Neurological Dysfunction in Gulf War Veterans
July 28, 2011
Neurological Dysfunction in Gulf War Veterans is an acknowledged health hazard phenomenon that is also referred to as GWS or Gulf War syndrome and also the GWI or the Gulf War Illness. All these terms refer to certain neurological problems that have been noted among civilians and Gulf War veterans apart from the Gulf War civilians who were directly or indirectly involved in conflicts that associated with the Gulf War. This happened mainly because during this War, many types of chemical and bio-chemical weapons were used for the first time. The Gulf War happened in 1991 and many of its participants, i.e. both soldiers and civilians, are known to suffer from acute and chronic symptoms. This includes fatigue and unexplained musculoskeletal pain apart from many types of neurological disorders that includes cognitive problems and some other physical problems like skin rashes. It has been approximated that nearly 250,000 among the 697,000 Gulf War veterans have been diagnosed with many kinds of chronic multi-symptoms among which neurological illnesses have been noted to be the most common.
Actually, Neurological Dysfunction in Gulf War Veterans is a part of the multi-symptom illnesses that is an established medical problem among many of the Gulf War Veterans. Such neurological problems have been noted among both the deployed and non-deployed military personnel that served during this war. It is largely believed that during the Gulf War, people were exposed to many unknown or previously-unused toxic substances that impacted the nervous system of the sufferers in ways that were understood after many years. In fact, neurological disorders among Gulf War veterans is no longer argued since the exposure caused during this phase led to many kinds of epidemiological problems such as those that caused birth defects among the children of exposed people (in the form of birth defects). Many of these neurological problems are believed to have been precipitated by exposure to depleted uranium, i.e. ‘Uranium Exposure’ that is also known to raise the incidence of cancer.
However, there are large differences among the intensity of the neurological problems among the sufferers. This is largely due to the differences in the brain reserve capacity. This is the inherent capacity of the neurons of the brain to overcome a chemical or physical damage. This is vital since most Gulf War Veterans showing neurological symptoms have shown variations in which their brain’s chemicals reacted with the cholinesterase-inhibiting chemicals, i.e. the toxins. The side-effects induced by the toxins are known to have affected the central, peripheral and autonomic parts of the human nervous system. No matter what might be the intensity of the symptoms, all these symptoms direct towards a similar pathologic process that is highly distinguishable by the impairment of various parts of the Nervous System.
The most common symptoms of Neurological Dysfunction in Gulf War Veterans is impaired cognition that is characterized by depression, distraction, difficulty in remembering basic details along with varying degrees of insomnia and some typical symptoms such as slurred speech, perplexed thinking and migraine-like headaches.
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