Is Sleep Apnea Service Connected For Gulf War Veterans?

What kind of VA inability rating is possible for sleep apnea? This is a condition that, like all other VA-compensated disabilities, must have an established connexion to military service in order to become an honor for VA disability compensation.

Service-continued medical bug including slumber apnea may be deemed to be directly acquired by war machine service, there may exist a "presumptive" condition that includes sleep apnea, or you lot may experience sleep apnea equally a secondary condition associated with some other VA rated issue.

The key is to understand how the VA defines sleep apnea, and nether what conditions it may justify a VA disability per centum rating.

Sleep Apnea Basics

In general, sleep apnea is medically defined as a sleep disorder where animate stops and starts, which tin result in feeling tired even after a full night's slumber. There are three basic types of sleep apnea recognized by medical regime including the Mayo Clinic. These include:

• Obstructive sleep apnea
• Central slumber apnea
• Complex sleep apnea syndrome (which includes symptoms of both the other types to a higher place)

Obstructive sleep apnea is a common form of the problem, which occurs during sleep when the pharynx muscles relax and cause snoring, which can exist disruptive to slumber patterns overall.

Cardinal sleep apnea is a problem that involves the brain not sending the correct signals during slumber to control breathing. Circuitous sleep apnea combines symptoms of the other 2 versions of the condition and is generally the more severe form.

To care for slumber apnea, a slumber study is usually required to properly diagnose the problem, and the use of external equipment known every bit a CPAP machine. CPAP, also known as a continuous airway pressure level auto, helps keep the airway open during sleep to preclude slumber disturbances acquired by slumber apnea.

Symptoms of Sleep Apnea

How exercise you know if you accept a potential problem in this area? In that location are multiple symptoms to pay attention to. Retrieve that not all symptoms are automatically an indication of a medical trouble, but they are worth paying attention to for future reference if you accept some of the more than beneficial types.

Don't forget the power of a spouse, partner, roommate, or other housemates to give you data that could help your decision making well-nigh addressing this issue–if someone else tells yous that yous've been snoring or experiencing other sleep disturbances, take such reports seriously and consider having those observations committed to writing for your hereafter claim's sake.

Symptoms of slumber apnea include:

• Snoring
• Interrupted or stopped animate during sleep
• Gasping for air during sleep
• Awakening with a dry rima oris
• Morn headache
• Indisposition or difficulty remaining asleep
• Excessive daytime sleepiness, AKA hypersomnia
• Difficulty paying attention due to sleep deprivation
• Irritability due to insomnia or lost sleep

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How The VA Rates Slumber Apnea

In that location are several categories under which sleep apnea may be defined during a VA review of your health to determine what conditions you may have and which are considered past the VA to exist service-connected. They include:

• Conditions that require a tracheostomy due to "chronic respiratory failure with carbon dioxide retention" or "cor pulmonale"
• Weather that crave the use of a breathing assistance device such equally a CPAP automobile
• Persistent day-time hypersomnolence
• Asymptomatic but with documented sleep disorder-type breathing

These ratings range from 100% disability (possible in cases where a chronic respiratory failure is documented)  all the way down to 0% (possible in cases where the patient is asymptomatic but with documented sleep disorder breathing).

The breakup is as follows–remember that the VA rates all such cases individually simply using a guide to qualifying weather that include:

• 100 percent VA rating: awarded in cases of "chronic respiratory failure with carbon dioxide retention or cor pulmonare, or; requires tracheostomy"
• fifty percent rating: awarded in cases where the use of a CPAP machine is required
• xxx percent rating: awarded for persistent twenty-four hour period-time "hypersomnolence"
• 0 percentage rating: awarded for asymptomatic slumber apnea with documented sleep disorder breathing

Slumber Apnea And Armed services Service Connections

The key in getting a VA disability rating for slumber apnea involves establishing that military service caused the problem.

But in cases where yous may not be able to establish a directly link between armed services service and the status it may be possible that it is due to the effects of a dissimilar service-connected medical result.

For example, PTSD is said to aggravate sleep disorders or innovate them; veterans suffering from Gulf State of war Syndrome or other Gulf State of war-related weather may also suffer from sleep apnea as a issue.

How practice you lot establish that sleep apnea is service-continued? If the first appearance of the problem occurs in your military medical records as opposed to beingness a pre-existing status, that may be a pace toward a VA disability rating.

Whatever military fellow member experiencing sleep disorders should, in anticipation of needing this data at a later appointment, asking a sleep study to be done in a military medical facility where possible to institute whether or not there is a service connection to the sleep issues.

You can also meet a civilian medical provider to get supporting documentation of a service-connection for sleep apnea. The key will be having equally much of the issue medically documented while notwithstanding serving as possible and getting supporting medical opinions in addition to whatever treatment or study of your sleep bug happen while you are still serving.

If your sleep apnea is a contempo development (fifty-fifty if it was not present or perceived to be present during your military service) it is still important to get the sleep report, have your results evaluated, and get supporting documentation to assist your merits. It'due south all-time to use both VA and military machine healthcare options AND any supporting bear witness from individual or civilian healthcare sources.

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Joe Wallace is a 13-twelvemonth veteran of the United States Air Strength and a former reporter for Air Force Tv News

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Source: https://militarybenefits.info/disability-rating-sleep-apnea/

Posted by: yarbroughseeck1975.blogspot.com

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