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Welcome to The Veterans Disability Nexus, where we provide unique insights and expertise on medical evidence related to VA-rated disabilities. Leah Bucholz, a US Army Veteran, Physician Assistant, & former Compensation & Pension Examiner shares her knowledge related to Independent Medical Opinions often referred to as “Nexus Letters” in support of your pursuit of VA Disability every Tuesday & Wednesday at 7AM Central.
Take control of your medical evidence related to your benefits and visit https://podcast.prestigeveteranmctx.info/veteran/ for more information and to connect directly with us!
Hey guys it's Leah B from Prestige Veteran Medical Consulting. I am a U. S. Army veteran, physician assistant, and former compensation and pension examiner. So today I want to come on and discuss Alzheimer's and how that can be related to tinnitus and VA disability.
Leah Bucholz:So off the bat this is something that I don't think a lot of people would think of and I was asked to review a case like this recently for a veteran who passed away of Alzheimer's by the surviving spouse and the attorney. And so at first I thought this is sort of you know a tough case. I'm not really sure that there's going to be a lot of evidence to support this. But in actuality after I did a lot of research there really was a significant amount of literature to support this type of connection. Now not everybody's going to have this connection it's based on the circumstances.
Leah Bucholz:And this veteran spouse did wind up going before a judge and after several years of appeals and was granted service connection for this for her deceased spouse for the DIC case. Okay so if you're interested in more information about DIC cases, we've got a few videos, you know, in the past that we've done on that as well, and you can take a look. But when it comes to to this particular connection, veterans often face a range of health challenges as a result of their service. So the two conditions that frequently appear in this population are Alzheimer's disease and tinnitus. So we just don't think about pairing them together, but tinnitus is one of the most frequent disabilities that veterans are receiving service connection for and many veterans also suffer from Alzheimer's disease.
Leah Bucholz:So while both conditions are well known on their own, research has suggested that there may be a connection between them, particularly in veterans. Alzheimer's is a degenerative brain disorder affecting memory and cognitive function while tinnitus is characterized by persistent ringing or buzzing in the ears. For veterans the stress of military service, exposure to loud noises, and other factors may increase the risk of developing both conditions. And understanding that overlap between them can become crucial for providing better care and treatment options for those affected and also for seeking service connected disability, right? So I'd like to pull up Mayo Clinic and discuss what Mayo Clinic describes Alzheimer's as, right?
Leah Bucholz:So Alzheimer's is a disease. It's the most common cause of dementia and it is a disease, it's a biological process that begins with the appearance of buildup of proteins in the form of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. This causes brain cells to die over time and the brain to shrink. About six point nine million people in The U. S.
Leah Bucholz:Age 65 and older live with Alzheimer's disease. Among them more than seventy percent are age 75 and older. Of the more than fifty five million people in the world with dementia, sixty to seventy percent are estimated to have Alzheimer's disease. Early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease include forgetting recent events or conversations. Over time, Alzheimer's disease leads to serious memory loss and affects a person's ability to do everyday tasks.
Leah Bucholz:There's no cure for Alzheimer's and in advanced stages, loss of brain function can cause dehydration, poor nutrition, or infection, and these complications can result in death. There are a lot of medications that can improve symptoms or slow the decline. And that's about it. They discuss a bunch of the symptoms, but we're really just gonna talk about that overlap with tinnitus today. So I'd like to pull up some of the articles.
Leah Bucholz:Again, if you're a veteran suffering from Alzheimer's or your spouse is, there are many causes. So it's best to discuss this with your treating provider, especially because it can be so multifactorial. I just like to shine a light on this, especially for veterans that suffer from severe tinnitus or really bad hearing loss as well. It may be playing a role. So it's worth looking at the research and then also discussing it with your healthcare providers, right?
Leah Bucholz:So let me pull up some of that research that we have. All right, so first article, risk of early onset dementia among persons with tinnitus, a retrospective case control study published in scientific reports in 2021 reported that among two thousand six hundred and sixteen sample size, the prevalence of prior tinnitus was eighteen percent, twenty one point five percent among cases and fourteen point five percent among controls. Their findings showed that preexisting tinnitus was associated with a sixty eight percent increased risk of developing early onset dementia among young and middle aged patients. The results call for greater awareness of tinnitus as a potential in the population. So an article entitled Beyond Hearing Loss, Does Tinnitus Cause Cognitive Impairment?
Leah Bucholz:Published in Clinical and Experimental Otolaryngology in February of twenty twenty further dives into the relationship between tinnitus and cognitive impairments. The author discussed a previous study that stated that in line with the findings of the authors of the other study, the study found that patients with severe tinnitus exhibited distinct cognitive deficits as evaluated using the cognitive ability screening instrument. Moreover, tinnitus severity showed a strong correlation with the extent of cognitive impairment. Another article, Cognitive Mechanisms and Psychological Markers of a Failure to Switch Attention published in 2016 in Frontiers in Psychology is a good one to go over. I've got just a couple more we can talk about.
Leah Bucholz:Another study, A Manifestation of Neurodegenerative Diseases published in the International Bulletin of Otolaryngology in 2021 stated that a number of etiological factors can be evolved in the genesis of tinnitus. One of them is hyperactivity of the auditory cortex. In addition, between the central cortex and the inner ear is increasingly thought to be related to oxidative damage caused by free radicals. It just goes on to say that tinnitus is an independent risk factor for subsequent neurodegenerative disease and that further research is needed to confirm the conclusions of their research and investigate that pathophysiology and the relationship between tinnitus and Alzheimer's disease and tinnitus and Parkinson's disease. Another study titled Tinnitus and Risk of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, a retrospective nationwide population based cohort study published in scientific reports in 2020 stated that tinnitus has been implied as a soft sign of neurodegenerative disease, which is characterized by progressive loss of neuronal function, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
Leah Bucholz:And there's a lot more information in these articles. This one concluded that patients with tinnitus were one point five four times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease with a ninety five percent confidence interval. And their results indicate an association between tinnitus and higher risk of developing both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. So that's a lot of good research there. Again, it's multifactorial, so it's important to talk to your treating provider about this and to discuss what their thoughts are on this as well.
Leah Bucholz:They might support you with a medical opinion. As always, if you have questions about the claims filing process, follow-up with a VSO or another accredited legal professional like a claims agent or an attorney, and they should be able to give you some insight as well if they think this may be a case that they can assist you with or whatnot. So I hope this was helpful. Please drop some comments and let me know if you have any thoughts on this, experiences, feedback. And as always, thank you for watching and please like and subscribe.
Leah Bucholz:All right, see you guys later.