Pill used to "protect" Gulf War Vets suspected in illness

Pesticides, Nerve-Gas Pills Tied to Gulf War Illness (Update1)

By Rob Waters

March 10 (Bloomberg) -- A pill given to U.S. soldiers to help protect them against nerve gas, and pesticides sprayed in the air and used to treat their clothes, may have triggered the cluster of symptoms known as Gulf War illness, a study found.

Scientists, U.S. government officials and veterans' groups have long debated why tens of thousands of soldiers who served in the Gulf War in 1991 developed a cluster of symptoms that became known as Gulf War illness. The symptoms include chronic fatigue, headaches, dizziness, loss of muscle control, memory and attention problems, and muscle and joint pain.

For many years, U.S. officials contended that Gulf War symptoms were caused by psychological stress, not chemical exposure. Today's review of more than 20 studies, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, led to the ``ineluctable conclusion'' that the high rate of symptoms in the soldiers was due to their exposure to any or all of the toxins, said study author Beatrice Golomb of the University of California, San Diego.

``This provides triangulating evidence from inside and outside the Gulf War arena supporting the causal connection'' of the chemicals to the soldiers' syndrome, Golomb said in a telephone interview on March 7.

The key ingredient is acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, or AChEis, which act in the body to blunt the effect of an enzyme that regulates a brain chemical called acetylcholine. That substance helps neurons to fire. When the enzyme that regulates this chemical is blocked by an inhibitor, it causes the neurons to fire excessively, Golomb says.
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