Still sick 25 years after the Gulf War, a vet seeks answers — and the Minneapolis VA may have them.
Star Tribune
By Jeremy Olson
AUGUST 14, 2016
More than $500 million in research hasn’t found causes or cures for the illness, which the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs classifies as “unexplained illness” or “chronic multisymptom illness.”
Chad Donovan of Rochester is fighting for the Department of Veterans Affairs to acknowledge his pain and other symptoms as related to Gulf War Illness.
It’s been 25 years, and Chad Donovan still wonders which toxic hazard in the Gulf War might have caused the fatigue, stomach problems and rashes he has suffered ever since.
Maybe it was the nerve gas pills, which his unit took in Saudi Arabia while standing in formation so nobody refused.
Maybe one of the “false alarms” after a missile attack really did signal the presence of chemical weapons.
Maybe the mushroom-cloud detonation of unused Iraqi ordnance whooshed toxins into the air.
And then there were the sand fleas, pesticides, burning oil wells, dust storms and uranium-depleted bullets that made the Gulf War one of the most toxic conflicts in history.
Today, researchers at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center are leading a wave of studies to solve the mystery of Gulf War Illness, a cluster of unexplained symptoms reported by 25 to 65 percent of the 700,000 soldiers deployed to the Gulf in 1990 and 1991. They have identified genetic markers that could improve tests and treatment, one of the most significant advances in years, and started a clinical trial on a promising prescription drug.
read more here
Decades later, a Troy veteran of Vietnam heals
Reconciliation tours of Vietnam aid veterans who served in war
Albany Times Union
By J.p. Lawrence
August 14, 2016
Vietnam veteran Dan New of Troy met with Viet Cong veteran Tam Tien, as part of a reconciliation tour led by psychotherapist Ed Tick and his organization Soldier's Heart.
IMAGE 1 OF 8 Vietnam veteran Dan New of Troy met with Viet Cong veteran Tam Tien, as part of a reconciliation tour led by psychotherapist Ed Tick and his organization Soldier's Heart. (Photo: Ed Tick).
Troy
The heat of the night enveloped Dan New as he got off the plane. The 68-year-old man was back in the city he had known as Saigon. New marveled at how much had changed in what was now known as Ho Chi Minh City.
Waiting for him at the airport was another veteran of the war that ended 40 years ago. That man, Tran Dinh Song, had served in the South Vietnamese Air Force.
Over the next two weeks, New and Song would learn more about each other's story. In the years after coming home from Vietnam, New had sealed an intense feeling of guilt within him. In the years after his country lost to Communist forces, Song of South Vietnam had spent three years in a re-education camp. In December, the two men's winding paths after the war intersected in Ho Chi Minh City.
Song, 67, was New's guide in a two-week reconciliation tour of a dozen American veterans and researchers arranged by the Soldier's Heart, a Troy-based organization that helps veterans heal the psychological wounds of war.
read more here
GUEST POST
The Link Between Psychiatric Conditions and Cardiac Conditions
Your VA Claim
Anne Linscott
The Relationship Between Mind and Heart
Psychiatric conditions like PTSD, depression, anxiety, etc. alter the body’s nervous system and can negatively affect the heart. Also, psychiatric conditions can cause a person to make poor lifestyle choices such as poor diet, lack of exercise, or substance abuse. These poor lifestyle choices can also have a big impact on the heart. Why is it so important to understand the relationship between the mind and the heart? Both heart disease and psychiatric conditions are two of the most common disabilities suffered by veterans of multiple eras. For example, 175,220 Vietnam veterans have service connected coronary heart disease and over 350,000 Vietnam veterans have PTSD. And those numbers are just the veterans that have their conditions service connected.
Psychiatric conditions can not only make an existing heart condition worse, they can actually increase the risk of developing a heart condition. According to the American Psychological Association, people diagnosed with depression are more than twice as likely to develop coronary artery disease or suffer from a heart attack. On the reverse side, people with heart conditions are three times as likely to be depressed. This isn’t entirely surprising when you look at the impact heart conditions can have on someone’s life. For example, someone who suffers a heart attack can then have feelings of guilt about any habits they had that might have lead up to the heart attack. That person might also have feelings of self-doubt due because they worry about their ability to fulfill family/and or work related roles.
