Does New Study Prove Gulf War Syndrome Is Real?
A new study of British Gulf War veterans claims to demonstrate that Gulf War Syndrome is real. But a close look at what the researchers found — and more importantly, did not find — casts even more doubts on the claims that people who served in the Persian Gulf War were exposed to something that is making them sick.
The main finding that the researchers believe support the Gulf War Syndrome hypothesis is that Gulf veterans reported suffering more often from common ailments than non-Gulf veterans. But, as with other syndromes, the additional alleged health problems are of a minor nature. Specifically, headaches, rashes, muscle pain, digestive difficulties, and difficulty in concentrating. Such symptoms are the usually laundry list attached to every new syndrome that comes along from chemical sensitivity syndrome to chronic fatigue syndrome.
What the researchers did not find, however, was that Gulf veterans were any more likely to be hospitalized or experience serious illness than non-Gulf veterans. The study found there was no excess deaths among Gulf War veterans and no increase of hospital admissions.
Even with the data about muscle aches and difficulty in concentrating, researcher Dr. Nicola Cherry told the BBC that, “We did not set out to answer the question of whether there was a single ‘Gulf War Syndrome,’ and it is fair to say that the results do not suggest there are unique symptoms.”
So we have an alleged syndrome that has “no unique symptoms” that appear from which it could be diagnosed, causes no increases in deaths or hospitalization, and whose major reported adverse health events are difficulties in concentrating, muscle pains, and headaches. Just more evidence that any Gulf War Syndrome is almost certainly psychological in nature.
Source:
Gulf veterans ’suffer worse health’. The BBC, April 12, 2001.
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