IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i1p111-d194663.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gulf War Illness: Unifying Hypothesis for a Continuing Health Problem

Author

Listed:
  • Anthony R. Mawson

    (Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS 39213, USA)

  • Ashley M. Croft

    (School of Health Sciences and Social Work, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth P01 2DT, UK)

Abstract

An estimated 25%–32% of veterans of the 1991 Gulf War continue to experience multiple unexplained health problems known as Gulf War Illness (GWI). GWI encompasses chronic pain, musculoskeletal weakness, headache, fatigue, cognitive deficits, alterations in mood, and numerous multi-system complaints. Most potential exposures implicated in GWI were not well documented but included varying levels of several neurotoxicants as well as the anticholinergic drug pyridostigmine bromide (PB), which was routinely taken as prophylaxis against the nerve agent soman. While some veterans also took chloroquine as an antimalarial agent, the literature suggests an association between receipt of multiple vaccinations prior to or during the conflict (perhaps combined with other exposures), and GWI. In-theater exposures may account for any single individual veteran’s ill health but many veterans of the same era who were not deployed overseas also suffer the same or similar symptoms. The features of GWI also overlap with those of fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and multiple chemical sensitivity, in all of which liver dysfunction has been documented, suggesting a unifying hypothesis. It is proposed that multiple vaccinations, with concurrent or subsequent exposure to PB or additional chemical insults of a liver-damaging nature, plausibly explain the pathogenesis and the observed chronicity of GWI. The suggested mechanism for GWI is thus a chemically-induced impaired liver function, with the spillage of stored vitamin A compounds (“retinoids”) into the circulation in toxic concentrations, resulting in an endogenous chronic form of hypervitaminosis A. Implications of the hypothesis are briefly reviewed.

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony R. Mawson & Ashley M. Croft, 2019. "Gulf War Illness: Unifying Hypothesis for a Continuing Health Problem," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-16, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:1:p:111-:d:194663
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/1/111/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/1/111/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Girija Kaimal & Rebekka Dieterich-Hartwell, 2020. "Grappling with Gulf War Illness: Perspectives of Gulf War Providers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-11, November.
    2. Ayushi Trivedi & Dipro Bose & Kelly Moffat & Elisabeth Pearson & Dana Walsh & Devra Cohen & Jonathan Skupsky & Linda Chao & Julia Golier & Patricia Janulewicz & Kimberly Sullivan & Maxine Krengel & As, 2024. "Gulf War Illness Is Associated with Host Gut Microbiome Dysbiosis and Is Linked to Altered Species Abundance in Veterans from the BBRAIN Cohort," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(8), pages 1-22, August.
    3. Chelsey Poisson & Sheri Boucher & Domenique Selby & Sylvia P. Ross & Charulata Jindal & Jimmy T. Efird & Pollie Bith-Melander, 2020. "A Pilot Study of Airborne Hazards and Other Toxic Exposures in Iraq War Veterans," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-15, May.
    4. Linh M. Duong & Alice B. S. Nono Djotsa & Jacqueline Vahey & Lea Steele & Rachel Quaden & Kelly M. Harrington & Sarah T. Ahmed & Renato Polimanti & Elani Streja & John Michael Gaziano & John Concato &, 2022. "Association of Gulf War Illness with Characteristics in Deployed vs. Non-Deployed Gulf War Era Veterans in the Cooperative Studies Program 2006/Million Veteran Program 029 Cohort: A Cross-Sectional An," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-22, December.
    5. Jarred Younger & Emily K. Donovan & Kathleen S. Hodgin & Timothy J. Ness, 2021. "A Placebo-Controlled, Pseudo-Randomized, Crossover Trial of Botanical Agents for Gulf War Illness: Reishi Mushroom ( Ganoderma lucidum ), Stinging Nettle ( Urtica dioica ), and Epimedium ( Epimedium s," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-13, April.
    6. Emily K. Donovan & Sophia Kekes-Szabo & Joanne C. Lin & Rebecca L. Massey & James D. Cobb & Kathleen S. Hodgin & Timothy J. Ness & Carl Hangee-Bauer & Jarred W. Younger, 2021. "A Placebo-Controlled, Pseudo-Randomized, Crossover Trial of Botanical Agents for Gulf War Illness: Curcumin ( Curcuma longa), Boswellia ( Boswellia serrata ), and French Maritime Pine Bark ( Pinus pin," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-15, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:1:p:111-:d:194663. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.