hypertension Hypertension Secondary To Ptsd

[Guest Berta]

http://www.va.gov/vetapp05/files1/0505123.txt

might help someone- a recent BVA decision

[Tower_Rat]

Thanx it helps me alot

[goofycow]

Bertha:

Does the VA ever consider outside sources like what a veteran might find doing his/her own research? I recently went to google and came up with a whole bunch of articles on the link between heart disease & depression. Just wondering.......

Liz

[Berta]

The VA not only is supposed to recognise any medical treatise or abstract that the veteran sends to them to support their medical evidence, it is part of the regs-that they consider any probative evidence at all to include a supporting treatise.

I cannot find the reg but just saw it yesterday-

However- cannot stress this enough-the VA cannot accept evidence without merit-

The abstract or medical literature must be supportive of what is already established by fact.

What I mean is say the vet has a lung disease and finds that this type of lung disease in a medical summary on the internet is consistent with exposure to mustard gas. The vet files a claim believing he msut have been exposed to mustard gas to get this type of lung disease.

The veteran's service records however show no exposure to mustard gas.

A C & P exam reveals that the veteran's lung disease could have been from numerous occupational situations after service.

The medical summary the veteran has is meaningless to the VA.

I made that up -this case is real:

The veteran developed an extremely rare type of cancer. He served in Asia but not in Vietnam nor was his cancer AO presumptive.

The RO and the BVA denied his claim and he died.The widow was relentless after denials of DIC and found a medical treatise that showed this rare type of cancer was almost always found in an isolated part of Asia (where the veteran had served) and was attributible to some sort of exposure to leeches or insects or something-forget what- that also was only consistent with the environment that the veteran served in , in Asia.

She won her DIC claim due to direct SC death.

The VVA (Monty Wilson)won an air gun causing hepatitus claim some years back with submission of a medical text from England. What is really great about this is that it not only opened the air gun doors for Hep vets but this veteran also had tattoes. VA had consistently denied hepatitus air gun claims from any vet with either IV drug usage or tattoes.

Medical abstracts and treatises are good. I use them all the time. However they should be in support of the established medical evidence because -in most cases, they cannot stand alone and the claim will fail if it depends on a treatise.

In a case of HBP from PTSD or heart disease from PTSD or depression however, only bonafide medical evidence will gain service connection.

With all the abstracts and med literature in the world , the VA will state, correctly- that the information is general and not specific to the veteran.

[Vike17]

When a veteran sends in these articles of general information, sure the VA has to accept this as evidence, however; the amount of weight applied to those article is next to nothing. The VA needs, according to current law, an opinion from a medical doctor stating that YOUR condition was caused by that certain occurance ect... This opinion from the doctor MUST also cotain his or her rational as to how and why they came to that conclusion, and that rational MUST be back up, as Berta stated, by competent medical litrature.

Vike 17

[goofycow]

Does high blood pressure readings starting at the time I started having major depression problems count as evidence? (in service medical records) Also lab test results that came back with high choresteral readings?

Just wondering what these VA critters consider evidence.

Liz