Five Medical Conditions Often Missed During VA Disability Evaluations

A compensation and pension examination will be conducted on a case-by-case basis. The examiner will ask questions about claims that are before them, not those hidden behind them. This focus is why veterans are rated for back injuries or PTSD, but a second equally compensable condition is never recorded.

Migraines Rooted in an Old Head or Neck Injury

Veterans with a documented traumatic brain injury or cervical spine condition often develop migraines years later and never connect the two in writing. The VA rates migraines under Diagnostic Code 8100, and the rating depends almost entirely on how often an attack prostrates a veteran enough to force them into a dark, quiet room for hours. A secondary service connection allows a migraine claim to ride on an already approved TBI or spinal rating, rather than proving, from scratch, that headaches began in service.

Hypertension Tied to Toxic Exposure

Congress added hypertension to the list of diseases that the VA presumes are connected to herbicide exposure. This 2024 regulatory update will continue to provide heavy support for Vietnam-era veterans who are filing claims in 2026. The presumptive service connection list means that a veteran who served at a qualifying location exposed to herbicides no longer needs medical evidence linking blood pressure to their service. The VA assumes this. 

Veterans who have been exposed to burn pits also experience this condition on a secondary level just as often because the medications prescribed for PTSD related to service and the physical impact of chronic pain can both increase blood pressure over time.

Acid Reflux Caused by the Medications Treating Everything Else

Chronic acid reflux has its own diagnostic code since 2024. Prior to this revision, GERD was diagnosed by analogy with a hiatal hernia, using criteria that were never fully accurate. Diagnostic Code 7206 evaluates it directly now, based on dysphagia, weight loss and related digestive symptoms. Veterans who take NSAIDs for service-related back injuries or SSRIs for PTSD often develop GERD as a side effect of their treatment, rather than as a result of combat wounds.

Peripheral Neuropathy Beyond the Diabetic Foot Chart

Numbness and burning in the hands or feet are dismissed as ordinary aging more often than anything else on this list. Neuropathy linked to diabetes mellitus, herbicide exposure, or nerve compression from a service-connected spine condition falls under 38 CFR 4.124a, rated according to the specific nerve involved. Common conditions that may be worth considering at your next examination include:

• Diabetes mellitus, whether directly service-connected or presumptively linked to herbicide exposure.
• A lumbar or cervical spine condition that is compressing a nerve root – this is often overlooked, as back pain gets more attention than leg numbness.
• Chemotherapy or long-term medications prescribed for an unrelated service-connected condition.

A veteran with a previously rated lumbar spine injury who fails to mention the tingling sensation running down their leg, leaving a second condition eligible for rating on the table.

What This Means for Your Claim

Every condition mentioned above can be traced back to something that is already in a veteran’s medical record – a spinal injury, a PTSD diagnosis, or documented exposure to herbicides. None of these requires starting a new claim from scratch. Instead, it requires someone to review the entire medical file and ask about any other consequences that may have resulted from the original injury.

At Veterans Benefits Law Group, PLLC, we have built our practice around this question. If your rating stops at the condition listed on your original claim form, please schedule a free consultation to find out what other service-connected conditions might have caused it.