The following are transcripts from a presentation given by Dr. Garth Nicholson at the 1997
CFIDS Awareness Conference held at Saddleback Hospital in Laguna Hills, Ca, June 1, 1997.
Dr. Garth Nicholson, PHD; Scientic Director of the of the Institute for
Molecular Medicine in Irvine, Ca. Professor of Internal Medicine; Professor of Pathology
and Laboratory Medicine.
Dr. Nicholson began speaking about the role of mycoplasma fermantens in Gulf War
Syndrome (GWS) and its relationship to CFS and Fibromyalgia.
Many of the soldiers who have this illness have not received a proper diagnosis
and therefore have not obtained any treatment. Families of the soldiers are also getting
ill and facing the same nightmare. Military base hospitals and Veterans Hospitals are
turning most of them away and not providing treatment. As with CFS and fibromyalgia, the
military does not have a medical category for GWS and many of these soldiers are
classified as having an "undiagnosed illness", discharged from the military
without health benefits and without compensation.
Dr. Nicholson's step-daughter, who was in the military during the Gulf War, came
down with GWS. She was originally healthy but then she came down with the illness. She was
training to be a pilot but she failed the physical and had to leave the service. She
eventually recovered completely with help from Dr. Nicholson and is now in medical school.
Since the illness of his step-daughter, Dr. Nicholson decided to get involved to help
others with GWS.
About 600,000 soldiers were deployed during Desert Storm and along with the US,
27 other nations participated. 27 out of the 28 countries had experienced GWS outbreaks.
Over 100,000 Gulf War vets have GWS and this doesn't include family members.
Treatment with antibiotics has helped many of the vets and their family members.
The military's denial with regards to GWS hasn't changed since 1991. They don't
admit that this may be a transmittable illness. They don't admit that biological or
chemical weapons were used in the Gulf War. Their stance is that it is a psychosomatic
illness related to stress.
Chemical and biological exposures have overlapping signs and symptoms.
Primarily, biological exposures can be passed to family members. One exception, in a few
cases, chemicals such as "Dusty mustard" were on uniforms, duffel bags, trophies
that were brought back from the war and those who came in touch with these items became
ill.
Most nerve agents do not persist for a long time and degrade rather rapidly but
some of the blistering and choking agents can persist. Biologic agents can persist also.
He mentioned that there were immediate casualties in the Gulf War due to
biologic and chemical exposure although this is hotly denied by DOD. Acute exposures
include Anthrax poisoning. A book that discusses this issue is called "Gassed in the
Gulf", by Patrick Gaton (sp?).
Chronic agents are also involved in this process. Casualties happened in Kuwait
and Southern Iraq where toxic oil fires burned, chemical/biologic depots were destroyed
and overwhelming evidence that chemical/biological weapons were used. Areas hardest hit
were special forces and support units, not the front line.
A study done by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta comparing
deployed and not deployed airmen from the same units. The units were 500 to over 1,000 in
size, half deployed/half undeployed and consisted of two Central Pennsylvania Air National
Guard units and two Florida Army reserve units. For those deployed, there was a much
higher incidence of joint pain, chronic fatigue, memory loss, sleep difficulties,
headaches, skin rashes, diarrhea, joint stiffness, etc. These would fall under progressive
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Fibromyalgia.
Prior to this study, Dr. Nicholson, along with a group of other physicians,
prepared a paper which concluded that Gulf War illnesses were chronic with overlapping
signs and symptoms that suggested multiple illnesses similar to that of Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. They included the immediate family members, had multiple
apparent causes and were probably due to chemical and biological exposures, not due to
stress.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia have overlapping symptoms and may be
part of the same illness process. Many of these symptoms overlap with the Gulf War
illnesses. GW soldiers have higher frequencies of photo sensitivity.
They decided to perform a detailed survey to study where the soldiers served in
the Gulf War, the dates they served, their health history (previous diagnoses) and their
chronic signs and symptoms. They generated a list of 125 signs and symptoms to better
identify what the symptoms are when the blood is drawn for analysis because the symptoms
tended to wax and wane. They were unable to obtain the soldier's shot records (vaccines)
from the military because they were considered classified. They were refused information
on family members because the DOD denied transmittability.
As with CFS, general blood tests always comes out normal for GW illnesses.
Nothing shows-up until the patient reaches a chronic progressive disease incapacity. CT
scan of the brain show abnormalities in those who are extremely ill. Reactivated viral
infections, indicating immune status, occur in a minority of GW illness patients.
Auto-antibodies are also elevated in these patients. More of this will be discussed by Dr.
Vodjani. Much of Dr. Vodjani's conclusions agreed with Dr. Nicholson's findings.
