August 24, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Kesimpta, Ocrevus and Chickenpox, Generic Tecfidera, UTIs FDA Approves Kesimpta, B-cell Targeting Therapy for Relapsing MS The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of Kesimpta (ofatumumab) this month is a pretty big deal. Kesimpta is a once-a-month injectable disease-modifying therapy. There’s nothing else like it,…
August 21, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias I Give the L300 Go a Mixed Review I’ve been walking with the Bioness L300 Go for about eight months, so it’s time to update everyone on how things are going. The L300 Go is a functional electrical stimulator (FES) that helps counter my foot drop.
August 17, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Ofatumumab, Aubagio, Oral DMTs, PoNS Device Ofatumumab Seen as Superior to Aubagio at Lowering Relapse Rates in Phase 3 Trials Ofatumumab is a cancer medication that’s awaiting approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency…
August 14, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias Could a Tongue Stimulator Help to Improve Your Walking? The idea doesn’t seem very appealing to me, but a company is seeking approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a product that might help people with MS walk better by mildly stimulating the tongue. The…
August 10, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Epstein-Barr and Smoking, Infections, Oral DMT Trial, Exercise and the Brain Smoking and Epstein-Barr Virus Combine to Raise MS Risk, Study Says A number of studies over several years have demonstrated a likely link between the Epstein-Barr virus and MS. Of course, there’s no question…
August 7, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias ‘Crip Camp’: Disability Looking Me Right in the Eye In early July, I wrote a column about Disability Pride Month. It’s not for me, I said. I questioned the word “pride” and asked whether we need a special month to advocate for a more inclusive world. Several…
August 3, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Symptom Progression, Lower Urinary Symptoms, Tysabri, IL-17A Protein Study Order Seen in Motor Skills Affected by MS, With Walking Taking First Hit Read this headline carefully. It reports that walking takes the “first hit,” but that doesn’t mean it’s the first MS symptom…
July 31, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias Lemtrada and COVID-19: To Treat or Not to Treat? Like others these days, I’m worried about COVID-19. In fact, I’m probably more worried than some. I’m old, I have MS, and I’ve been treated with the disease-modifying therapy Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) — a trifecta of potential trouble.
July 27, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Ketamine, Arbaclofen ER, Bafiertam, UK Health Services Ketamine May Help Treat MS-related Fatigue, Small Pilot Trial Suggests I’m tired — I mean really bushed. Today, despite my daily dose of modafinil, I have to sit and think, “What was I starting…
July 24, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias My Cocker Spaniel, Joey, Is My MS Pal Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night thinking strange thoughts about your MS and your dog? I did the other night. I’ve written about Joey, my cocker spaniel, a couple of times. For example, there…
July 20, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: COVID-19 Website, Testing MS Progression, RIS, Alternative Treatments MSAA Opens ‘COVID-19 and MS Pathfinder’ Online Informative Platform Information about MS and COVID-19 is dynamic and regularly changing. This has been particularly true about how to handle disease-modifying therapies (DMTs). The website mentioned…
July 17, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias Can We Be Taught How to Avoid an MS Fall? I’d just gotten out of bed the other morning and was headed to the bathroom using just one cane when I tried to step over a dog toy on the floor. I went down slowly onto the carpet, so…
July 13, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Epstein-Barr Link, Cannabis Study, Relapses and Disability B-Cells Infected by Epstein-Barr Virus Linked to MS Relapse Risk in Study I usually steer clear of mouse studies. Mice lie and monkeys exaggerate, some researchers say. But this is another piece to add…
July 10, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias It’s Disability Pride Month — But Not for Me July is Disability Pride Month. Now, don’t slam me right away for writing this, but I don’t think we need a month highlighting disability pride — just like I don’t think we need a month in October spotlighting that…
July 6, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Wearable Sensors, COVID-19, Tecfidera PROTXX, University of Alberta Collaborate to Develop Remote Healthcare Platform for MS Patients As more and more neurologists turn to telemedicine for routine patient visits, I expect we’ll see more of the type of…
June 29, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Mayzent, Hookworm Therapy, Walking and Falling, ADS-5102 NICE Does Not Favor Adding Mayzent to NHS England for Active SPMS Currently, the only disease-modifying therapy approved for use in the National Health Service is Betaferon (interferon beta-1b). That’s a 20-year-old treatment considered…
June 26, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias Updating the Shifting MS-COVID-19 Treatment Equation It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written about the impact that COVID-19 is having on people with MS. Since then, the picture has changed — not a lot, but enough for the MS International Federation to…
June 22, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Gilenya and COVID-19, Depression, Switching from Tysabri Gilenya May Help Control Severe Respiratory Disease in COVID-19 This story caught my eye, but not because of the possibility that Gilenya may help someone recover from COVID-19. It caught my eye because this…
June 19, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias My Review of 2 New MS Apps: icompanion and BelongMS A couple new mobile apps for people with MS have caught my attention. Icompanion is among the best symptom and treatment trackers I’ve found. BelongMS combines patient forums with the ability to ask questions of healthcare specialists.
June 15, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Myelin, Mavenclad, Online Stress Relief, Rehab Aids Note: A story mentioned in this column, “Prime Signs Agreement With EMD Serono to Improve Mavenclad’s Cost-benefit Value,” was updated on June 15, 2020, to clarify…
April 29, 2024 Columns by Leigh Anne Nelson My biggest worry post-diagnosis was whether MS could be inherited
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