Does anyone know the stats regarding the % of people with neuropathy and the relative % of women? After fighting with my Drs for 4 years because I think my COPD meds cause my neiropathy symptoms I happened to follow Glentaj's Medscape link in the thyroid and PN thread and there I was. They consider neuropathy related to COPD a metabolic form caused by medication. I have similarities with the description of diabetic PN, dx several entrapment issues and radiculopathy and I think some autonomic problems as well.

There isn't much info and most of it seems to be research related rather than in general knowledge. I found one paper that said PN was found in 15-16% of people with COPD. They only tested males however and the complaints I've seen have all been from women, I was wondering how that compares with PN stats in general. The biochem is pretty difficult but one reference also said glucocortcoids cause glucose to be used in the cell the same as in diabetes and others said with chronic use they potentiate ischemic nerve damage and can have proinflammatory qualities. Mine also depletes b12 and magnesium, etc.

I appreciate this site so much and the work many of you do in trying to find
answers. You never know who you will help. Happy New Year and I hope you all find some answers, if you do be sure to patent it and charge Pharma lots of $ for the information.
Zygo

I think figuring that out would be tricky.

Females typically outnumber males for autoimmune disease,
so autoimmune neuropathy would be higher in females.

Thyroid disease used to be the domain of women too, but now the males are catching up quickly. This may be due to the environmental contaminants that mimic thyroid hormone in the body. We see many more males today than in the past.

The old ratio of 9:1 Female:male for RA and other autoimmune disease is no longer valid I believe.

The above paper is 10 yrs old.

Thanks, I did find some info but don't know how accurate it is. It said that incidence of neuropathy in general population was 3-4% with more males than females affected and among diabetics incidence was 30% with a female majority.

I thought 15% was high. Earlier studies with COPD patients attributed the neuropathy to hypoxia but apparently more recent work has not seen that as a predictor. It did seem to coorelate with a heavy smoking history but I don't fit that profile and wondered if there was a sex bias in the study, it had only 30 subjects and all were men.Some people had symptoms but what they found was primarily subclinical, some changes in nerve conduction.

There is so little interest in and acknowledgement of some of the SE effects of the COPD meds I'm beginning to think they just ignore them because they think we are all going to die anyhow before the problems become so prevalent and undeniable they will have to be addressed.
Zygo

There has long been controversy about drug development and males. Historically males were mostly in all the older drug studies, females excluded--supposedly because they could become pregnant and mess the study up and drop out etc-- costly big bucks in the end. This is one factor we see in Statin use... and recently Canadians released a paper stating evidence shows females do not really need statins most of the time! Good evidence that they are useful was never collected on women until very recently!

So the bias in studies is typically men. Excluding the PCOS studies of course, and Hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
So you may find statistics that reflect the male bias.

The ratios for thyroid disease and autoimmune are shrinking.
There used to be a "rule" that males do not get myasthenia gravis until old age...and now we see young males with it. (on our board too). I think the vaccine rush is to blame, IMO. That factor is narrowing the ratios very quickly. The older thought was that female preponderance was because child bearing was the trigger..that some cells from the fetus escape into the maternal circulation and sensitize the mother setting an autoimmune cascade in motion in women who have the genetic tendency to over-react to foreign proteins.

But now we don't need that trigger at all. Vaccines with their contaminants and adjuvants, are providing a potent trigger regardless of age, or gender! The autoimmune arthritis from the Lyme vaccine was a HUGE event...and illustrates how the process works. It might be a bit smaller with other vaccines, but I think they are at the heart of much illness in our modern world.

I hope this isn't too boring for people, I know not many have COPD here.
I'm finding some things that are mostly confusing me because I don't have a medical background.

It makes sense that nicotine could cause neuropathy, they used to use it as a neurotoxic insecticide, duh...I'm just wondering why its subclinical in most people. And wondering if people who have taken statins, flouroquinolones, etc.would show the same kinds of changes even if they had no overt neuropathy.

There are similarities between COPD and diabetic neuropathy and I don't understand why and don't understand the physiology. Both have intercellular (intrA?) hypoxia? Also 'resistance to ischemic nerve conduction failure'....riiigght... And some sort of nerve (cell?) hypertrophy and something related I forgot to write down. And the steroid I use blocks uptake of glucose into the cells in the same way it happens in diabetics. Is inflammation an issue with diabetics?

I also found in a couple of places that COPD patients with neuropathy have greater morbidity due to autonomic issues involving heart arrythmias I think.
Dr. Weasel (Anthony Weiner with rabies) should know something about that but he has never even acknowledged the neuropathy.

I would really like to know why my symptoms subside so much when I don't take as much steroid but don't know if I'll ever figure it out.
Thanks,
Zygo

Hi Zygo,
I don't know what meds you are on for the COPD but if you use advair or another of the inhaled steroids ask the doctor to check your adrenal gland function. Inhaled steroids have been known to cause adrenal suppression.
hopeful

Hopeful, I take Flovent which is the steroid in Advair. I think I may have some issues with adrenal suppression, have also developed significant adult-onset asthma as well, but my pulmo won't say one way or the other. I'm too intimidated by him at this point to ask for adrenal function tests so am kind of waiting to see what happens and trying to learn what I can in the meantime.
Thanks,
Zygo