When you suffer from gout, you may experience bouts of debilitating pain that restrict your ability to work or engage in daily activities. However, can a veteran file a VA disability benefits claim for gout? If you have gout that you believe started or got worse due to your military service, you deserve to understand how the condition may qualify for VA benefits.
Veteran Law Attorneys
What Is Gout?
Gout is a type of inflammatory arthritis characterized by the buildup of uric acid in affected joints, most commonly at the base of the big toe. However, gout can also develop in the ankles, knees, wrists, and elbows. Unlike traditional arthritis, which can cause persistent aches and pain, gout symptoms ebb and flow in flare-ups or “gout attacks.” Gout symptoms often build up overnight, causing individuals with the condition to wake up with extreme pain and sensitivity in affected joints. Other symptoms include joint stiffness and swelling, noticeable warmth or a “on fire” sensation in the joint, and skin discoloration.
Gout flare-ups can occur when a person’s body makes too much uric acid or their kidneys cannot filter out all the uric acid in their bloodstream, which results in uric acid clumping up into sharp crystals in the joints. Common risk factors for gout include:
- Overweight or obesity
- High blood pressure
- Congestive heart failure
- Frequent alcohol consumption
- Consumption of large amounts of meat
- Diabetes
- Kidney disease
- Blood cancer
- Use of certain medications, such as immunosuppressants or diuretics
Can Gout Qualify You for VA Disability Benefits?
The VA recognizes gout as a medical condition that may entitle a veteran to disability benefits. However, a veteran must show service connection for their gout – namely, that it occurred or worsened due to events during their military service. Alternatively, gout may qualify for VA disability benefits if it developed or worsened due to another service-connected condition.
VA Disability Ratings for Gout
The VA assigns disability ratings for a veteran’s service-connected gout based on the severity of their symptoms, the effect on the veteran’s work and social life, and the frequency of flare-ups. The VA typically rates active gout under the criteria for degenerative arthritis, which evaluates the limitation of motion in the affected joint(s):
- 10 percent: X-ray evidence of involvement of two or more major joints or two or more minor joint groups
- 20 percent: X-ray evidence of involvement of two or more major joints or two or more minor joint groups, with occasional incapacitating exacerbations
However, certain veterans may have their gout evaluated under the diagnostic criteria for rheumatoid arthritis, which rates conditions as a 20, 40, 60, or 100 percent disability, based on the frequency of symptoms.
Gout as a Secondary Condition
Many veterans can qualify for VA disability benefits for gout as a secondary condition. A “secondary condition” refers to a medical impairment caused or worsened by another service-connected condition. Examples of primary service-connected conditions that may lead to veterans developing gout include:
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Kidney disease
- Blood cancer
- Diabetes
Gout can also qualify as a secondary condition when it results as a side effect from medication prescribed to treat primary service-connected conditions. Gout may also develop from lifestyle or physical changes resulting from service-connected conditions, such as a veteran developing a more sedentary lifestyle due to a service-connected amputation, which leads to a veteran’s weight gain that causes gout.
Contact Our VA Disability Attorneys Today
After you’ve developed gout or experienced a worsening of your condition from your military service, you may have the right to obtain disability payments from the VA. Contact Kinman Law Offices today for a free initial consultation with our VA disability benefits lawyers to learn which circumstances may qualify you for VA disability benefits for your gout.