Gulf War illnesses could be caused by exposure to a mixture of chemicals but it
didn't explain the transmissable factor. Other causes include sand (silica) inhalation
that leads to silicosis (lung infection); inhalation of depleted uranium that was used in
armor penetrator weapons; parasites (few soldiers had parasitic infections); and
microorganisms (bacteria, viruses and mycoplasmas).
Mycoplasmas, a type of bacteria, but they do not have a cell wall like normal
bacterias. Viruses do not have cell walls either. Mycoplasmas have membrane around them.
They were attracted to the mycoplasmas because this microorganism can penetrate the cell
walls and remain undetected. Mycoplasma could only be found in the leukocyte white blood
cell fraction, not in the red cells. Mycoplasma inflection can cause all the same signs
and symptoms as GW illness, CFS, Fibromyalgia, as well as, a subset of patients diagnosed
with Lupus, MS, ALS, Thyroditis, arthritis and other diseases.
Mycoplasma will penetrate inside cells and cause problems. Mycoplasma produces
ammonia and oxidized compounds (hydrogen peroxide, peroxide compounds) which are all toxic
to cells. This can lead to fevers, night sweats, chronic fatigue, joint pain, skin
sensitivity, rashes, swelling, reduced mobility, heart problems, palpatations, pain,
double vision, loss of vision, eye pain, photosensitivity etc. It takes time for these
illnesses to show-up. If the infection persists it can lead to hepatitis of the liver,
spinal meningitis, peripheral neuropathy, paralysis, and if it gets in the brain,
cerebular meningitis, a very serious condition that is difficult to reverse. Often
misdiagnosed as ALS and MS.
Dr. Nicholson told the story of a 25 year old vet who had a massive heart attack
and he was waiting for a heart donor. He had lost over 85% of his heart function. Dr.
Nicholson did some blood tests and told his cardiologist to put him on intravenous
doxycyclene. The vet recovered and is back to work. His heart is not completely normal and
it has reduced capacity but he is alive. If they would have performed the heart
transplant, the vet would have died because the new heart would not have survived this
illness.
If you have a chronic infection, it must be treated because as time goes on and
the disease progresses, your immune system has less capacity to fight-off the illness.
People that have mycoplasma infection can be treated with suitable antibiotics. Dr.
Nicholson and his family are living proof because they were all very ill with mycoplasma
infection but with antibiotic treatments they were able to beat it. The therapy can take
over one year.
The illness starts off as a pneumonia-like illness or lung infection that just
won't go away. Often described as a flu-like illness. Symptoms can wax and wane. It is
believed that the host is responding to an infectious agent. The mycoplasma carries some
of the antigens and host antigens with it. Mostly they are inside cells but when they
leave the cell it carries some antigens with it and then the host can respond against it.
When it does that some of the cells respond against the host cells resulting in chronic
neurologic problems where the antibodies or autoimmune system destroys nervous tissue.
Mycoplasma can only be detected with Forensic Polymerase Chain Reaction (FPCR)
and gene tracking. Classic PCR cannot detect the bacteria. A very detailed explanation of
PCR products, DNA and genes ensued and it was highly technical. The bottom line was that,
based on gene tracking, they found mycoplasma fermentans in the Leukocyte of some of the
GW illness vets. In some they also found mycoplasma genitalium.
Some physicians will write-off mycoplasma by saying everyone has mycoplasma.
True, but mycoplasma is found in the oral cavity, sinuses and groin areas but not in the
blood.
Mycoplasma fermentans (or Mycoplasma Incognitus) is an air-born pathogen. They
found Mycoplasma Fermentans pathogen in the white blood cells of those with GW illness.
Also, the form they found was mutated and had one gene, called GP120. This is the same
gene that encodes the HIV virus to allow it to enter cells. It allows mycoplasma to bind
to the cells and penetrate the cell wall. When mycoplasma penetrates the cell wall to
leave, it takes some pieces of the cell membrane with it and this is thought to cause the
autoimmune response.
25% of the soldiers and their symptomatic family members tested positive for
Mycoplasma Fermentans. The vet falls sick first, followed by the spouse and then six
months to a year or more the children become ill. Treatments include Doxicycline (200
mg/d), Biaxin (500 mg/d), Ciprofloxacin (1,000-1,500 mg/d), (pediatric safe) Azithromycin
(500 mg/d), or Minocycline (200 mg/d). Treatment is usually multiple 6 week cycles of
antibiodic (6 weeks on and 2 week off). Some people require up to 6 cycles of treatment.
Some end-up with secondary infections (fungal, yeast, ect). They must be treated in
concert and doesn't interfere with the antibiodic treatment.
Then they test to see how the treatment is coming along. Those with cognitive
problems are the last to recover taking several years of treatment before recovery. It
takes a long time to rid the nervous tissue of this disease.