Diabetes Mellitus

Alzheimer-type dementia - Diabetes Mellitus Factor

Definition

Diabetes  mellitus is an endocrine disease where there is diminished insulin action. It can also be referred to as "sugar diabetes", juvenile onset diabetes, Type I diabetes, IDDM (insulin dependent diabetes mellitus), NIDDM (non insulin dependent diabetes mellitus), Type II diabetes and maturity onset diabetes.

Signs and symptoms

• Insulin dependent diabetes usually begins before the age of 40 with the abrupt onset of symptoms such as thirst, excessive urination, increased appetite and weight loss.
• Non insulin dependent diabetes usually begins in middle life or beyond, and the typical patient is overweight. The onset of symptoms is more gradual, or there may be no symptoms and diabetes is diagnosed on routine testing.

Establishing onset

If a veteran had diabetes mellitus there would be specific evidence with regard to blood sugar levels and the need for diet, weight loss, insulin or drugs to lower blood sugar levels (eg Daonil, Euglocon, Glimel, Diabinese, Rastinon, Diamicron, Minidiab, Melizide), drugs to help insulin work better (eg Diabex, Diaformin, Glucophage) and drugs to slow the digestion of carbohydrates (eg Glucobay).

Last reviewed for CCPS 16 September 2011.

Preliminary questions [41443]

489        the veteran has diabetes mellitus.

10547 the veteran has insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (type 1).

or

10548 the veteran has non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (type 2).

41476  the veteran has established the causal connection between the diabetes mellitus and operational service for the clinical onset of Alzheimer-type dementia.

Clinical onset and operational service [41476]

41477 the veteran had diabetes mellitus at least 10 years before the clinical onset of the condition under consideration.

29970  the diabetes mellitus is causally related to operational service.