Fw: Mysterious Syndromes Studied

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From: ilena rose <ilena@...>

Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2001 12:01 PM

Subject: Mysterious Syndromes Studied

> http://www.latimes.com/health/men/menswire/20010204/tCB00V0675.html

>

> Sunday, February 4, 2001 Mysterious Syndromes Studied

>

> By LINDA A. JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

>

> PISCATAWAY, N.J.--People desperate for explanations of mysterious

> health problems from chronic fatigue syndrome to multiple chemical

> sensitivity shouldn't blame the nearest toxic dump or exposure to

> chemicals, experts say.

> Numerous illnesses for which doctors can find no cause -or even

> conclude it's all in the patient's head -probably are caused by multiple

> physical, psychological and social factors interacting in complex ways not

> yet understood, scientists said at a recent conference at Rutgers

> University.

> " Everybody (at the meeting) seems to agree that psychosocial factors

> are very important for how people feel, for how they experience an

> illness, " said conference organizer Dr. Kipen, a professor of

> occupational health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New

> Jersey's Wood Medical School. " But most physicians in the

> wider community don't agree. "

> About 100 physicians, psychiatrists, chemical experts,

epidemiologists

> and other researchers participated in discussions on the role

environmental

> factors play in medically unexplained symptoms. That's an issue of great

> interest in New Jersey, a state full of Superfund sites (113), chemical

> plants, clogged highways, an unexplained autism cluster in Brick Township

> and abnormally high cancer rates among children in Toms River.

> When pain, nausea or other troublesome symptoms send patients to a

> doctor, Kipen noted, anywhere from 30 percent to 70 percent of those cases

> cannot be explained by any known disease.

> That's according to numerous studies of patients with what conference

> participants called " Multiple Unexplained Symptom Syndromes. " While they

> are poorly understood, most at least get names: chronic fatigue, irritable

> bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, Gulf War Syndrome, Lyme disease, sick

> building syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivity, sensitivity to the

> gasoline additive MTBE, or connective tissue disorder, as in women with

> silicone breast implants.

> The most common symptoms, at least in patients ill enough to seek

> medical help, include headaches, fatigue, trouble concentrating or

> remembering things, nausea, unusual chest pain, shortness of breath,

> trouble sleeping and musculoskeletal pain.

> " We're seeing overlap of symptoms " from one syndrome to another, said

> Dr. Kreutzer of the California Department of Health Services.

> Another puzzle, he said, is that " We're all exposed to low levels of

> chemicals, but we really don't see (multiple chemical sensitivity) in most

> people. "

> The symptoms often seem worst in patients paying the most attention

to

> them, those living unstimulating, somewhat isolated lives, noted Anne

> Spurgeon of the University of Birmingham in England.

> New syndromes crop up periodically, and some appear to have

> predecessors. For instance, some people working on computers or in

> slaughterhouses today develop repetitive strain injury, whose forerunners

> include telegraphist's cramp, Spurgeon said.

> She is researching a " new " illness causing fatigue and memory

problems

> among U.K. sheep farmers, who by law each year must dip sheep in a toxic

> chemical to kill parasites.

> Despite the complexities of such syndromes, researchers hope to

> understand them better.

> Dr. Natelson and colleague Gudrun Lange of UMDNJ's New

Jersey

> Medical School, for example, are testing two hypotheses on what causes

> chronic fatigue syndrome.

> One involves previous findings that patients with CFS who have no

> psychiatric problems have abnormalities in the structure of their brains;

> the other concerns preliminary data that CFS patients have something wrong

> with their hearts or blood vessels.

> Kipen said the conference helped participants decide where future

> research should go so that " we should be able to design better treatments

> and prevention. "

> The conference was sponsored by government agencies, the petroleum

> industry and the 15 -year-old Environmental and Occupational Health

> Sciences Institute in Piscataway, which is jointly run by Wood

> Medical School and Rutgers University.

> The environmental institute brings together experts from different

> fields in programs focused on understanding how environmental factors

> affect human health, treating people harmed by environmental agents,

trying

> to prevent risks to human health and the environment, and providing

> scientific information to policy makers.

>

> - - -

> On the Net:

> Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute:

> http://www.eohsi.rutgers.edu

> Copyright 2000 Los Angeles Times

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