December 22, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias Young MSers Keeping Dreams Alive This will be my final column for this year because of the Christmas and New Year holidays. Rather than ending 2017 with another 500 or so fascinating words from me, I’d like to leave you, instead, with this video. It was produced by a group of young Europeans…
December 19, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias Monkey See, Monkey Do: Helping Hands for People with MS I was just monkeying around while on vacation a few weeks ago, amazed that the animals jumping between my wife and myself were actually listening to the commands of their owner. I knew that chimps and apes were smart, but seeing monkeys respond to commands was new to me.
December 18, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: MS Pain, Your Bioclock, Remyelination Chronic and Neuropathic Pain in MS Patients Should Be Routinely Evaluated, Study Says The next time a doctor tells you that there’s no pain associated with MS, point them to this study. Yes, MS can cause chronic pain and, yes, the pain can be caused by nervous system lesions.
December 15, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias Using Biotin? It Could Impact Your Lab Results Be careful if you’re using high-dose biotin (vitamin B7). The biotin in your blood could lead to some false readings when you have that blood tested. The level of concern about this is high enough to warrant aĀ warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. High doses of biotin…
December 12, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias Should MS Therapy Prices Reflect How Diligently We Take Our Meds? Would you be more likely to stick to your MS drug schedule if being diligent lowered the cost of that drug? Biogen, which makes half a dozen MS drugs, including Avonex and Tysabri, seems to be betting that you would. It’s no secret that patients have…
December 11, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Mavenclad, Steroids, Blood Tests, Laquinimod, MS Diagnosis Health Canada Approves Merckās Mavenclad to Treat RRMS The European Union OK’d Mavenclad back in August. Now, Canada has come on board with approval for this oral MS therapy, which has been reporting very good success at attacking MS. How about the United States joining them? Apparently,…
December 8, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias What I Learned About My MS While on Vacation You wouldn’t think that a guy who was diagnosed with MS more than 37 years ago would still be able to learn a thing or two about his disease. But that’s exactly what I did while on vacation about a week ago. I guess I really did know…
December 5, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias Social Media’s World of MS Misinformation I’m worried about social media. Specifically, I’m worried about the many MS-related groups in the Facebook world. There are general MS groups and there are groups dedicated to specific MS treatments. I belong to several, and though there’s a great deal of useful information in these groups, there’s…
December 1, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias A Wheelchair that Drives Itself I never thought I’d find a subject for this MS column in the technology magazine Wired. But, what do you know? A recent article suggested that the same technology being used to create self-driving cars could (and should) be used to create self-driving wheelchairs. Artist and…
November 28, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias She Has MS and She Just Hiked 500 Miles Well, 460.75 miles (741.5 km), to be exact. When I wrote about April Hester in late September, the headline on my column was “She Has MS and She’s Planning to Hike 500 Miles.” Well, she did it, hiking the Palmetto Trail from Walhalla, in the South…
November 21, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias Flu Shot or No Flu Shot for MS Patients? It’s that time of year again. The time of year where I keep seeing posts on MS social media posts asking, “should I get a flu shot?” In my honest opinion, yes, definitely! There are certainly different opinions about this, but I think that my opinion is the…
November 20, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Cannabis Studies, Oral Therapy Study, and Exercising with Wii MMJ Hires Lead Investigator for Phase 2 Trials of Medicinal Cannabis to Treat Progressive MS The real news here is what hiring a lead investigator means. It means that Phase 2 trials of a medical marijuana product to treat MS pain and spasticity are closer to beginning.
