Raynaud's Disease and VA Disability | All You Need To Know

0:04Leah Bucholz Bucholz: Hey guys, it's Leah Bucholz from Prestige Veteran Medical Consulting. I am a U. Army veteran, physician assistant, and former compensation and pension examiner. So today, I wanna come on to discuss Raynaud's disease and veterans disability. So many veterans are service connected for Raynaud's, and they can be service connected for this on a primary basis or directly related to their service or on a secondary basis.

0:27 So before we jump into some of that... Some of those details, let's talk about what Raynaud's is. Okay? So Cleveland Clinic discusses Raynaud's syndrome, and they say Raynaud's syndrome causes spasms in the small blood vessels in your fingers and toes. This limits blood flow and leads to symptoms like skin color changes, cold skin, and pins and needles sensation.

0:47 Common triggers of Raynaud's attacks include cold weather and stress. So, lot of people will say when they lose, they get discoloration and their fingers sort of go numb. If they, you know, are at the grocery store and they open the freezer section and they reach in to grab things, they can experience some of that. Also, it says, stress, and we're going get into that a little bit more. So Raynaud's syndrome is a disorder that, again, affects the small blood vessels, mainly of the fingers and toes.

1:17 It can also affect blood vessels in the nose, lips, or ear lobes. Raynaud's can cause episodic spasms called vasospastic attacks in response to cold temperatures or stress. So during a Raynaud's attack, the arterioles and capillaries in the fingers and toes tighten more than they're supposed to. And as a result, your skin is affected and the area turns white and then blue. The color change happens because you're not getting that blood supply and that oxygenation to the, area affected.

1:48 The area can also feel numb or cold. Eventually, the blood vessels relax and open up, then your skin might look red or feel tingly, and an attack usually occurs about, for around fifteen minutes. So Raynaud's disease occurs on its own. There's Raynaud's phenomenon, occurs due to an underlying condition, medication, and then Raynaud's syndrome refers to either primary or secondary form of the condition. All right, so who gets it?

2:21 Primary Raynaud's syndrome usually affects people that are, females, people 30, people with family history. Okay. So let's talk about how that can be related to service. So if a person gets diagnosed with this in service, they can be... And and it continues after service, they can be service connected forward on a direct or primary basis.

2:44 While on active duty, I treated a number of people that had Raynaud's. I actually had, a young female soldier that experienced it so bad she had to get a med board and get separated out of the service. Okay? So I assume that she continued to receive benefits from that and had a VA disability claim that went along with her med board. Okay?

3:04 On a secondary basis, I see this quite frequently in the capacity of my current occupation. Right? So I write a lot of medical opinion letters for veterans. You know, these are never required. These types of reports are never required, but they can be helpful at times for veterans who are pursuing VA disability.

3:24 Okay, I don't always throw out this disclaimer, I don't represent veterans on the claims process. I work with a lot of VSOs, Accredited Claims Agents, and attorneys who are representing veterans. So if you have additional questions about any of this stuff, those are the types of people that you should follow-up with, about this. I have a quick video about how to find one of those one of those accredited people. You can check them out on v, va.gov.

3:48 There's a great search tool. Okay. So let's get back to Raynaud's. So what I see this very frequently too is is stress. Okay? So a service member may have PTSD, depression, anxiety, or whatever, and then they develop Raynaud's. And that stress, you know, as we discussed in the Cleveland Clinic article, stress can can cause a lot of these symptoms in these vasospasms. So I'm gonna go over some of these great articles with you so that you can discuss it with your treating provider if you're experiencing this and they may support your, you know, put something in your charts that say they believe it's related to your stress if it in fact... You know, if that's their medical opinion. Okay.

4:28 So... Alright. A Stat Pearls article called Raynaud's disease last updated on 08/1121, describes Raynaud's that in response to cold temperature, the body adapts by restricting blood flow to the skin. This is done by thermoregulation. In Raynaud's phenomenon, blood flow restriction occurs during cold temperatures and emotional stress.

4:52 Specifically in Raynaud's phenomenon, there is a vasoconstriction in the digital arteries and cutaneous arterioles. Another study called Raynaud's phenomenon published in Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland states that Raynaud's phenomenon is a common condition that affects the blood supply to certain parts of the body. Raynaud's is usually triggered by cold temperature, anxiety, or stress. Role of cold and emotional stress in Raynaud's disease and scleroderma published in the British Medical Journal states that symptoms of Raynaud's disease and phenomenon consist of episodic vasospasm in the fingers and toes precipitated by cold or emotional stress or both. Let me see if I have any more.

5:36 Anxiety symptoms in patients with major depressive disorder commentary on prevalence and clinical implications published in Neurology and Therapy discusses some of these triggers as well. Alright. I think I've got one more. No. That's that's about it. So I hope these articles were were helpful. Let's talk about the ratings. Okay? So this can be rated anywhere from 10% to 100%. Now remember, ratings are always subject to change.

6:07 So at the ten percent level, veterans experience characteristic attacks one to three times per week. Twenty percent is four to six times per day, forty percent level is characteristic attacks that occur at least daily. Veterans with two or more digital ulcers and a history of characteristic attacks are eligible for the sixty percent rating, And then at a hundred percent rating, it's given you've got digital ulcers on two or more fingers plus auto amputation of one or more digits in a history of characteristic attacks. Okay? So I hope this was helpful.

6:49 Other autoimmune diseases are often related to toxic exposure, so there may be a link there as well. Every case is gonna be different, So please drop some comments if you have any feedback or any thoughts or you wanna share your experiences. And as always, thank you for watching. All right, see you.