And the Medical Evidence Shows…
Dr. Viola Vaccarino, chair of the department of epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta stated, “repeated emotional triggers during everyday life in persons with PTSD could affect the heart by causing frequent increases in blood pressure, heart rate, and heartbeat rhythm abnormalities that in susceptible individuals could lead to a heart attack.” Dr. Vaccarino led a study of Vietnam veterans diagnosed with PTSD, nuclear imagining scans of the veterans’ hearts showed that the veterans with PTSD had almost twice as much reduction in blood flow to their hearts as those veterans without PTSD. This was true even after taking into considerations the traditional cardiovascular risk factors such as age, past heart disease, obesity, alcohol use, etc.
Dr. Vaccarino’s findings are supported by other medical studies and research that drew similar conclusions. A study published by the American Journal of Public Health in April of 2015 found that of 8,000 veterans participating, those with PTSD had a nearly 50% greater risk of developing heart failure compared with veterans that did not have PTSD. Also, veterans with PTSD that also had combat service were about 5 times more likely to develop heart failure than those veterans who had not seen combat. This study, along with other research, confirms what many experts believe; that PTSD, like other forms of chronic stress and anxiety, can cause damage to the heart over time.
In fact, Dr. Paula Schnurr with the VA’s National Center for PTSD even stated, “There’s now a large body of evidence that unequivocally links trauma exposure to poor physical health.”
Contact Chad Hill
UPDATE
Army officials said Staff Sgt. Christopher Wilbur died August 12 in a non-combat related incident in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Wilbur was 36. He leaves behind a wife and two young children, among others.
Dept. of Defense investigating death of Granite City soldier
KMOV 4 News
By Timothy Godfrey
Updated: Aug 14, 2016
(KMOV.com) -- A Granite City solider has died while serving in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced.
Staff Sgt. Christopher A. Wilbur died Aug. 12 in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The department said his death was from a non-combat related injury.
The incident in which Sgt. Wilbur died is currently under investigation.
read more here
Family discovers father, a Vietnam veteran, was more than their hero
Gaston Gazette, Gastonia, N.C.
By Kevin Ellis
Published: August 13, 2016
At first glance, Lekopites may not have quite looked like a hero. He told people he was 5 foot 6, but was actually closer to 5 foot 4. He was always extremely fit but never tipped the scales past 150 pounds. He carried the nickname "little Greek man."
GASTONIA, N.C. (Tribune News Service) — Asked what he did during his 20-year military career, Michael Lekopites had a ready, unassuming answer.
"He would say, 'I worked in communications. I climbed telephone poles,'" said Holly Pickert of Belmont, the oldest of his three daughters.
And while his girls always knew their father had done more, it was enough that he was their protector, their guardian and, if needed, their shoulder to cry on.
"He had a tough exterior with a soft heart," Pickert said.
But last year, the three girls came to realize that Alzheimer's disease was about to steal their family history. No longer could their father tell them stories of his past, or sometimes even their own names. They could pick out pieces of his story but needed help in filling the gaps.
"As kids, you don't pay attention to that stuff," Pickert said.
They turned to U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry's office for help in getting the service medals their father had earned during an Army career that started in 1962 and would include two years in Vietnam.
"I've never awarded so many medals to one individual in my 12 years of Congress," McHenry said last week.
Medals, military service commendations awarded to Michael Lekopites
Air Medal
Expert Badge with Rifle Bar
Sharpshooter Badge with Rifle Bar
Army Service Ribbon
Soldiers Medal
Meritorious Service Medal
Valorous Unit Award
National Defense Service Medal
Legion of Merit
Bronze Star
Good Conduct Medal
Driver and Mechanic Badge
NCO Professional Development Ribbon
Vietnam Service Medal
Army Commendation Medal
Republic of Vietnam Campaign Ribbon
Overseas Service Ribbon
read more here
