Vets With ALS to Get VA Benefits

The Department of Veterans Affairs has published new regulations that designates amyotrophic lateral sclerosis -- ALS -- commonly called Lou Gehrig's Disease, as a service-connected disease. The measure will provide full access to health and disability benefits to all veterans with ALS.

"Veterans are developing ALS in rates higher than the general population and it was appropriate to take action," said James Peake, secretary of Veterans Affairs, in a news release. "ALS is a disease that progresses rapidly, once it is diagnosed. There simply isn't time to develop the evidence needed to support compensation claims before many veterans become seriously ill."

In 2001, the department opted to provide service-connected benefits to Gulf War veterans after multiple studies found returning veterans were being diagnosed almost twice as often as civilians.

In addition, the connection between military service in the Gulf and ALS was strengthened by the fact that the disease typically affects people in their 50s, and 98 percent of Gulf War veterans are less than age 45.

More recent scientific studies have shown that the higher rates of ALS in veterans involve more than just those who served in the Gulf War. Harvard researchers found that men with any history of military service in the last century are at a nearly 60 percent greater risk of being diagnosed with the disease.

It is unknown what causes ALS or how it can be prevented, effectively treated or cured. It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks nerve cells and pathways in the brain and spinal cord.

The prognosis for a person diagnosed with ALS today -- death in an average of two to five years -- is the same as it was in 1869 when the disease was first recognized.