# Gulf War Syndrome and ALS **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 7, 2003, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gulf-war-syndrome-and-als/206148 "2003-10-07T20:45:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2003, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gulf-war-syndrome-and-als/206148/1 "2003-10-07T20:45:02Z")
Recently, many Gulf War (I) vets have been diagnosed w/ALS (aka Lou Gehrig Disease). does this mean GWS=ALS. (Disclaimer: I think GWS is a CROCK! It’s a result of chem/bio weapon exposure) ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gulf-war-syndrome-and-als/206148/2 "2003-10-07T23:05:00Z")
I googled: seems to link is at least theorrized. (I’m just keeping this on pg 1) ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2003, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gulf-war-syndrome-and-als/206148/3 "2003-10-07T23:26:58Z")
Well, [some](http://list.dysphagia.com/dysphagia/2001-December/msg00161.html) [people](http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=7036) [say](http://www.rideforlife.com/MT/archives/als_research/000205.html) that Gulf War vets have about twice the chance to contract ALS than “their non-deployed counterparts.” On the other hand, the second link also says that some are questioning the study (studies?) that stated that in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gulf-war-syndrome-and-als/206148/4 "2003-10-08T03:42:02Z")
> [@](#): > > Two teams of scientists have found that Persian Gulf War veterans have a higher risk of developing ALS than people who weren’t exposed to chemical warfare. > > – snip – > > It’s been almost a decade since the first hints that Gulf War veterans may be at increased risk of ALS. **These latest studies, which appear in the journal Neurology, support earlier observations and provide the impetus for further studies.** > > “The risk is real, and now we have to carry out studies to figure out what causes it,” said one of the researchers, Dr. R.D. Horner, program director for health disparity research at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Md. “It may be multiple chemical exposures over a short period of time. We just don’t know.” > > – snip – > > Horner began his investigation after Dr. Robert W. Haley, a professor of medicine and chief of the epidemiology division at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, identified 20 ALS patients under 45 years old who were on active duty in the Gulf region. In 1997, Haley said “Gulf War syndrome” - the chronic physical and mental complaints of one in seven veterans - was due to brain cell damage triggered by exposure to nerve gas and other toxic chemicals. > > – snip – > > **In December 2001, both Horner and Haley presented their unpublished findings to the military. A week later, Anthony Principi, secretary of Veterans Affairs, declared that a new diagnosis of ALS was a service-connected disability in Gulf War vets.** Source: [http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hsals233465672sep23,0,3207688.story?coll=ny-health-headlines](http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hsals233465672sep23,0,3207688.story?coll=ny-health-headlines) (Emphasis mine.) ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gulf-war-syndrome-and-als/206148/5 "2003-10-08T03:55:07Z")
Michael Fumento is pretty strong-worded and offends a lot of people, but he always seems to have the facts on his side. In the article [Gulf Vets Needn’t Fear Lou Gehrig’s Disease](http://www.fumento.com/gulf/gulfsept2003.html), he says: > [@](#): > > With so few cases, a couple more or less can cause huge statistical swings. Obviously the smallest flaw would ruin such a study; yet both the Horner and Haley studies shared one so large you could drive a Mack truck through it sideways. Random selection is crucial in such research, yet both identified some of their cases through appeals to Gulf War syndrome activist groups. Would you trust a “national” survey of the president’s job approval if most of the respondents lived in Berkeley? Robert Haley is an embarrassment to the Dallas area. He’s put out this kind of crap before, and it never stands up to scrutiny. And erictelevision, if you think GWS is a result of chem/bio exposure, Fumento slaughters that one as well. See [http://www.fumento.com/sugulf.html](http://www.fumento.com/sugulf.html) . If you think that his debunking of GWS would get some gulf vets all riled up, you’re right! Read his [Hate Mail](http://www.fumento.com/hatemail.html). ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gulf-war-syndrome-and-als/206148/6 "2003-10-08T05:30:22Z")
Well, I don’t believe in some all-encompasing Gulf War Syndrome, either. It may be something else common to the area, and it may be several somethings, but I was there this spring/summer and out of all the people that went, one guy came back and got really sick and is now saying he has GWS. It couldn’t have had anything to do with the spider bite he got, though. :rolleyes: So, in my opinion GWS is a myth. People getting sick from something, however, is not. I have no doubt about that. It’s just not GWS. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gulf-war-syndrome-and-als/206148/7 "2003-10-08T14:09:14Z")
You’re right - people get sick all the time, whether or not they’ve been to the gulf. But if Joe Sixpack gets a chronic illness, he’s unlucky. If a gulf vet gets the same illness, he attributes it to GWS. Study after study has found that gulf vets are at least as healthy as the general population. They do report a higher incidence of vague, achy-type symptoms, but these are all symptoms that are psychomatic. What do you expect, though, if you tell somebody they’re supposed to feel bad for years?