[Peace-discuss] and now gulf war 2---

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

Lou Gehrig's Rate Higher in Gulf War Vets
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 
Filed at 5:52 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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.