If you are taking drugs to lower cholesterol, you might want to find another option, as a recent study has linked such drugs to increasing the risk of nerve damage.

According to Dr. David Gaist, of the University of Southern Denmark, more and more people are taking statins, cholesterol-lowering drugs — and more and more patients have developed cases of nerve damage, with no apparent obvious cause.

Initial studies suggested statins increased the risk of polyneuropathy, but the results of this study have confirmed the link between statin-use and nerve damage.

Gaist and his colleagues identified 166 cases of first-time neuropathy that did not have an obvious cause. The cases were divided into two groups, depending on how certain researchers were that the damage was not caused by some other condition. Results showed that people without nerve damage, who had taken statins, were four to 14 times more likely to develop polyneuropathy that did not have a known cause.

Symptoms of polyneuropathy may include tingling, numbness and burning pain and decreased sensitivity to temperature or pain.

Consult your chiropractor for possible natural approaches to lowering cholesterol.

SOURCE: Dynamic Chiropractic, May 6, 2002, p. 36.