Vietnam and agent orange

[Stephanieann]

There's been a few threads about this, but what do you think about the connection between parents being exposed to agent orange in the Vietnam war causing POTS. My mom called me yesterday and said they are looking in to seeing if my father was exposed to it, that it coudve been the cause of his major stroke he had at age 49. And then she goes on to tell me there's some research about passing down health issues to their children and that could be where my POTS came from. Of course, that wasn't what I wanted to hear. I want this to be something more treatable. But anyway, how many of us had fathers in the war? Kind of a far fetch maybe and a bit scary. 

[Roxy]

My father was in Vietnam with the agent orange, he had heart issues, diabetes, cancer, and Parkinson's like issues that VA said was from it. A few doctors I have seen in the past have wondered if it is possible to be environmental in nature or at least a component, because we are now having contact with so many synthetic and poisonous things we were not meant to. I asked what they meant, they started with a simple question, what do you put in your body everyday? Well I thought about it and did more research, farms and ranches use a lot of pesticides, antibiotic, growth hormones, and when our food is processed it has other chemicals like dyes, preservatives and such. Then I looked at what clothes I was wearing, the house I was living in, where I was living, the work I was doing...I am not saying this is the main cause but it may contribute to the issue. It could mean are more susceptible/predisposed to these issues. They have found out that some cancers are that way, so why not dysautonomia. 

[Roxy]

Sorry forgot to mention that the VA recognizes some illnesses in Vietnam veterans, and  Desert Storm veterans children as caused by contaminants they in countered. 

 

[Roxy]

That the veteran in countered/was exposed to

[MomtoGiuliana]

As far as I am aware neither of my parents had any unusual chemical exposures, nor did I.

I agree that we are exposed to a lot of chemicals/materials (flame retardants, etc) that could cause health problems for some people.  There are many chemicals that are on the market now that don't appear to have had adequate research as to human and environmental health effects.

I have also heard the argument that the rise in autoimmune problems (and severe allergies) is related to the very clean environments that we grow up in now.  Most of us are not growing up on farms, with exposure to a variety of pathogens, etc.  So our immune systems don't develop properly.  For example, extreme peanut allergy is entirely unheard of in Africa, but is on the rise in the US.  Not sure how well-accepted this theory is.  However, POTS seems to have an autoimmune cause at least for some.