Living with MS

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) may not be entirely aware of the decline in their cognitive abilities with cannabis use, which may explain why many choose to continue with it, a small study in patients who are long-term cannabis users reported. The study, “Impaired awareness: Why people with…

Something crazy happened: I felt the strength slowly run out of my leg. It was like it needed a serious charge, but the charging port was nonexistent. I’d received some bad news a few days before that, and I think the stress of the news caused a flare-up. My…

BurnAlong and the Shepherd Center, a leading rehabilitation hospital in the U.S., have established a partnership to bring tailored rehabilitation classes to people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and other neuromuscular diseases worldwide. The video classes, designed by clinicians, therapists, and wellness professionals at the Shepherd Center, based in Atlanta,…

Happy anniversary to us! My wife, Laura, and I are celebrating our 45th wedding anniversary this month. It’s hard to believe, especially because the divorce rate for someone with multiple sclerosis is higher than it is for a healthy couple. A review of records in the Danish…

Three weeks into the Overcoming MS (OMS) diet, I’m pleased to have made the switch. The diet focuses on eating fish and seafood, and lots of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, it excludes dairy, and has minimal saturated fats. I’ve seen a difference…

Urinary problems, such as an urgency to urinate or a feeling of incomplete urination, are common among people with multiple sclerosis (MS), impacting more than half of patients, according to a large study in Italy. The researchers noted that urinary disorders…

If you have multiple sclerosis, no matter how long you’ve lived with it, you likely know it can be unpredictable. It can hit in weird ways you’re not expecting, even after years of learning how to deal with it. For instance, last Saturday, my family of four and some friends…

Belong.Life, a developer of a networking platforms that help patients navigate and manage their disease, has added a French language option in its BelongMS app for the French-speaking Canadian community. BelongMS is a free mobile app that uses artificial intelligence algorithms to support the multiple sclerosis (MS)…

Doctors recently told me that the medication I’ve been taking for the last seven years for MS hasn’t been working. This is news that no one wants to hear.  When I first started Tecfidera (dimethyl fumarate), an oral tablet, I was…

Well, this was a first. I’d fallen backward once in my power wheelchair. That was in the back of our mobility van. Hubris told me I could get away with just holding on to the handgrip for a few hundred meters. As ever, hubris was wrong! About six months…

“Why aren’t researchers doing more to find a cure for multiple sclerosis?” “Why isn’t more effort and money devoted to this?” I regularly read comments like these after I write a column about a new disease-modifying therapy (DMT) that’s either being tested or has just been approved. Some, like…

PicnicHealth and Komodo Health have agreed to combine their databases of patient medical records to support research based on real-world evidence. Together, the companies hope to unlock new insights into complex diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS). “Komodo Health and PicnicHealth share a mission to utilize health data…

New York University (NYU) Langone Health has launched an at-home, therapeutic program of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) — a type of non-invasive brain stimulation — to reduce cognitive, motor, speech, or mood symptoms associated with multiple sclerosis (MS) and other brain disorders. A first of its kind, the…

World MS Day, created by the MS International Federation and its members in 2009 to bring together the multiple sclerosis (MS) community, will this year continue online its 2020–2022 theme of improving connections to break down social barriers. The global MS campaign, featuring…

The other night I was watching the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, my favorite film box set, and it occurred to me how similar life with multiple sclerosis feels to life on a pirate ship. A particular scene sparked this…

NICE Again Says No to Adding Zeposia to Health System for England and Wales Reading this news, I’m again reminded of the major difference between the healthcare system in the U.S. and those in most of the rest of the world. While the systems outside the U.S. provide most…

Women with multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosed with breast cancer are not at a higher risk of dying from cancer than women without the neurodegenerative disorder, according to a Canadian population-based study. However, 10 years after their breast cancer diagnosis, women with MS were 28% more likely to die from any…

One of my favorite moments in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” involves a stolen fountain pen. If you’ve not read — or better yet, seen — the play, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a story about making it big in business and losing yourself in the process.

For any younger readers, and by that I’m guessing 45 and under, may I present the cartoon character Popeye the Sailor Man. He got himself out of scrapes by downing a can of spinach, which supercharged his muscles. There was none of that nonsense of de-stalking raw young leaves…

My tough day started when Brenda asked, “Why do you use that scooter?” Brenda was sitting behind a desk at the Charlotte County Tax Collector’s Office in Florida, where my wife, Laura, and I hoped that transferring our driver’s licenses from Maryland to Florida would be an…

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) and iRacing are revving up for a special, July 31 motoring event to raise funds for the advocacy group. Called the iRacing 4 Hours at Charlotte Benefiting the National MS Society, the event will stream live at twitch.tv/iracing and marks iRacing’s…

MindMaze’s animated ‘games,’ designed to aid in recovering motor and cognitive skills in people with neurological disabilities, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), will now be more widely available to patients worldwide. The brain technology company announced four new partnerships that will enable patients in Latin America, the Middle East,…

Perceptions of a medication can predict treatment adherence and persistence — sticking with the same therapy — in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), a prospective observational study found. The findings were the result of a clinical study (NCT02488343) evaluating the profile of adherence to therapy in patients ages…

After last week’s column about my neurologist declaring that I now have secondary progressive MS, a certain ennui has seeped into me. While this isn’t surprising, it’s also surprising, because I’m on the mood-altering drug fluoxetine. OK, fluoxetine is a regular antidepressant, but “mood-altering” sounds so much cooler.

Life is composed of little awakenings. These epiphanies broaden our horizons. Each invites us to become better versions of ourselves. And while not always welcome, most are necessary for growth. I recently flew across the country to the corporate office of Bionews, the company I work for that…

A conversational bot is being developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to promote COVID-19 vaccinations among people with multiple sclerosis (MS) who are hesitant to take the vaccine. The project is meant to provide accessible digital health information about the vaccines to more vulnerable populations…

I challenged myself to run 10 miles in April. I didn’t know at the time how I would make it work, because I was numb from the neck down due to an MS flare. But I was eager to take back control…

Spring is here, a time we’d normally be out and about getting some sun and recharging our souls after a long winter. I certainly look forward to working in the yard, hiking, having outdoor picnics, and taking the occasional road trip. But this isn’t a typical year, is…

Isn’t it just like me to start my column with a physics analogy that is already confusing? Please stick with me, as all will be revealed. My point is that if a black hole is big enough, you might slip through its event horizon without even noticing. There would…

A short film produced for Hispanic/Latinx people who live with multiple sclerosis (MS) improved patients’ understanding of the condition and the effectiveness of treatment, a study found.  “Health communication interventions, like film, have been shown to be effective tools in promoting positive attitudes…