diabetes and sleep apnea | Stateside Legal

Meet Jim

Jim Strickland is a Vietnam era Army veteran and nationally recognized expert on VA disability benefits who is also editor and webmaster of the popular VA Watchdog website. Jim writes extensively about VA and Social Security disability benefits. Jim is kind enough to answer questions from visitors on StatesideLegal.org here in Jim's Mailbag.

About Jim's Mailbag

Jim's Mailbag is a regular column where veterans, servicemembers, and family members can find answers about their VA and Social Security disability benefits. Although we are not accepting new questions at this time, you can browse all of the previous Q&As here and search Jim's Mailbag for helpful answers to your specific VA issue.

Question:

I have diabetes type 2 service connected to agent orange and I have sleep apnea. Can this be claimed for disability rating?

Jim's Reply:

Any veteran can make any claim at any time...so yes, you can file that claim. Unless you can somehow prove that the DMII caused the OSA, VA will deny the claim as OSA isn't presumptive to agent orange nor is DMII commonly accepted as a cause of OSA. If you can get an IMO stating that the OSA is secondary to DMII, you may have a chance to prevail.