February 11, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias What Is Trigeminal Neuralgia in MS All About, Anyway? My immediate thought after reading a recent MS News Today headline stating that trigeminal neuralgia (TN) affects more than 3% of MS patients was, “Really, only 3%?” The reason is I’ve seen several complaints about the condition, which…
February 7, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Predicting Disease Progression, Temelimab, Trigeminal Neuralgia Combined Data May Predict Person’s Risk of Advancing From CIS to MS Clinically isolated syndrome is sometimes called “early MS.” It’s the diagnosis used when someone’s symptoms don’t quite look like MS,…
February 4, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias Taking Another Look at Vitamin D, Immune Tolerance, and MS I’ve been popping vitamin D pills for years — decades, really. I never really understood why, I just knew that many people with multiple sclerosis (MS) are vitamin D-deficient. A recent study has cast some new light on…
January 31, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: COVID-19 Booster, EBV Treatment, Childhood MS Risks, Vitamin D COVID-19 Booster May Benefit Patients on Anti-CD20 Therapy After multiple reports of how Gilenya and anti-CD20 MS medications reduce the efficacy of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, here’s more evidence that a booster shot may…
January 28, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias MS Hiker Laces Up Her Boots for Appalachian Trail Reservations at a base lodge have been made, and a starting date is circled on her calendar. MS hiker April Hester is ready to start up the Appalachian Trail in the eastern U.S. It’s always an…
January 24, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: MRSI, Acthar Gel, Tecfidera vs. Gilenya, Exergames Imaging Brain Metabolites May Help Diagnose, Monitor MS Have you ever heard of magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging, or MRSI? I hadn’t until I read this story. It’s a technique that in concept allows a…
January 21, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias An Epstein-Barr Virus Primer for MS Patients You may have heard about the research that’s just been published about the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and multiple sclerosis (MS). The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health study reports that being infected by EBV raises the risk…
January 17, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Epstein-Barr Virus, EHP-101, Anti-CD20 Therapies, Gut Bacteria Epstein-Barr Virus May be Leading Cause of MS, Raising Risk by 32 Times Several studies over the past few years have suggested a link between the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and multiple sclerosis (MS),…
January 14, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias Aquatic Therapy for Chronic Back Pain Multiple sclerosis (MS) has gotten to be a real pain in the back. In the past couple years, I’ve developed pain in a few areas of my body, especially my butt and back. Last winter, I tried physical therapy,…
January 10, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Lemtrada, Music and White Matter, Diagnosing MS AB Science OK’d to Start Masitinib Phase 3 Trial for Progressive MS Many of us with multiple sclerosis (MS) have been waiting for another treatment for progressive forms of MS. I hope this brings…
January 7, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias More Answers About COVID-19 Vaccines and MS A little over a year ago, I wrote about whether people with multiple sclerosis (MS) should get a COVID-19 vaccine. I was anxious to be vaccinated as soon as I could, but I was also concerned about how…
January 3, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Cortrophin Gel, Simvastatin, COVID-19 Treatments Cortrophin Gel Now Available in US at AllianceRx Walgreens Prime Cortrophin Gel is similar to Achtar Gel, which was, until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent re-approval of Cortrophin, the only repository corticotropin…
December 20, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: COVID-19 Vaccines, Achtar Gel, Ublituximab, Pregnancy Study: Anti-CD20 Therapies, Gilenya Lower Efficacy of COVID-19 Vaccines This research adds more evidence to studies that have already shown that certain disease-modifying therapies reduce the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. Those DMTs include…
December 17, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias Sun-seeking Finds Support in New Study I’m back in Florida for the next several months, having left cloudy, windy, chilly Maryland for the Gulf Coast. It’s been sunny and in the low 80s for the past few days, and my multiple sclerosis (MS) is feeling…
December 13, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: DMTs and Age, Lyvispah, Cells Driving MS, Melatonin Worsening of Disability Evident in Older Patients Who Stop DMTs Some neurologists believe that multiple sclerosis (MS) progression slows, or even stops, when people reach their 60s, so they advise patients that there’s no…
December 10, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias I’m Back on the MS ‘Bladder Coaster’ I thought I finally had this bladder thing licked. After years of urinary urgency and frequency, I’d been doing much better. I was sleeping at least seven hours a night without having to go to the bathroom, and…
December 6, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Vitamin D Deficiency, Emotions, Neurostimulation Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Early Cognitive Issues in Study I’ve taken a vitamin D supplement for many years because numerous studies have shown a correlation between low vitamin D levels and MS. My…
December 3, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias My Lemtrada Treatment, 5 Years Later It was five years ago, Dec. 5, 2016, that I scootered into the office of Dr. Heidi Crayton, my neurologist, and plopped into a soft, brown leather recliner. Day 1 of Round 1 of my Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) infusions…
November 29, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Stem Cell Trial, COVID-19 Vaccines, MS Blood Test First Patient Dosed in Phase 1 Trial of IMS001 Therapy IMS001 is an investigational treatment that uses mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) — cells derived from human embryos. Preclinical studies have shown that IMS001 has…
November 22, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Neural Sleeve, Supplements, Ocrevus, Cladribine Injection Wearable ‘Neural Sleeve’ Counters Foot Drop, Aids Mobility in Study This is a neat concept, described by the manufacturer as a lightweight sleeve on the lower leg that predicts the movement a leg is…
April 22, 2024 Columns by Desiree Lama Learning to manage cognitive impairment with multiple sclerosis
April 18, 2024 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister Learning how to write a ‘SOAP’ note feels different after an MS diagnosis
April 15, 2024 Columns by Leigh Anne Nelson What does ‘delicate balance’ mean in my life with multiple sclerosis?