April 3, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias Neurologists Turn to Telemedicine During Coronavirus Sheltering Dr. Aaron Boster assessed the gait of his multiple sclerosis patient, who walked forward and back. Earlier, he had checked the patient’s seventh cranial nerve by having him close his eyes tightly and smile. Then, Boster checked the ninth, 10th, and 12th cranial nerves by having him stick out his…
March 27, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias Online Coronavirus Screening May Not Be Ready for Prime Time A number of websites are currently offering online coronavirus screening. These aren’t a full-scale test. The online sites read symptoms that you enter and then use artificial intelligence to determine how likely it is that you’re positive for the virus. But there’s a bit of a problem. An investigation by…
March 23, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Coronavirus and DMTs, Gilenya and Pediatric MS, Ponesimod for RRMS, Cannabis for Spasticity I’m starting this week by linking to our Coronavirus COVID-19 Information section on the Multiple Sclerosis News Today Forums. My fellow moderator, John Connor, and I have been posting information there from our news writers and columnists about the evolving situation. Have You Tested Positive for Coronavirus…
March 20, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias Have You Tested Positive for Coronavirus with MS? What happens if you have MS and you’ve tested positive for COVID-19? How will the disease affect your disease-modifying therapies and your MS? Dr. Barry Singer, (@drbarrysinger), a neurologist who directs The MS Center for Innovations in Care in St. Louis, has posed…
March 16, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Coronavirus Updates, MD1003 Trial Fails to Meet Goals, Sativex and Spasticity Relief, NurOwn Trial Site Announced Second Phase 3 Trial of MedDay’s MD1003 for Progressive MS Fails to Meet Goals This is disappointing news about what scientists had hoped would be another oral disease-modifying therapy for multiple sclerosis. It’s doubly disappointing because MD1003 is aimed at progressive forms of MS and demyelination, and we need…
March 13, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias Guidelines for DMT Use as COVID-19 Spreads People with multiple sclerosis have unique concerns about the new coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease that it causes. Many of us use disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) that suppress our immune systems and give us an extra element to worry about when we plan our defense against this virus. To help us…
March 9, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Coronavirus FAQs, Diet, Ozanimod Study, High-dose Vitamin D FAQs About Coronavirus and MS As the coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease spreads around the world, people with multiple sclerosis are asking questions specifically related to our illness and our medications. These FAQs answer many of those questions. The recent outbreak of a novel…
March 6, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias FDA Approval of Investigational DMT Ozanimod May Be Weeks Away By the end of this month, another disease-modifying therapy (DMT) for multiple sclerosis may be available in the U.S. Ozanimod is an investigational daily pill for the treatment of relapsing MS. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to decide…
March 2, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Remyelination Research in Animal Models, Depression and Neurological Function, Ofatumumab Approval Moves Closer In this column, I’ll be highlighting some of the research presented at this year’s Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum, held last week in West Palm Beach, Florida. #ACTRIMS2020 — Remyelination in Adult Animal Brains Possible via Cell Transplant, Study Says You’ll need…
February 28, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS Is a Rare Disease? I Think Not Feb. 29 is Rare Disease Day. It’s a day on which those in the rare disease community attempt to raise awareness about their diseases. I don’t think MS should be included. With about 2.5 million people worldwide in the MS community, I don’t consider it to be rare.
February 24, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: New Baclofen Pump, Bone Marrow Transplant Study, Bladder Problems and Life Quality, Urinary Diversion Surgery Flowonix’s Prometra II Pump System Receives FDA Approval for Use with Intrathecal Baclofen This new pump could be a major step forward for people with multiple sclerosis who use a pump to deliver baclofen directly into their spinal column. It uses a pressure-driven system rather than a motor-driven one,…
February 21, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias Myeliviz Brings Hope for Faster MS Diagnosis Myeliviz is the name of a new compound approved for a clinical trial in the U.S. that has the potential to make the process of diagnosing multiple sclerosis faster and tracking the disease progression easier. It does this by providing doctors with a better picture of damaged myelin —…
February 17, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Report on Ocrevus Use, Cognitive Decline in MS, Gold Nanocrystals and Remyelination Study Ocrevus Use Rises Among New Starters with RRMS, Loses Ground to Other Therapies in PPMS Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) bolted out of the starting gate after it was approved for use in the U.S. about three years ago. However, though its use by people with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis continues…
February 14, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias Smoking and MS: Not a Good Match Some interesting statistics about people with multiple sclerosis in the U.K. have been released by Public Health England. The numbers are intended to help health commissioners and providers assess “the needs of patients with MS and the provision of health and care services,” according to the government’s website. Primary…
February 10, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Methionine, MSCT, Spinal Fluid, and BTK Blocker Studies Dietary Changes May Delay Development and Progression of MS, Study Finds Methionine is an amino acid found in meat, eggs, and dairy. It’s absorbed by T-cells that are part of our immune system. Those cells are also believed to be the immune cells that attack our myelin, creating the…
