe and other middle east countries, and at home bases were all doing their sworn duty for the United States Military. They remember where they were and the Super Bowl in 1991, the question is does the American Public at large remember them? We remember the scud alarms going off on that day vividly. When they came home they were reporting in ill but America did not hear much and if they did it was just because they happenned to hear something on the news on television occassionally or occassionally saw something in the newspaper. America was busy and may have missed one of the largest stories of the need for veterans in its modern history.

After 20 years Gulf War Veterans that Are Ill Ask, America Have You Forgotten US? Part 1 of a series on Gulf War illness and...

Dr Chia research article from Journal of Clinical Pathology on enterovirus and a cancer needs to be shared widely at the Department of Veterans Affairs and circulated to all health care providers. Our only chance with beating cancer is TIME. Adequate diagnostic tests to rule out cancers for our Desert Storm Veterans and our newest veterans from OIF/OEF is a must and we all must be proactive and knowledgeable and that includes our patients and their family members!

Gut problems for Desert Storm Veterans listed as IBS for VA Claims. Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a symptom that can be explored to get more answers. Referrals need to be made to rule out Cancers and other diseases ie Crohn's Disease. The Department of Veterans Affairs need to have a more active, proactive stance for the veterans and needs to have information flow improve and made easier for Health Care Providers and Medical Researchers. There needs to be more SOPs and updates circulated to all the VA facilities nationwide.

VT celebrates that a veteran advocate and a female, Sen. Patty Murray, has taken over a key leadership position in the United States Senate Veterans Affairs...

Lynette Boshell of Cullman visited the SOS facility for the first time during the event. Her husband, active duty Alabama National Guard 1st Sgt. Robert Boshell, died of a massive heart attack seven years ago during physical training for an upcoming deployment. Boshell had served as a Marine during his early years of marriage, and the couple's 32 years of married life included a deployment to Operation Desert Shield/Storm.

We the undersigned share with nearly two-thirds of our fellow Americans the conviction that our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq should be ended and...

Desert Storm Veterans with gulf war illness being recruited for a medical study on their irritable bowel problems. Gulf War illness is real and the research is finally directed in the right direction to find answers. Twenty years but the old broken system is finally responding. The old cranky battleship of a broken system has made war repairs and is being set right on course. Now veterans are being asked to help. Medical researchers and medical care providers are being asked to help get the information to gulf war veterans 90-91 that are sufferring!

Rightwing, sectarian Christians are embedded at the DVA,  the Pentagon, all branches of the U.S. military, and the military academies. They want Christian armed forces. And they have...

Gulf War USAF veterans experiencing early age group for Heart Conditions. Activities and guidance for gulf war anniversary activities discussed.

Call for education and action on gulf war illness.

VA Doctors in Salt Lake City missing in action. Exceptional Conference on Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue/ME. With one out of four Gulf War 1 Veterans ill at least, one would think that the VA in Salt Lake City would be in attendance and that they would encourage and notify their patients at the VA with Fibromyalgia to attend this conference.

The others that served in Operation Desert Storm and their health needs are discussed. Updated information from Earlier edition

Early cardiac deaths of Desert Storm veterans need action now.

US Navy Operation Desert Storm- Timothy John Avazian(USS Tarawa)  52 Another Salior Passes too Soon: Timothy John Avazian, 52 of Gallatin, died suddenly at home...

Congressman Manzullo, stood up for Ill Desert Storm Veterans, this author worked with his staff along with a number of other gulf war veteran advocates. Many hours were spent on the hill in DC and it took several sessions of congress to get the measure passed into law. His staff truly worked hand in hand with the veteran's advocates and held monthly meetings and updates on the final push. This is the bill that became law that listed each of the symptoms of gulf war illness that should be compensated!

From the Fay Observer an excellent article.  We are reposting this article at VT to be sure all see one of the worse case...

Veteran Kerry Fuller: "It would have been far better to be killed in action" Every week, Kerry Fuller counts out his medication into a plastic...

Yet Another notice as we look back on 20 years since the Gulf War. No one can really tell us how many Gulf War Veterans have died since Operation Desert Storm and at what age, what cause of Death, unit assigned, or location in theater. The Gulf War veterans will do it again for themselves! We need to be sure that each of the survivors and any dependent children get the help and benefits that were earned.

Pre application for gulf war illness research for FY2011.

We salute another young veteran of the Gulf War, USA, 45, Cancer, from Birmingham, Al who will be laid to rest Sunday during the 20 year anniversary of the Gulf War.

Us Representative from Connecticut pledges help for Gulf War Veterans but is this really happenning

UK Gulf War Veterans still ill just as US veterans and other coalition forces. Waiting for their governments to care for them in a timely manner. What is the reason for the delay. It has been 20 years and many thousands have died.

Gulf War Memory Many individuals and different groups have tried over the past 20 years. We spoke, testified, went to the media and to the elected representatives and any other committee or advisory group that came along. But our job, our duty, our moral and ethical duty to each other has not been accomplished. We have not crossed the finish line until each gets the care and help needed.

memorial service for Gulf War 90-91 Marine this saturday