so
good afternoon and welcome to cck live my name is jenna zellmer and joining me today are alex sacks
and brandon piva the three of us represent veterans before the va and before the court of
appeals for veterans claims today we are going to be discussing va disability benefits for
thyroid conditions um and so before we get into the specifics of how va rates them and
all the different kinds um brandon why don't you tell us a little bit about how the thyroid works
sure thing thanks jenna yes we'll start by just sort of developing a basic understanding of what
the thyroid is so essentially the thyroid is a small butterfly shaped gland in the front of the
neck located just under the atom's apple and it's classified as being part of the endocrine system
now the thyroid is primarily responsible for releasing hormones that control metabolism
and affects the way that the body uses energy so thyroid hormones regulate many other vital
bodily functions as well including breathing heart rate body weight body temperature muscle strength
menstrual cycles and females and even more thyroid conditions are really common among veterans
especially in those who are exposed to toxic substances like agent orange during service
yeah and there are a lot of different thyroid issues that a veteran can suffer from kind of
as you just mentioned all the different bodily functions of the thyroid regulates that would um
you know you would understand that that would affect a lot of different
types of issues so thyroid conditions in general are rated under 38 cfr
section 4.119 and we're going to be talking about some of the most common thyroid issues that a
veteran can face today so alec why don't we start with diagnostic code 79 which is hyperthyroidism
yeah thanks jenna so again looking at that dc7900
which is the hyperthyroidism including graves disease hypothyroidism is also called an
overactive thyroid it's a common condition in which the thyroid gland produces excess thyroid
hormones so some common symptoms we see from hypothyroidism can include fatigue muscle weakness
heat intolerance trouble sleeping irregular heartbeat weight loss and eye swelling and va
will assign a 30 rating for six months upon there being an initial diagnosis uh after six months so
the veteran veterans are re-evaluated and then rated based on either the residual symptoms of
the disease or the complications of the medical treatment and va uses different diagnostic codes
corresponding to the affected body system to rate those residuals or complications
yeah and that's unusual not all um disabilities get an automatic rating of 30 or
or anything like that so that's nice that you eventually you know have to demonstrate what
else you suffer from but in the beginning you get an automatic 30 and you can kind of
deal with the things that you're suffering from and then think about the rating later um so that's
i think that's definitely one of the most common ones that we see hyperthyroidism brandon what
about toxic thyroid enlargement yeah so i'll touch on that a little bit as well so we're going to go
over two diagnostic codes diagnostic code 7901 and seven nine zero two they're very similar um
but a little different so we're going to dive into that just a little bit so first we'll unpack what
diagnostic code 7901 is and how you know va sort of rates that so diagnostic code 7901 is for toxic
thyroid enlargement now toxic thyroid enlargement is also known as a goiter this is a condition
where the thyroid glands be uh the thyroid gland becomes enlarged and produces too many hormones
this condition is also rated as hyperthyroidism so hyper means it's producing too many
if the enlarged gland causes disfigurement of the neck it's also rated under another diagnostic code
zero i think i'm gonna say that again because i think this just hurt my messes come through
so if the enlarged gland causes uh disfigurement of the neck it's rated under diagnostic code 7800
now moving into the next diagnostic code 7902 this is non-toxic thyroid enlargement non-toxic thyroid
enlargement is also an enlarged thyroid gland but does not cause any change in hormone production
veterans can only be rated for this condition if the pressure of the enlarged gland pushes on
organs or body systems causing additional problems for example if this enlargement
presses on the esophagus making it difficult to swallow it can be rated under diagnostic code 7203
for stricture of the esophagus because it's so large it's causing other complications elsewhere
typically rating principle for disfigurement mentioned in toxic thyroid enlargement applies
here as well great yeah so you can already see there's so many different kind of complications
that can arise from the thyroid um so we talked about hyperthyroidism which is when um the thyroid
gland becomes produces too many hormones um the opposite of that is hypothyroidism um and so you
have to really listen carefully because there's hypo and then there's hyper and so hypothyroidism
um is an underactive thyroid so it's the opposite of hyper hypo which um so hype sorry it's
the opposite of hyper i see it's even i'm even getting difficulty um keeping them separate but
hypothyroidism is when the thyroid gland doesn't produce enough thyroid hormones and some of the
symptoms overlap which makes it kind of difficult but some of them are kind of the reverse so
symptoms of hypothyroidism include fatigue um which you also see in hyper and then weight
gain which is the opposite of the weight loss in hyper cold intolerance puffy face constipation
dry skin hair loss heavy or irregular menstrual cycles depression and a slowed heart rate so