February 7, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias Bladder Problems Keep Many of Us Looking for the Loo Are you frequently up at night for bathroom trips? When you’re outside, are you always looking for a loo? You’re not alone. A recent study confirms that the vast majority of people with multiple sclerosis are dealing with bladder problems. You probably know the symptoms: They include having…
February 3, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Epstein-Barr, UTI Factors, New Myelin Imaging Agent, Nerve Impulses and Demyelination Epstein-Barr Virus and Certain Genes Interact in Ways That Can Promote MS, Study Finds Much has been written over the years about a possible connection between the Epstein-Barr virus and multiple sclerosis. Here’s further evidence of a link that has to do with how particular genes interact with the…
January 31, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias Rising MS Medication Costs Mean Some Patients Are Skipping Doses Forced by medication costs to choose between regularly taking their medications or buying groceries, some people with multiple sclerosis are choosing the groceries. Some are skipping doses and others have stopped taking their disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) entirely. This troubling news is…
January 27, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Mayzent for SPMS Approved in EU, Memory Training, Trial of Music-based Product to Improve Walking Mayzent Helps Regulate the Immune System in SPMS, Study Shows Mayzent (siponimod) is one of several disease-modifying treatments that target specific T-cells and B-cells involved in damage to the myelin that protects our nerves. This study reports a significant reduction in these rogue cells within a year of starting…
January 24, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias April Hester Is Lacing Up Her MS Hiking Boots Again When I wrote about April Hester two years ago, she and her husband, Bernie, had just finished hiking the 500 miles of South Carolina’s Palmetto Trail. That’s no small accomplishment for anyone, but it was a particularly special achievement…
January 20, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: High Cost of MS Meds; MS Progression, Relapse, and DMT Timing; Remyelinating Therapy Trial; Myelin Regeneration Mouse Study Almost Half of MS Patients Change or Stop DMT Due to High Financial Burden, Survey Shows I frequently see reports of this on multiple sclerosis patient websites. People with MS say they’ve been forced to change or even stop their treatment because it costs too much. Some people have…
January 17, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias Stem Cells Versus DMTs: MS Treatments Go Head to Head People with multiple sclerosis have been waiting for this: A full-scale clinical trial testing the effectiveness of stem cell transplantation as an MS treatment. The trial is being conducted by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and it’s enrolling people with MS at several centers in the United States and…
January 13, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: AHSCT Trial Enlisting, Interferon-beta and Pregnancy, Probiotics, Language and Brain Health New Trial Compares Stem Cell Treatment to Available Therapies for Severe Relapsing MS This is a biggie. The U.S. National Institutes of Health is conducting a head to head study comparing autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) to the high-efficacy, disease-modifying therapies currently being used: Tysabri, Lemtrada, Ocrevus, and…
January 10, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias I Was Seconds Away from Calling the Medics My nose started running about a week before the sledgehammer hit. Then came a chesty cough, not yet as serious as the one that had my wife wheezing, but I was worried that I’d soon catch up with her. I didn’t…
December 20, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Who’s Willing to Accept More DMT Risk, You or Your Neuro? As more high-efficacy disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) are being made available, people with multiple sclerosis have to decide how much risk they’re willing to accept in exchange for the treatment’s potential benefits. It’s a tough decision not made any easier if a patient’s neurologist is unwilling to accept much risk.
December 16, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: US Patent for Remyelination Therapy, Tysabri and Inflammation, Canada Funding Mavenclad MetP Pharma Awarded US Patent for Potential Remyelination Therapy Mention remyelination and the reaction from most of us with multiple sclerosis is probably, “How soon?” This announcement makes me hope that it’s now a little sooner. The process combines testosterone with a compound that changes the activity of something…
December 13, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Have You Joined the Conversations in Our MS Forums? About a year and a half ago, Multiple Sclerosis News Today introduced a forums section. It’s a great place to post a question or comment about MS, or to answer someone else’s question. I’m one of the forum moderators, along with John Connor. I get around better than John,…
December 9, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Gilenya Generics, MS Pain and Fatigue Toolkit, Profit Drives MS Meds Prices, MS and Sugar Link FDA Approves Three Generic Versions of Novartis’ Gilenya for Treating Relapsing MS It’s always nice to hear about generics becoming available to replace expensive multiple sclerosis treatments. But I wonder whether these generics will cost less than the brand-name medication. Will their availability help to drive down the price…
December 6, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias I’ve Had Success with the Bioness L300 Go This Time Around I used the Bioness L300, a functional electrical stimulation (FES) device, for about seven years to counter my left foot drop. I strapped it to my leg just below the knee. As I began to take a step, it sent a low-intensity electrical pulse down a nerve that runs from…
November 25, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Immunoadsorption, MS Therapies Approval, Cannabis-based Capsules for Study, Pregnancy and MS Immunoadsorption May Be Superior to Plasma Exchange in Treating Steroid-resistant Relapses in MS Steroids may be an effective treatment for multiple sclerosis relapses, but they have negative side effects. Many people report a metallic taste, while others find it hard to sleep. And long-term use can affect bone…