Gulf War illness secondary to lower back conditions

In the Board decisions we have indexed since 2019, Gulf War illness appeared as secondary to lower back conditions in 29 issues. The Board granted 1, denied 5, and sent 23 back for more work.

Every decision counted here is an appeal. The regional office decided the claim first, the veteran disagreed, and the Board is the next step after that. These are not the odds on a first claim.

Since 2019

Across every year we have indexed, that is 76 issues, and 76 percent sent back for more work.

What a secondary claim needs

In a secondary claim, the Board reads for three things. A diagnosis of the second condition. A first condition that is already service connected. And a medical opinion that says the first condition led to the second, or made it worse, and explains why. The rule itself is shorter than that. Here is the part that matters.

… disability which is proximately due to or the result of a service-connected disease or injury shall be service connected.

38 CFR 3.310(a), from the middle of its first sentence

Proximately due to means the first condition led to the second. The other route is aggravation, where the first condition made the second worse. The rule for that route is in the next paragraph of the same section, and it says increase in severity.

Any increase in severity of a nonservice-connected disease or injury that is proximately due to or the result of a service-connected disease or injury, and not due to the natural progress of the nonservice-connected disease, will be service connected.

38 CFR 3.310(b), first sentence

That paragraph goes on to say the VA will not concede aggravation without a baseline. A baseline is medical evidence of how bad the second condition was before the first one started making it worse, or the earliest record after that and before the evidence of how bad it is now. If you claim aggravation, find the earliest record you have of the second condition, from either window. Without a baseline from one of them, the VA will not concede aggravation. The other route, that the first condition led to the second, does not need a baseline.

A remand is not a yes or a no. The Board sends the claim back to the regional office for more work, such as a new exam or a record that was not in the file. The claim is decided again later, and that later decision is a separate document.

Decisions on these claims

A past Board decision binds only the case it decided, and the Board decides each case on its own facts. Another veteran's decision is not evidence about your condition. Read these to see what evidence the Board weighed, so you know what to gather for your own claim.

The newest decision we could link for these claims is not recent. The counts above cover every year we indexed.

• March 18, 2021Denied

  Entitlement to service connection for a right wrist disorder, claimed as an undiagnosed illness and as secondary to service-connected sarcoidosis, lumbar spine disability, radiculopathy of the left…

  Read the decision at VA.gov
• February 1, 2021Denied

  Entitlement to service connection for headaches, to include as due to undiagnosed illness and as secondary to bilateral pes cavus, chronic right ankle pain, low back pain, or an acquired psychiatric…

  Read the decision at VA.gov
• April 25, 2019Granted

  Service connection for migraine headaches, to include to an undiagnosed illness or multisymptom undiagnosed illness or medically unexplained multisymptom illness and as secondary to service-connected…

  Read the decision at VA.gov
• November 6, 2013Granted

  Entitlement to service connection for a neurologic disability of the left leg, to include as due to undiagnosed illness or as secondary to a service-connected lumbosacral disability.

  Read the decision at VA.gov
• February 8, 2006Granted

  Entitlement to service connection for a disability manifested by numbness of the left foot, to include claimed as a result of undiagnosed illness and claimed as secondary to chronic lumbosacral…

  Read the decision at VA.gov