there's a lot of different issues that can arise from hypothyroidism and some veterans even develop
myxedema uh not sure if i'm saying that right but it's a severely advanced form of hypothyroidism
which can actually be life-threatening and so um it's not just you know superficial
issues like a puffy face or weight gain these are really serious conditions that can arise from
um an underactive thyroid gland and veterans with this very severe form are assigned a 100 rating
while the disease is active um and again for those first six months and then after the stabilization
um they're assigned a 30 rating and then similar to hyperthyroidism after that six-month period
um they're also uh rated based on the residual symptoms or complications of their treatment
um so that's another one alec let's move on to thyroiditis great yeah and thyroiditis is going
to be found under diagnostic code 7906 it is the inflammation of the thyroid gland so this
can do condition may produce any symptoms or may not produce any symptoms but it can lead to the
development of either the hyper or hypothyroidism so according to va's rating schedule if the
condition presents no symptoms obviously veterans were assigned a zero percent rating but if it
results in hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism va will evaluate the condition as such
so it's kind of like an indirect route of getting the other two
and brandon the last but not least how about dc 7914 yes so diagnostic code 7914 now excuse me if
i'm pronouncing this incorrectly we're not medical professionals which is why we're in the field of
law but now we're going to go over malignant neoplasm of the endocrine system veterans with
thyroid cancer are automatically rated at a hundred percent while their cancer is active
must like much like other um conditions that are rated by va when uh they have active cancers
now following successful treatment this 100 rating will remain in effect for a total of six months
after that six month period um following treatment and follow that 100 rating once that has passed
veterans will then be rated on any and all residual symptoms that they suffer after treatment
great so you know as you can see there's a lot of different issues that can arise with thyroid
um conditions um and so it's really important just to be honest with your doctor go to your doctor
appointments regularly go to your va examinations and make sure that whatever issues that you're
experiencing are being properly diagnosed because you can see there's a lot of opportunity here to
get um compensation for the for the disability from which you suffered due to service and so that
kind of leads me to my next point which is um why are so many veterans developing thyroid conditions
i mean it has to do with their exposure to hazardous chemicals such as agent orange
so there's a really high prevalence of agent orange exposure among thyroid cancer patients
in the national va health set system and veterans with thyroid cancer who served in certain areas
and during certain time periods may actually qualify for presumptive service connection and so
um just recently in 2021 the national defense authorization act added hypothyroidism to the
list of presumptive conditions caused by agent orange so that means that veterans do not have
to prove that their hypothyroidism was related to service they just have to show that they were
exposed to agent orange or served in a presumptive location during this presumptive time period
and they should be granted service connection for hypothyroidism i think we have a lot of
information on presumptive conditions in general and agent orange conditions specifically and so
i would definitely encourage you to check out our other uh videos and our other blog posts but
that's something that's a fairly new development is that if you have hypothyroidism
um you can get presumptive service connection if you meet the other elements of the presumption um
that's not to say that your other conditions like i said hyperthyroidism is different than hypo
or any of those other thyroid conditions that we just talked about i can't be service connected but
you do have to go through the normal processes of showing the elements of service connection
um so it's just a little bit more work and so i would really encourage you to talk to your
veteran service representative or your attorney whoever is helping you kind of navigate that
system so that's asian orange um but there are lots of other exposures that veterans can
have due to service so alec why don't you talk about some of those yeah one of the
other chemicals that we see a fair amount maybe a little less than the ancient orange exposure but
chemicals such as pbds and that stands for this is a mouthful poly brominated diphenyl ethers
so that can lead the pvds can lead to hyperthyroidism
and those are found in substances like flame retardants and pesticides so veterans who are
exposed to these chemicals during their service may be entitled to service connection for that
however there is no presumption unlike the agent orange presumption so um that
said additionally veterans who have been exposed to military burn pits who later
develop thyroid condition may qualify for dba disability compensation based on that exposure
again there currently isn't a presumption for the thyroid conditions related to the burn pit
exposure um maybe in the future though and that will pretty much wrap up things for this afternoon
so you can find out more information on thyroid conditions va presumptions disability
compensation and other topics discussed in this video on our blog be sure to check out
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you