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Type II diabetes is a presumptive condition for veterans with qualifying Agent Orange / herbicide exposure, which can remove the need to prove a nexus.
VA rating schedule, diagnostic code 7913
Diabetes mellitus (sometimes just called "diabetes" or "diabetic") is a condition where your body cannot properly control blood sugar. The VA treats it as a disability under its rating rules for the endocrine system. To be paid for it, the condition generally must be "service-connected" — meaning the VA agrees it is linked to your military service. The VA rates diabetes under diagnostic code 7913.
Under code 7913, your rating percentage goes up as the treatment your diabetes requires gets more serious. The VA assigns 10% when diabetes is manageable by restricted diet only, and 20% when it requires one or more daily insulin shots and a restricted diet, or an oral medicine and restricted diet. A 40% rating applies when it requires insulin, a restricted diet, and "regulation of activities" (avoiding strenuous activity). Higher ratings of 60% and 100% involve insulin, restricted diet, regulation of activities, plus episodes like ketoacidosis or low-blood-sugar reactions needing hospital visits or frequent provider visits, and certain complications. The rules also note that compensable complications of diabetes are generally rated separately unless they are already counted toward a 100% evaluation.
There is an important exposure pathway. The VA recognizes Type 2 diabetes (adult-onset diabetes mellitus) as a disease associated with exposure to certain herbicide agents, such as Agent Orange. If a veteran was exposed to an herbicide agent during qualifying service and the regulation's requirements are met, the disease can be "presumed" service-connected even with no record of it during service. This presumptive pathway can remove the usual burden of proving a direct medical link (nexus) between your service and your diabetes.
This is educational information about how the VA's rules generally work — it is not legal advice, a promise about any rating, or a VA decision on your claim.
Grounded in federal regulations and VA guidance, independently reviewed June 2026. Educational information, not legal advice or a VA determination.
Across 53,738 real Board appeals for Diabetes
A denial is often not the end either — remands (shown below) are sent back for more development and can still end in a grant. These are historical outcomes, not a prediction of your case.
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Among the appeals that were granted or partly granted, the most common ways Diabetes was linked to service:
In appeals where Diabetes was the only condition decided and the Board granted it, the rating most often assigned was:
These appeals involved a recognized exposure — which can mean the link to service is presumed, with no nexus to prove:
The Board has granted service connection for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, diabetes mellitus type II, and bilateral lower extremity neuropathy. The Veteran's cause of death due to these conditions is also recognized.
The Board has granted service connection for prostate cancer, coronary artery disease (CAD), diabetes mellitus type II (DM II), hypertension, and erectile dysfunction as secondary to service-connected DM II. The Veteran's exposure to Agent Orange during active service is presumed.
The Board has granted service connection for diabetes type II as secondary to a service-connected disability and an initial 70 percent rating for posttraumatic stress disorder, subject to the regulations governing the award of monetary benefits.
The Board has granted the Veteran's claims for earlier effective dates for service connection of coronary artery disease, diabetes mellitus type II, diabetic nephropathy, and prostate cancer. The issues of entitlement to special monthly compensation based on housebound status and eligibility for Dependents' Educational Assistance (DEA) are remanded.
The Board has granted service connection for diabetes mellitus, type II and left arm tremors. Service connection for right hand tremors is also granted. The Veteran's tinnitus claim was denied as there is no current diagnosis of tinnitus.
The Board has granted service connection for diabetes mellitus, type II, as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected PTSD. The decision finds that the Veteran's diabetes mellitus, type II is proximately due to his service-connected PTSD.
Jump to the decisions from a specific year.
New decisions are added every week, and older years are actively being backfilled — a year that looks thin or missing here (especially 2011–2017) is a gap in our library, not in the Board’s decisions.
Veterans appealing Diabetes often look at outcomes for these too:
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This is general information, not legal advice. For advice about your own situation, talk to a VA-accredited representative — many help for free.