The Board has vacated the portion of its September 10, 2019 decision that denied entitlement to service connection for heart disorder, OSA, right knee disorder, and migraine headaches. The issues are remanded for further development.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's prescribed opioid medications were linked to higher sugar intake that contributed to obesity, which may be an 'intermediate step' between a service-connected disability and a current disability that may be service- connected on a secondary basis under 38 C.F.R. § 3.310(a).
- Claimed conditions
- heart disorder, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), right knee disorder, migraine headaches
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 17, 2019
- Citation
- 19194020
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,642 · Granted: 19% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 19194020.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for bilateral hearing loss, migraine headaches, and PTSD due to additional development of records and examination.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the cases for additional development due to incomplete medical records and insufficient opinions regarding the relationship between service, including a stick injury in England, and current left eye disability (including amblyopia and cataracts) as well as migraine headaches.
- Granted
The Veteran's OSA is granted as service connected. The Veteran's infectious disease claim and stomach disability claim are remanded for further examination.
- Granted
The Veteran's migraine headaches are productive of very frequent, completely prostrating and prolonged attacks capable of producing severe economic inadaptability. The Board has granted a 50 percent disability rating for the Veteran's service-connected migraine headaches.
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