New follow-up work has been announced in Houston.
The University of Texas and the VA hospital in Houston have
initiated a new study of the local area incidence of PD. The
study will include those diagnosed between January 1, 1998
and December 2001. They may have to be residence of Harris
County. We are trying to get more details.
My wife (not a candidate for the study - 25 years PD) and I
were interviewed for nearly two hours yesterday by the
Houston Chronicle in conjuction with this work. The Houston
Area Parkinson Society will stay tuned to this work and make
sure that as many people as possible are made aware of the
study.
The reportor was very interested in our Washington advocacy
work and the effect that it may have had on funding of this
study. Since Senator Hutchison apparently proposed a new
funding increase, our six years of advocay work with her in
Washington may have had a direct result.
The June 2000 Michael J. Fox Forum (PAN) and some photo's of
the kiss he gave Nancy may be included in the article.
The article is supposed to appear in the medical section of
the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday August 15. Will keep you
posted as more details become available.
Bob Martone
[log in to unmask]
http://www.samlink.com/~bmartone
Subject: Marines with PD (And other GI's)
To substantiate the impact of a toxic environment as a cause
of P-D, the
following article refers to good research that ties Gulf War
Syndrome to
neuronal damage caused by toxic exposure.
******************************* News
Article*******************
NEW STUDY CONFIRMS BRAIN STEM DAMAGE TO SICK GULF WAR
VETERANS
By John Hanchette
Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON - Veterans of the 1991 war with Iraq complaining
of mysterious "Gulf War Illness" symptoms are showing
significant damage in the brain stem area, according to a
new Pentagon-sponsored study at the University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center.
More than 15 percent of the 697,000 troops who served in
the desert war
have complained of mysterious chronic symptoms since then -
including joint
and muscle pain, headaches, insomnia, memory loss, fatigue,
imbalance,
confusion, depression - and some have suffered serious
neural illnesses such
as multiple sclerosis and Lou Gehrig's disease.
The Texas team looked at 40 Seabees from a Naval Reserve
construction
battalions
Led by UT Southwestern epidemiologist Robert Haley, the
study team found
that a vital brain chemical called NAA (N-acetyl-aspartate)
necessary for the
good health of brain neurons, was as much as 25 percent
lower in the sick
veterans.
Haley, a former top disease investigator for the federal
Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said NAA "is
really a dramatic
indicator of the brain cell health." Scientists recently
have noticed stroke
victims, for instance, will show a depressed level of NAA,
then an increased
restoration of the substance once the damaged brain area
starts to heal.
Haley looked at three areas: the brain stem, which
connects the brain and
the spinal cord, and the right and left basal ganglia -
sugar-cube-sizegroups of nerve cells that sit above the
brain stem on both sides, just underthe cerebrum. These
areas are vital in controlling smooth muscle actions,memory,
breathing, sleeping, thought connection,
emotions and balance.
He said the brain damage in the Gulf War vets is
similar to that found in
very early stages of at least four relentlessly progressive
neural diseases:
Parkinson's, Huntington's chorea, Wilson's disease, and
Fahr's syndrome.
Haley and associates have proposed "more big research,
almost a Manhattan
Project approach" on this course, and Sen. Kay Bailey
Hutchinson, R-Texas,
has added $5 million to the defense appropriations bill for
an expanded
research facility at UT Southwestern Medical for that
purpose. That bill has
passed a Senate committee and a floor vote is expected soon.
****************************************************
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This information should be brought to the attention of the
Veteran's groups
in your area. They can and should petition their Senatorf
for the budgeting
of funds for the NETRPS research by the DOD.A good program
for PWP and for all veterans (and
the genreal public).
Sid Levin
