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Thanks ron82nd, Some good info here . Sorry about your problem. I am happy for your compensation though. Good luck and health to you.
Posts: 107 | From: Benton City Washington State | Registered: Nov 2008
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Ron I am reading with GREAT interest. I read the article however it doesn't state Parkinson's? I would be VERY interested in how the wording is on your rating decision. Can we talk? I have been vocal about this for a long time but very inactive on this board lately. My PD is stealing my life away and in my opinion killing me slowly. I would live a more peaceful life knowing my family is taken care after I am gone. This disease is TORTURE! I totally agree with the link of the pills and pesticides and almost all docs agree pesticides alone will cause PD but my fear is the practice of awarding service connection for PD is not a VA wide policy but rather the work of a great rating specialist at your VA for your case.
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Ron you around?????? Inquiring minds want to know......your win could possibly be a MAJOR victory for all. Did you have a dignosis while on active duty..or......did you have signs and symptoms documented in your service records? Or did you not have anything until many years later and then the VA granted service connection?
Posts: 521 | From: FL | Registered: Jul 2005
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Sorry about not getting back with anything sooner but I’ve been away with no internet access:
To answer your questions: I had no diagnosis of any type illness when I got out. I left the service 4 months after I returned from the Gulf. I only started noticing something at about 6 months later with a skin problem, stomach problem and a mild tremor that only happened when I was really agree & stressed out. Few years later I into a class mate in college that was in the gulf war as well and had the same type of problems as I did. I went and made claim for tremors, hand coordination, skin, stomach and a back injury that happened on a jump while in service. I was examined by the VA and refused everything except my back. At age 36 my issues had progressed to a point it was hard for me to function. After years of being misdiagnosed the VA finally diagnosed me with Parkinson’s. After that I renewed my claim. It took almost 3 years of getting denied, appeals I was finally awarded Parkinson’s as service related. What helped me out the most in November just before my hearing the “Scientific panel concluded Gulf War syndrome is a legitimate illness and one of the conditions recognized is **neurological/neuromotor conditions**. I received the award letter but I haven’t received my rating letter yet and it’s been a month. I hope this answers your questions.
Posts: 11 | Registered: Mar 2007
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Ron congratulations on winning your claim. Maybe this will open doors for more gulf vets with pd. I know that the comp wont help with your condition, but it will help tremendously in many other ways.
Gulfvet, glad to see one of the old faces still on the board. Hope you are doing ok brother.
quote:Originally posted by ron82nd: It took almost 3 years of getting denied, appeals I was finally awarded Parkinson’s as service related. What helped me out the most in November just before my hearing the “Scientific panel concluded Gulf War syndrome is a legitimate illness and one of the conditions recognized is **neurological/neuromotor conditions**. I received the award letter but I haven’t received my rating letter yet and it’s been a month. I hope this answers your questions.
Can you point out this "Scientific Panel study"? I can't seem to find it. Did the Regional Office grant the benfit or did the Board of Veterans Appeals?
Posts: 521 | From: FL | Registered: Jul 2005
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(ALL CAPS YELLING) PARKINSONS HAS GOT TO BE ADDED TO THE SERVICE CONNECTED LIST, BESIDE MS AND ALS.
How can we get this moving. Who should we write? Our reps? I mean it, we have got to get this service connected.
Posts: 484 | From: FLA | Registered: Feb 2007
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quote:Originally posted by HankHill 1: Gulfvet, I believe Ron is talking about the findings in the Nov. '08 RAC report.
Hey Hank....how are you? Long time no see. I haven't been around much. Too busy dealing with life and this adventure......Parkinson's.
Thanks for the info on the report. I'll look it up and read it. I sure wish they would make this simple (yea right) and add Parkinson's to the list. This old body has a bit less fight in it nowadays. My mind says fight and body says no. I'll make it....I have no choice. These are my cards and I will go with it. I sincerely just hope my family will gets these benefits. I have put them through enough hell. They deserve better.
Posts: 521 | From: FL | Registered: Jul 2005
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Gulf War veterans display abnormal brain response to specific chemicals
DALLAS — A new study by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers is the first to pinpoint damage inside the brains of veterans suffering from Gulf War syndrome — a finding that links the illness to chemical exposures and may lead to diagnostic tests and treatments.
Dr. Robert Haley, chief of epidemiology at UT Southwestern and lead author of the study, said the research uncovers and locates areas of the brain that function abnormally. Recent studies had shown evidence of chemical abnormalities and shrinkage of white matter in the brains of veterans exposed to certain toxic chemicals, such as sarin gas during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
The research, published in the March issue of the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, enables investigators to visualize exact brain structures affected by these chemical exposures, Dr. Haley said.
