progression of heart disease by the age of 37

[mikey30919]

I have unusual circumstances in my life, I was slipped a hit of 4 pane LSD while on guard duty in army 1974, then I was exposed to unknown chemicals and drugs as a human guinea pig at Edgewood Arsenal in 1974 which the army will not admit to even now 30 years later, but in 1992 I experienced TIA's which a Nueroligist wrote off as a pyschotic episode, but an MRI now shows the scar in the brain. In 1994 I had the 1st of 7 heart attacks  by 1997 I was given a triple by pass,  every 6 months for the next 2 years I suffered a heart attack, 2 stents were placed, since then 2 of the bypasses have failed and they have told me they are irreparable. I am now on SSA disability but the army claims they had nothing to do with my condition, yet of the 6720 volunteers, 2698 are dead, and of the 4022 still alive 56% report very poor or disabling health, how do I show the government that my involvement in their program may be related to my current medical condition, or am I blaming the government for something   that they aren't responsible for, is it possible that Sarin, or Tabun or the LSD may have contributed to my heart problems? There were also other unknown chemicals or drugs used that the companies gave to the military to experiment with, that have never been disclosed. At times I feel like I am just running around in circles, hopefully one day I will find the answer.  Thank you for your time.

[cageyboy]

I was hoping someone can help me with teh pain I am having. I was diagnosed several weeks ago with a dilated left ventricle. I  believe it was 6.3 and the EF was 53%. prior to that I had experienced tightness in my chest.

I have been on Enalapril and digitek for almost a month. Just last week I started getting the tightness or soreness on the left side of my chest, towards the middle near my neck. I also get it on my left shoulder or the left side of chest near my peck muscle and both sides of my neck.

It seems like when this comes on heavy a xanax, which was prescribed to me, lowers the tightness. I played golf last weekend and felt something pull in my left shoulder when i picked up something big.

My question is, how can I determine if the tightness and sometimes heavy soreness is due to the dilated ventricle or a torn muslce/rotator cuff.

[Dr. Erik]

I am very sorry to hear what you are going through. If you don't have a family history of heart disease, it is very likely that whatever the Army gave you back then could be the cause of your problems now. You probably know better than I do that the chance of getting answers from them now are slim and none. Have they said that your heart is beyond repair? Have you considered a possible heart transplant? I hope that's not necessary but I would like to see you get a new lease on life and put this nightmare behind you. God bless you and thank you for defending our freedom. Best of luck!  Erik

[CCF-M.D.-RCJ]

Mikey,

What a story!

While I certainly can't exclude the possibility that some unknown chemical lead to your vascular disease, the most likely explanantion is that it was caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors.  We certainly on occassion see young people with bad heart disease.  One of my co-workers just had bypass at age 35.  I saw a young woman yesterday who had a large heart atack at age 21.  Last month I treated a 30 year old man with a large heart attack.

It's very tempting to try to place blame for these conditons on smoking, or obesity, or some other phenomenon.  The reality is that the culprit usually cannot be identified.  Most of the scientific community believes that genetic factors will be demonstrated to primarily be the determinants of who develops vascular disease and who doesn't.

If you have some evidence beyond just circumstantial that the military caused your plight, then pursue it.  One way to do this would be to identify others of the volunteers who had vascular disease at a young age.  If you can do this, then you have a chance to demonstrate causality.  But you have one hell of an up-hill battle to try to prove your case.

Hope that helps.