November 17, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias Airport Tips for Holiday Flyers Thanksgiving is just a few days away, so I thought it would be a good time to repeat a few of my airline travel tips and add a few new ones. Get the wait-time app Needless to say, you need to get to the airport early on busy travel…
November 14, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias Thanks to Caregivers Who Share Our MS Load The MS load we carry is heavy. Some of us, unfortunately, must carry it alone. But many of us are fortunate to have someone with whom we can share the weight. It’s National Family Caregivers Month and a new survey shows just how heavy that load can…
November 13, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Myelin Repair, MS Blood Test, Comparing DMTs Myelin-producing Brain Cells Regenerated Using Stem Cells in Early Study We know that when the myelin coating of our nerve axons is destroyed, MS symptoms result. So a process that halts or reverses that destruction is the goal of a lot of MS research. This is a…
November 7, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias Thinking About Stopping Your MS Treatments? Have you ever thought about stopping whatever MS treatment you’re using? I have. So has John Corboy. Corboy’s not an MS patient. Rather, he’s a researcher at the University of Colorado’s medical school. And he’s studying whether older patients, if they haven’t had a relapse for several…
November 6, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Older Patients, Stem Cells, Myelin, B-cells vs. T-cells #MSParis2017 ā Trial to See if Disease-modifying Therapies Not Necessary in Older MS Patients This tops my list this week because, at age 69, I certainly fit the definition of an “older” MS patient. The study is hoping to enroll 300 MS patients in the U.S. who…
November 3, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias Dealing with Disaster While Dealing with MS Are you ready for a disaster? Wildfires in the wine country of Northern California exploded so quickly that survivors say they didn’t know they were threatened until flames were nearly at their doors. Hurricane Harvey forced more than 9,000 people into Houston’s main evacuation shelter. It…
October 31, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias MS Relapses May Be Significantly Under-Reported. Duh. This comes as no surprise to me and probably not to you. MS patients may not always contact their healthcare providers when they’re having a relapse. This information comes via a pair of surveys that were released at the recent ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS conference in Paris. In the first,…
October 30, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: #MSParis, Biotin, Tysabri, Lemtrada, Propionic Acid Reports There’s been a lot of interest in the treatments (including natural treatments) for progressive MS that were presented at the ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS conference in Paris last week. Here are a few of our reports involving that research. #MSParis2017 ā MedDayās High-Dose Biotin, MD1003, Improves Disability in Progressive MS…
October 27, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias Patients and Neurologists Team Up to Gather MS Therapy Data Since the approval of the first disease-modifying drug (DMD) for MS back in the mid-1990s, another dozen or so have been added as treatment options. But, just as MS affects each patient differently, so do the drugs. Missing has been a tool to follow MS patients and their…
October 24, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias When You Read About MS Treatments, Read Past the Headline There’s been some internet buzz recently about the possibility of an over-the-counter allergy drug that helps to repair the myelin that MS damages. The drug is clemastine fumarate, and I suspect that some of that buzz may have been generated by headlines found on Twitter and…
October 23, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Mavenclad, Tecfidera, Ublituximab, Ocrevus The giant ECTRIMS/ACTRIMS MS conference begins in Paris on Wednesday, Oct. 25, and this column focuses on several of the presentations on which Multiple Sclerosis News Today will be reporting during the week. #MSParis2017 ā Mavenclad Reduces Relapses, Prevents New Lesions in Many RRMS Patients, Presentations Will…
October 20, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias Opening People’s Eyes to Our Invisible MS Those of us who have MS know that our disease can be invisible. We don’t always stumble when we walk. We don’tĀ always use some sort of an assistive device that would alert people to our illness. So what we often get from those who don’t know better are those…
October 17, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias MSParis2017 Will Look at New MS Diagnosis Criteria, and a Lot More The year’s largest gathering of multiple sclerosis “minds” starts on Oct. 25 in Paris. More than 8,000 neurologists, researchers and others who specialize in treating and curing MS will be attending MSParis2017. It’s a joint meeting of the European and the Americas Committee for Research in Multiple Sclerosis…
October 16, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Myelin repair, and Diets High in Fat or Salt Common Allergy Treatment Restores Protective Neuron Coating in MS, Trial Suggests This is the kind of news we all hope to hear. A treatment that will repair our frayed “wires” and, in doing so, restore some of the function that MS has stolen from us. This is…
October 13, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias Specialty Pharmaceuticals Mean Specialty Prices If you have MS, you’ve probably used a specialty drug. My first was Avonex, which I began to use about 1998. Several others followed. There’s no formal definition of a specialty drug, but these therapies have several things in common. First, they’re expensive. According to the vice president in…
October 9, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Lemtrada, Copaxone Generic, ATL1102 Trial, and Brain Stimulation Lemtrada Prevented Progression of Multiple Sclerosis for Five Years, Study Shows Full disclosure: I’m being treated with Lemtrada, so any news about it lights up my radar like a Christmas tree. I’m 10 months post-round 1 and am doing well ā and this news looks like it’s…
October 6, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias Therapy That Just Might Beat MS Fatigue I’ve had a cold for two weeks. So, I’ve been more tired than usual. Too tired, in fact, to write the column that was supposed to post last Tuesday. (I apologize to all of you who wait, with bated breath, for the appearance of the MS Wire each…
October 2, 2017 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Scooter-User Falls, Aggressive Treatment, and Brain Inflammation Falls Common Among Wheelchair, Scooter Users in People with MS, Study Reports It’s happened to me. I’ve gone over backwardĀ when I tried to “gun” the throttle of my lightweight scooter when its rear wheels were up against a door threshold. And my heavier scooter can have a…