Dear Dr. Gott: I read your article about statin drugs and their effects. What, if any, drugs can cause Restless Legs Syndrome?

I'm currently taking a cholesterol-lowering medication and wonder if that is the reason for my discomfort. Your help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Reply: As I have indicated numerous times in the past, almost every drug, even over-the-counter aspirin, carries side effects for some people.

You don't indicate what medications, other than your cholesterol-lowering drug, you may be on. Most major brands of cholesterol-lowering medications can cause serious muscle pain and/or leg cramps.

Now we can approach the next issue. Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) is characterised as an uneasiness, fatiguing, twitching and itching deep in the muscles of the lower part of the leg.

It is accompanied by an uncontrollable urge to move the legs, particularly when at rest. Massaging, muscle stretching or bicycling the legs while in bed provides some relief, but that relief is short-lived.

The overwhelming urge to move the extremities returns quickly, and a person so afflicted gets up from bed and walks the floors for countless hours for relief.

It is unknown what triggers RLS, but half of all reported cases are thought to have a hereditary connection. Leg cramps from statin drugs feel like a charley horse, a painful contraction of the hamstring muscle marked by soreness and stiffness.

Did you have your condition prior to taking statin drugs? Did you strain, stress or tear a muscle that coincidentally occurred at the same time as initiating the new drug? Before a diagnosis can be made, you should return to your physician and provide a complete picture so he or she can differentiate between possible RLS and a drug reaction.

Should it be the drug, your doctor might choose other methods of control for your high readings or add co-enzyme Q10 to your daily regimen. Make an appointment promptly and get to the bottom of this troubling condition.

To give you related information, I am sending you copies of my Health Reports "Understanding Cholesterol" and "Compelling Home Remedies".

Other readers who would like copies should send a self-addressed, stamped, number 10 envelope and $2 for each report to Newsletter, PO Box 167, Wickliffe, Ohio 44092. Be sure to mention the title(s).

Dear Dr. Gott: We have an eight-year-old daughter diagnosed with myasthenia gravis. We're told there is nothing to do for it except to make her medication stronger. What is your advice?

Reply: Myasthenia gravis is a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disease that results from a defect in movement of nerve signals between the muscles and nerve fibres.

Symptoms often begin with double vision, weakness of facial muscles and droopy eyelids, and extend to muscles that help us breathe. The condition is common in juveniles and is not hereditary, nor is it contagious.

With treatment, the outlook is very good. Medication to improve muscle strength, surgical removal of the thymus gland, removal of abnormal antibodies from the blood or IV immunoglobulin, which provides the body with normal antibodies from donated blood, are considerations.

If your daughter is not already under the care of a top neurologist, she should be.

Dr. Gott is a retired physician and the author of "Dr. Gott's No Flour, No Sugar Diet" and "Dr. Gott's No Flour, No Sugar Cookbook". Contact him c/o United Media, 200 Madison Avenue, fourth floor, New York, New York 10016.