Gulf War Syndrome & Chemical warfare
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Gulf War Syndrome & Chemical warfare
New Scientist - Gulf war syndrome research reveals present danger .
Hopefully the threat is now past, but I'd suggest anyone out there only take NAPS tablets in a life threatening situation. ( NAPS tablets = Pyridostigmine Bromide)
"Syndrome 2 veterans were also around eight times as likely as healthy comrades to have reacted badly to pyridostigmine, a drug given to soldiers in the Gulf, then and now, to protect against nerve agent attacks. In troops who were both exposed to nerve agent and showed side effects to the drug, the risk of long-term ill effects was five times the risk conferred by each factor separately.
The link, says Haley, is that chemical weapons, and the drug that protects against them, affect the same physiological pathway. Nerve gas sends muscles into fatal spasm by blocking an enzyme that destroys acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter that makes muscles contract. In theory, pyridostigmine protects by blocking the enzyme for a short time, keeping nerve agents from binding to it permanently.
But some people may not be able to cope with having the enzyme blocked at all."
Hopefully the threat is now past, but I'd suggest anyone out there only take NAPS tablets in a life threatening situation. ( NAPS tablets = Pyridostigmine Bromide)
"Syndrome 2 veterans were also around eight times as likely as healthy comrades to have reacted badly to pyridostigmine, a drug given to soldiers in the Gulf, then and now, to protect against nerve agent attacks. In troops who were both exposed to nerve agent and showed side effects to the drug, the risk of long-term ill effects was five times the risk conferred by each factor separately.
The link, says Haley, is that chemical weapons, and the drug that protects against them, affect the same physiological pathway. Nerve gas sends muscles into fatal spasm by blocking an enzyme that destroys acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter that makes muscles contract. In theory, pyridostigmine protects by blocking the enzyme for a short time, keeping nerve agents from binding to it permanently.
But some people may not be able to cope with having the enzyme blocked at all."
Lupus Domesticus
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The enzyme in question is acetylcholine esterase. This is precisely the mechanism affected by organophosphate insecticides; the target organism literally spasms and shakes itself to death.
Regular users of such products in agricultural applications take a twice-yearly blood test to establish and monitor their baseline levels of acetylcholine esterase. Any drop in the levels, and you're out of the game for two years.
The stuff is nasty, nasty sh!t, and it's effects can be subtle and delayed as well as sudden and fatal.
I would suspect that at least part of GW Syndrome can be explained by agents which block acetylcholine esterase, even if it was only meant to be for a short time. The symptoms are very close to Chronic Fatigue, which I have had (took seven years to come mostly right), and which I am now fairly certain was triggered by OP insecticide.
Good luck to anyone having to make a decision as to whether to take the stuff or not.
Regular users of such products in agricultural applications take a twice-yearly blood test to establish and monitor their baseline levels of acetylcholine esterase. Any drop in the levels, and you're out of the game for two years.
The stuff is nasty, nasty sh!t, and it's effects can be subtle and delayed as well as sudden and fatal.
I would suspect that at least part of GW Syndrome can be explained by agents which block acetylcholine esterase, even if it was only meant to be for a short time. The symptoms are very close to Chronic Fatigue, which I have had (took seven years to come mostly right), and which I am now fairly certain was triggered by OP insecticide.
Good luck to anyone having to make a decision as to whether to take the stuff or not.
