With almost 3 million of us around the world, we’re not really rare, but we’re rare enough that our MS is still a puzzle to many. People seem to know what muscular dystrophy is (probably because of the annual telethon in past years), and they know about cancer and heart disease. Why don’t they know about MS? We need to do more to promote MS awareness, wouldn’t you agree?
More than 2.8 million people worldwide are now estimated to be living with multiple sclerosis (MS), including about 1 million in the United States, an update to the Atlas of MS reports.
An increase since its previous update, this number translates to someone, somewhere in the world, being newly diagnosed with the disease every five minutes, the National MS Society announced in a press release on the update.
How MS affects pregnancy is a question I see asked regularly in social media groups. This study may help to partially answer that question. It reports that pregnancy may delay the onset of MS symptoms. Other studies have reported that a woman has fewer relapses while pregnant.
After a pregnancy or childbirth, most women who went on to develop clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) did so about three years later than those who were never pregnant, a large and multicenter study reported.
Multiple pregnancies or births, however, were not seen to further affect CIS onset.
We know that with MS, our immune system attacks parts of our body that it shouldn’t attack. This investigational medication is designed to “reeducate” the immune system of people with MS so that it understands it shouldn’t attack healthy cells. Those at the company Anokion hope to begin a Phase 1 trial at several locations by the end of the year.
With this approval, Anokion can enter clinical testing and is planning to initiate a multicenter, Phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate ANK-700 in people with MS by the end of the year.
Note: Multiple Sclerosis News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Multiple Sclerosis News Today or its parent company, BioNews, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to multiple sclerosis.
Diagnosed with MS at age 32 in 1980, Ed has written the “MS Wire” column for Multiple Sclerosis News Today since August 2016. He presents timely information on MS, blended with personal experiences. Before retiring from full-time work in 2012, Tobias spent more than four decades in broadcast and on-line newsrooms as a manager, reporter, and radio news anchor. He’s won several national broadcast awards. As an MS patient communicator, Ed consults with healthcare and social media companies. He’s the author of “We’re Not Drunk, We Have MS: A tool kit for people living with multiple sclerosis.” Ed and his wife split time between the Washington, D.C. suburbs and Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Diagnosed with MS at age 32 in 1980, Ed has written the “MS Wire” column for Multiple Sclerosis News Today since August 2016. He presents timely information on MS, blended with personal experiences. Before retiring from full-time work in 2012, Tobias spent more than four decades in broadcast and on-line newsrooms as a manager, reporter, and radio news anchor. He’s won several national broadcast awards. As an MS patient communicator, Ed consults with healthcare and social media companies. He’s the author of “We’re Not Drunk, We Have MS: A tool kit for people living with multiple sclerosis.” Ed and his wife split time between the Washington, D.C. suburbs and Florida’s Gulf Coast.