The night before I was supposed to teach an autoimmune nutrition class, I reentered a role I thought I’d finally outgrown. Instead of educating other practitioners in the functional medicine space, I found myself in the emergency room, listing symptoms I couldn’t fully untangle or explain. I wasn’t there…

For years, the date of June 22 marked the anniversary of an autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant (aHSCT) that gave me back a kind of life I never thought I’d taste again. The date marked a milestone I clung to like a ribbon at the finish line, a sign I’d…

Note: This column describes the author’s own experiences with high-dose steroids to treat multiple sclerosis (MS). Not everyone will have the same response to treatment. Consult your doctor before starting or stopping a therapy. My first experience treating an MS relapse with intravenous steroids was interesting.

About two-thirds of people with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) remained completely free from relapses over six years of treatment with Zeposia (ozanimod) in the DAYBREAK clinical trial. Most also saw no sustained disability progression during that period and the mean number of new or enlarging lesions…

About 4 in 5 people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) who receive a stem cell transplant remain free of relapses for at least six years, and this may translate into being able to get back to work, a small study from Norway suggests. The study, “Autologous hematopoietic…

COVID-19 doesn’t appear to increase the likelihood of a relapse, where new symptoms suddenly appear or existing ones worsen, for people with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a meta-analysis of more than a dozen studies. The findings alleviate some of the concerns MS patients may have about developing COVID-19,…

A patient’s ability to cope with and recover from adversity — called psychological resilience — was found to impact the observed relationship between fear of relapse and life quality among people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in a new study. Essentially, MS patients who had…

Cigarette smoking significantly slows recovery time from a relapse for people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), according to a pilot study in Iran. Similar links with relapse recovery were not seen for tobacco use with water pipes or exposure through second-hand smoke, also known as passive smoking. Findings add…

People with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) who are receiving oral disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) are still more likely to experience a relapse or any form of disease activity if they are smokers, a study found. Researchers also observed that former smokers had a disease…

“I was told I’m in a flare-up,” a newly diagnosed person with multiple sclerosis (MS) wrote to a Facebook group the other day. She said the flare-up had been going on “for a while now” and wondered when she could expect it to calm down. After I pondered…

Temperature variability and increasing exposure to airborne pollutants — both consequences of climate change — can worsen disease symptoms and risk relapses in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a recent review study. Unwanted effects of environmental change were also linked to a number of other neurological conditions,…

Note: This story was updated Oct. 31, 2022, to correct that in the six months after treatment discontinuation, relapses were reported in 18.8% of RMMS patients and 3.5% of those with SPMS. When multiple sclerosis (MS) patients stop their disease-modifying treatment, the risk of relapses and disease activity on…

More than half of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients in a small study had active inflammatory brain lesions during a relapse, even when relapse symptoms occurred outside the brain, in areas including the spinal cord or optic nerve, researchers in Spain reported. Less than half of the patients with…

A type of blood-cleansing process called immunoadsorption worked better than a second round of methylprednisolone for treating relapse in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who failed to respond to a first, standard cycle of the corticosteroid, a study found. Among people with relapsing MS, immunoadsorption also was associated with…

Having grown up in the countryside, I’ve been around animals my entire life. We always had dogs and cats, and I learned how to ride horses. It was tranquil and storybook. When I left home to take a trip or attend university, I experienced a void only the animals in…

“So can you lift me up/ And turn these ashes into flames/ ‘Cause I have overcome/ More than words will ever say.” — Kate Voegele My relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) diagnosis stole my life from me. The reverberations of this unwelcome thunderbolt were astounding. Coming to terms with a…

Levels of certain inflammatory proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid, the liquid around the brain and spinal cord, may help predict the risk of relapse activity for individuals with early multiple sclerosis (MS), a new study found. High levels of three such proteins were predictive of a greater risk of…

“Shoes are the quickest way for women to achieve instant metamorphosis.” — Manolo Blahnik As the holidays approach, I’m reminded to be thankful for what I have. I was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) at 26 years old, and when I became paralyzed, I thought I’d never…

I am having an MS relapse, my first in three years. In the first two years after I was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS in early 2017, I relapsed every two or three months. It got to the point that I couldn’t tell where one relapse began and another ended.

It’s with a heavy heart that I write this. I don’t want to, but I have to do what’s right. This will be my last column. Lately, things have been crazy busy for me, with a mix of expected events, such as moving to a new home, and a few unexpected…

This year, I’ve been acutely aware that my body isn’t perfect. Sometimes it doesn’t move well. Sometimes it cuts off sensation in my limbs without notice. Sometimes it gets wiped out from fatigue. Sometimes it’s like MS shakes up my head so hard, like a can of soda, that I…

Recently, I’ve been struggling through an MS flare. I have been numb, mostly from my neck down, which is reminiscent of my first relapse eight years ago. Numb and slightly weak hands make it extremely difficult to draw.

For an espoused leftie, you might be surprised that I’ve always had the brush of the rugged individualist about me. Not quite Bear Grylls, but grabbing a rucksack and hitching across Canada still counts as my own youthful rite of passage. I was used to doing everything! As…

“At the center of it all” is the dignity of allowing myself to retire with grace. And it only took a world-shattering event to get me to come to my senses! I’d been running, directing, producing, and sometimes writing (usually when comics got desperate with a 15-minute deadline. We…

As I sit down to write this week’s column, it’s hard for me to concentrate. I’d planned to write about new MS mobile apps, but I can’t get my brain to focus on the task. I’ve been bragging about how I’ve been feeling sharper and able to concentrate better the…

Editor’s note: “Need to Know” is a series inspired by common forum questions and comments from readers. Have a comment or question about MS? Visit our forum. This week’s question is inspired by the forum topic “Are you still driving? Should you be?” from Dec. 27, 2018. At…

Long-term exposure to three common air pollutants — fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone — were not found to be “convincingly” linked to incidence of multiple sclerosis (MS) in a large population study conducted in Canada. The study, “Long-term exposure to air pollution and the incidence of multiple sclerosis: A…