LINK FOUND AMONG CASES OF GULF WAR SYNDROME

Dallas researchers have found a common link to explain many of the seemingly disparate symptoms of Gulf War syndrome.

Writing this month in the American Journal of Medicine, researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas report that veterans with Gulf War syndrome appear to have damage to the parasympathetic nervous system. That system is involved in many of the body's basic, rudimentary jobs, such as digestion and cardiac function.

To study the parasympathetic nervous system – which is most active at night – the scientists asked 22 ill veterans to spend four nights in a sleep lab. Machines measured the dynamics of their cardiovascular system, along with other signs that would indicate whether the parasympathetic nervous system was working as it should. The data from those veterans were compared with data from 19 healthy veterans who served in the same battalion.

The researchers found that among the veterans with Gulf War syndrome, the parasympathetic nervous system did not rev up at night as it should. Damage to the system, the researchers report, would explain such symptoms as gall bladder disease, unrefreshing sleep and sexual dysfunction.

UT Southwestern's Dr. Robert Haley led the study, conducted with a team of 11 other scientists. Dr. Haley and his colleagues have previously suggested that low-level exposure to sarin gas – a component of Iraqi chemical weapons – caused nerve damage in the ailing veterans.

_ Laura Beil