“Before this study, we didn’t know exactly what parts of the brain were damaged and causing the symptoms in these veterans,” he said. “We designed an experiment to test areas of the brain that would have been damaged if the illness was caused by sarin or pesticides, and the results were positive.”
In designing the study, Dr. Haley and his colleagues reasoned that if low-level sarin or pesticides had damaged Gulf War veterans’ brains, a likely target of the damage would be cholinergic receptors on cells in certain brain structures. If that was so, administering safe levels of medicines that stimulate cholinergic receptors would elicit an abnormal response in ill veterans.
In the study, 21 chronically ill Gulf War veterans and 17 well veterans were given small doses of physostigmine, a substance which briefly stimulates cholinergic receptors. Researchers then measured the study participants’ brain cell response with brain scans.
“What we found was that some of the brain areas we previously suspected responded abnormally to the cholinergic challenge,” Dr. Haley said. “Those areas were in the basal ganglia, hippocampus, thalamus and amygdala, and the thalamus. Changes in functioning of these brain structures can certainly cause problems with concentration and memory, body pain, fatigue, abnormal emotional responses and personality changes that we commonly see in ill Gulf War veterans.”
A previous study funded by the U.S. Army found that repetitive exposure to low-level sarin nerve gas caused changes in cholinergic receptors in lab rats.
“An added bonus is a statistical formula combining the brain responses in 17 brain areas that separated the ill from the well veterans, and three different Gulf War syndrome variants from each other with a high degree of accuracy,” Dr. Haley said. “If this finding can be repeated in a larger group, we might have an objective test for Gulf War syndrome and its variants.”
An objective diagnostic test, he said, sets the stage for ongoing genetic studies to see why some people are affected by chemical exposures, and why others are not. New studies would also allow the selection of homogenous groups of ill veterans in which to run efficient clinical trials for treatments.
click for more information -- a disabled veteran owned business
Dr. Haley first described Gulf War syndrome in a series of papers published in January 1997 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In previous studies, research from Dr. Haley showed that veterans suffering from Gulf War syndrome had lower levels of a protective blood enzyme called paraoxonase, which usually fights off the toxins found in sarin. Veterans who served in the same geographical area and did not get sick had higher levels of this enzyme.
Dr. Haley and his colleagues have closely followed the same group of tests subjects since 1995. In 2006, UT Southwestern and the Department of Veterans Affairs established a dedicated, collaborative Gulf War illness research enterprise in Dallas, managed by UT Southwestern.
Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a longtime supporter of Gulf War research, facilitated that agreement and secured a $75 million appropriation over five years for Gulf War illness research.
This study was funded, in part, by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command.
Other UT Southwestern researchers involved in the current study included Drs. Jeffrey Spence and Patrick Carmack, assistant professors of clinical sciences; Drs. Michael Devous and Frederick Bonte, professors of radiology; and Dr. Madhukar Trivedi, professor of psychiatry. Researchers from Southern Methodist University also participated.
------------------------- posted by Larry Scott Founder and Editor VA Watchdog dot Org -------------------------
Just some info I found.
Posts: 107 | From: Benton City Washington State | Registered: Nov 2008
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quote:Originally posted by michael/3/8/cav: Gulf War veterans display abnormal brain response to specific chemicals
DALLAS — A new study by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers is the first to pinpoint damage inside the brains of veterans suffering from Gulf War syndrome — a finding that links the illness to chemical exposures and may lead to diagnostic tests and treatments.
Do you know the date of this article? Dr Haley has been the leading authority on Gulf War illness. I have exchanged e-mails with him as well about this. The VA used Dr Haley's research to service connecte ALS. Dr Haley predicted long ago that Gulf War veterans would be diagnosed with Parkinson's....he was that confident many years ago yet the VA ignores him on this issue. Why doesn't the VA just say it? Add Parkinson's to the presumptive list!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posts: 521 | From: FL | Registered: Jul 2005
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Gulfvet, I got it from vawatchdog.org. it was dated Mar 22 2009. We must keep an eye on these issues. I hope we get some attention on this. Good luck and good health to you my friend.
Posts: 107 | From: Benton City Washington State | Registered: Nov 2008
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PS- Im still kickin. Just not very high these days. Took a couple years off from the computer due to finances. Look forward to catching up with everyone here. Looks like most of the old timers have moved on though.
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