hypertension Agent Orange Tied To Hypertension

[Philip Rogers]

Don't know if anyone has posted this yet.

pr

http://www.military.com/veterans-report/ag...to-hypertension

[Berta]

It is quite a long IOM report -I have not read it all yet-

I wonder if the VA will even pick up on the "limited" association and dig deeper into this all-

What is astonishing to me is that the VA-even with a DMII AO vet with CAD or CVA due to AO -can say their HBP is "essential" (meaning they dont know the etiology) or even worse attribute the HBP to something else but for the DMII.

Atherosclerosis clearly is an established association medically to DMII-(VMB 2006 ED NVLSP)

If a vet has atherosclerosis and also has DMII - it is more than likely the HBP is due to the secondary atherosclerosis.

My vet rep has a heck of a time getting his HBP SC to his AO DMII and CAD as secondary- the VA rationale was that since he took medication to control his HBP- he didnt have HBP. DUH! But finally he succeeded.

Edited August 7, 2007 by Berta

[Chuck75]

I believe the VA will seize on the word limited as an excuse to continue the current practice of denying SC for HBP.

From my personal experience, the issue is that there is a difference between "higher than normal" BP and diagnosed HBP. I had higher than normal blood presure after returning from Vietnam to civilian life. Proving it is another matter, since it was not high enough (with the numbers used at that time) to require treatment. Indeed I had to get a doctors statement for one employer in the middle 70's, to the effect that the ratio of rest to after excercise BP was wide enough to ignore the higher than normal rest BP. Since I also carried an FAA medical certificate appropriate for an ATR (airline transport rating) it was obvious that the definition of HBP was not very cut and dried. In addition, I believe that the numbers used to diagnose HBP may have dropped in recent years. HBP is associated with Diabetes. Unfortunately it "may" occur as a preliminary symptom of diabetes, well before any diagnosis of diabetes is made. Thus an opening exists for the VA to say that HBP is not directly related to diabetes, and is from other non SC causes.

The significance of the "limited association" is that it provides a direct tie between AO and HBP.

"I wonder if the VA will even pick up on the "limited" association " ---

It is quite a long IOM report -I have not read it all yet-

I wonder if the VA will even pick up on the "limited" association and dig deeper into this all-

What is astonishing to me is that the VA-even with a DMII AO vet with CAD or CVA due to AO -can say their HBP is "essential" (meaning they dont know the etiology) or even worse attribute the HBP to something else but for the DMII.

Atherosclerosis clearly is an established association medically to DMII-(VMB 2006 ED NVLSP)

If a vet has atherosclerosis and also has DMII - it is more than likely the HBP is due to the secondary atherosclerosis.

My vet rep has a heck of a time getting his HBP SC to his AO DMII and CAD as secondary- the VA rationale was that since he took medication to control his HBP- he didnt have HBP. DUH! But finally he succeeded.

Edited August 7, 2007 by Chuck75