Type of content: News
In a newly released report, scientists have called on Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs to fund a new program aimed at studying the generational health effects among veterans of the Gulf and post-9/11 wars.
The report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine comes less than two weeks after the same group called on the VA to look at generational exposure to dioxin — a component of Agent Orange.
Type of content: News
WASHINGTON — Researchers with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found for the first time that enough evidence exists to link hypertension to Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam War.
The finding, announced Thursday, bolsters the case for veterans with hypertension to be granted easier access to Department of Veterans Affairs benefits, advocates argued. Before last week’s announcement, researchers had determined there was only “limited” or “suggestive” evidence hypertension could be caused by chemical herbicides used in Vietnam.
Type of content: News
The Education Department says it has identified more than 40,000 veterans who qualify to have their student debt canceled through what is called a "total and permanent disability discharge."
More than 25,000 of them are in default, however, and just 8,500 have even applied for the forgiveness. The government did not say it has discharged any of the debts of these eligible veterans.
Type of content: News
Gulf War veterans with unexplained illnesses that cause fatigue, headaches, respiratory disorders and memory problems can improve their balance with a device developed by Rutgers University researchers.
The study is the first to examine how Gulf War illnesses affect veterans' vestibular systems, which are integral for balance, memory and brain blood flow.
The findings are being presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience this week.
Type of content: News
WASHINGTON — Veterans remain more likely to report feeling in great medical condition even while they face an increased risk of serious health problems like cancer, arthritis and emotional distress, according to updated survey results from veterans advocates out Tuesday.
Type of content: News
Getting adequate sleep is increasingly rare among the active duty military population, as frequent deviations from the body’s natural circadian rhythms due to a demanding operational tempo pit personnel in an ongoing struggle against the ever-persistent sandman.
To combat the sleep deprivation unique to this demographic, service members often turn to energy drinks, a prominent component of combat deployments that has become as paramount to mission success as any piece of protective gear or weaponry.
Type of content: News
WASHINGTON — Veterans Affairs officials claimed improvements at 66 percent of their medical centers across the country last fiscal year, with 18 earning the highest level of excellence in the department’s internal ratings system.
Type of content: News
A study published in Family Practice indicates that healthcare providers outside of the Veterans Affairs (VA) Department are uncertain how to address veterans' needs. The study says that this is due to limited knowledge of resources and coordination problems.
Type of content: News
Pentagon officials need to do more to make sure civilian health care providers are giving military families good care, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The report, released Sept. 17, found that while military health care officials have created a way to monitor whether families and troops are getting quality care from military treatment facilities, those same benchmarks aren't applied to community-based providers.
Type of content: News
AMHERST, Mass. – A recent major shift in practice by the Veterans Health Administration (VA) now means that complementary and integrative health (CIH) therapies such as meditation, yoga and acupuncture are increasingly being offered to VA patients as non-drug approaches for pain management and related conditions, says Elizabeth Evans, an epidemiology researcher in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.