Gulf War syndrome continues to bea medical mystery story . Almost one - third of the 700,000 US and Allied soldiers who participated in the 1990 - 1991 Persian Gulf War against Saddam Hussein ’s Iraq receive an strange array of symptoms , includingfatigue , muscle painful sensation , " brain fog " , headaches , cognitive problems , insomnia , and digestive problems . While the underlying lawsuit of the illness is still fuzzy , a new study has helped to further bust the old belief that Gulf War malady ( GWI ) is the same as chronic fatigue duty syndrome ( CFS ) .
The two illnesses share some symptoms : problems with cognitive function , “ brain fog ” , issues with memory , pain , and fatigue follow exercise . However , recent brain scans unwrap that multitude with the two conditions show vastly different nervous action when carrying out memory trial after utilization .
Aprevious studypublished in 2017 by this same research mathematical group also suggested the two illness are separate condition . For this new study , scientists at Georgetown University Medical Center have dug deep into how the stipulation take issue . They observe that veteran with GWI record minify mental capacity action in the periaqueductal Asa Gray ( a pain processing region ) and in a part of the brain responsible for for fine motor controller , knowledge , pain , and emotion , while people with CFS had increased natural action in the periaqueductal grey and function of the brain responsible for vigilance and care .
Their newfangled findings were recently reported in the journalBrain Communications .
The Persian Gulf War kicked off in August 1990 after Iraqi loss leader Saddam Hussein invaded the neighboring oil color - rich nation of Kuwait so as to pay off the vast debt amounted during the Iran - Iraq War . The move was met with international curse , eventually leading to the US , the UK , and other nation launching a military conflict against Iraq . One of the set images of the warfare has become the Kuwaiti oil fires , in which the Iraqi regular army set fire to 100 of vegetable oil wells as part of a scorch earth policy while recede from Kuwait in 1991 .
This stunning result and the pic to chemical are also often considered as a quality defendant in the developing of Gulf War syndrome . In 2003 , theEuropean Molecular Biology Organizationnoted the condition has been “ associate to exposure to depleted uranium , pesticides , vaccines , particulate matter matter and gases from burning oil wells , biologic and chemical weapons , and the anti - nerve - gas drug pyridostigmine bromide ( PB ) . "
However , investigator are still clamber to extend to an concord about the underlying cause of the condition . Some have designate that post - traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ) could be linked to some aspects of the illness , although veterans of the Gulf War show extremely dissimilar symptom to those who served in other war both before and after .
alas , this confusion and deficiency of upstanding scientific knowledge intend that the great unwashed with Gulf War syndrome are often misdiagnosed and their illness stay wide misunderstood .
“ Now that CFS and GWI have been read to affect different regions of the learning ability , these region can be more closely canvass using neuroimaging and other technique to further our understanding of the similarities and difference between the two illnesses , ” Dr James Baraniuk , sketch author and professor of medicine at Georgetown , said in astatement . “ Once this fresh information is adopted generally , diagnoses and treatments for both disorderliness should improve . "
