This trial is evaluating whether Boswellia Serrata will improve 1 primary outcome and 7 secondary outcomes in patients with Gulf War Illness. Measurement will happen over the course of Average respiratory symptom severity during the last two weeks of each treatment, compared to average severity during the last two weeks of placebo, as well as baseline..
This trial requires 64 total participants across 10 different treatment groups
This trial involves 10 different treatments. Boswellia Serrata is the primary treatment being studied. Participants will be divided into 9 treatment groups. Some patients will receive a placebo treatment. The treatments being tested are not being studied for commercial purposes.
Our observations suggest that an increase in the number of cases diagnosed with Gulf War illness could reflect a true increase in the illness, but many cases remain undiagnosed. These data provide an insight into the complexities of identifying an etiology for the clinical presentations.
The treatment of GWH suffering from complex multi-morbid illnesses is complex in many respects. There are no simple-bout treatments that are guaranteed to work for everyone.
As compared with healthy controls, veterans with GVI are more likely to experience a history of depression, anxiety/psychosocial problems, insomnia, fatigue or low energy, decreased appetite, and increased weight. These conditions are associated with the presence of GVI; however, the reasons why they are more common among veteran populations are unclear, as is the mechanism by which GVI lead to the development of these conditions. Although a causal pathway has not been elucidated, the findings suggest that many common GVI-associated conditions might be prevented or ameliorated by identifying and treating GVI and associated conditions at the earliest indications of disease.
The GI-D is the symptom complex that is most frequently encountered in Gulf War Syndrome. It is marked by fatigue, headaches, fatigue induced nausea/vomiting, and abdominal pain and tends to occur when veterans serve in the western theaters of the military operation between 1991 and 1996. There are a number of contributing factors to GWI, including the magnitude and duration of exposures to chemical agents and non-chemical agents such as biological agents, stress, trauma, sleep disturbances, nutritional deficiencies, infectious agents, and exposure to pesticides and solvents in environments of high environmental bioaerosol concentrations. These may include combat exposures, pesticides, and solvents.
There is ample evidence that Gulf War Veterans have persistent and disabling symptoms of Gulf War illness that can persist indefinitely after service. Of the nearly 15,000 current Gulf War Veterans, [6% of persons with persistent Gulf War illness will have symptoms of chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic pain, or depression that is unexplained, lasts more than twelve months, or persists in people with previous episodes of these symptoms] (http://www.navy.mil/news/gulf-war/). Gulf War Veterans are much less likely to have these persistent and disabling symptoms if they report that their symptoms do not cause them to seek medical care for their persistent and disabling symptoms.
Gulf War illness can appear very quickly and be associated with multiple potential environmental exposures; however, it is not fully caused by the Gulf War. Data from a recent study also implicate an active (deliberate) form of chemical weapons use involving sarin.
Physicians need to be aware of symptoms and signs that can be caused by gulf war illness and may be misinterpreted as acute appendicitis, to prevent delays in managing illness.
Allergic and autoimmune disorders, with a few exceptions, are less common in Gulf War veterans with GPI than among Gulf War-exposed relatives. Most associations observed among Gulf War veterans and their family members are limited to either a single organ involvement or family history of atopy. Further studies with larger cohorts are warranted in order to assess prevalence and predictive factors in the relatives of Gulf War veterans.
The lack of new findings for treating gulf war illness suggests a need for further research and research with larger numbers of patients with the illness.
A review of reported side-effects of 'Boswellia' preparations, from two of the countries where it is native, India and the United States, shows that it is an old and unproven remedy, with adverse effects. In modern medicine, B. serrata is not a medically recognised remedy for a wide variety of conditions. Although some anecdotal reports were reported from Egypt, and are in current medical literature as 'Boswellia algida', they do not show that B. serrata has any therapeutic benefit, and in modern medicine are usually dismissed as a result of either erroneous dosage records, or fraud and/or fraudulation.
A single dose of B. serrata does not improve the quality of life of patients with Gulf War or other disorders that severely affect their well-being.
[Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a widely publicized condition, but one report suggested that there are only 2% of patients with GCA that respond to conventional treatments.(http://www.withpower.com/clinical-trials/gca/)]. As a trial with placebo-controlled and double-blinded randomized trials are the gold standard for determining treatment effects, we must consider the importance of clinical trials in this complicated condition. When we consider the results of a recent trial in India that showed no difference in outcomes for GCA patients given conventional therapy vs.