People say to write what you know and Ed Tobias knows about MS. He’s lived with the illness since 1980, when he was 32 years old. Ed’s a retired, award-winning broadcast journalist and his column combines his four decades of MS experiences with news and comments about the latest in the MS community. In addition to writing his column, Ed is one of the patient moderators on the MS News Today Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram sites. He’s also the author of “The Multiple Sclerosis Toolbox: Hints and Tips for Living with M.S.” Ed and his wife split their time between the Washington, D.C. suburbs and Florida’s Gulf Coast, trying to follow the sun.
This is my 823rd column for Multiple Sclerosis News Today. It is also my last. Over the past seven and a half years, I’ve written about multiple sclerosis (MS) fatigue and frustration, about treatments…
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This is not the week to tell me how good I look … even if I look and feel good. The week of Oct. 13 is Invisible Disabilities Week. As we all know, multiple sclerosis (MS) can be…
Mavenclad, Ocrevus Use Rising in EU as Injectables and Tysabri Decline, Spherix Reports I’m not surprised at reports that the use of Mavenclad (cladribine) and Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) is increasing in Europe, or that the…
Several days ago, the headline “It’s All in Your Head” jumped out at me. The author of the Journal of the American Medical Association article, Matthew Burke, is a neurologist at Harvard Medical School who specializes in neuropsychiatry.
In this week’s column, I’ve changed the format a little to focus on one subject: rituximab. This is an approved cancer medication that some U.S. neurologists use as an off-label treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS). Rituximab…
The other night, I had an MS dream. In it, I was able to lift my left leg as well as I can my right one, regardless of my weak hip flexor. I don’t usually know what’s triggered a…
Many people with multiple sclerosis (MS) use vitamin D supplements. I’ve been popping a 2,000 IU tablet of vitamin D3 each morning for many years. And with good reason. Studies show that having an adequate blood level of…
In this column, I take a look at more exciting research from the ECTRIMS2019 conference this month. #ECTRIMS2019 – Ozanimod’s ‘Key Advantages’ May Lead to New First-line MS Therapy: Interview with Neurologist Jeffrey Cohen This…
This is the time of year when my wife and I start thinking about getting our flu shots. We’ve already had the pneumonia and the older shingles vaccine and hope to soon update with the new shingles vaccine, Shingrix…
It’s been a big week for interesting stories, as the annual meeting of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) has just concluded. The conference offered much to engage healthcare professionals and…
Richard Burt, MD, the chief of Northwestern Medicine’s immunotherapy for autoimmune diseases division, is taking a sabbatical, and the stem cell program he has headed for many years, which treated a number of people with…
Ofatumumab Better at Easing Relapse Rates and Slowing MS Progression Than Aubagio, Phase 3 Data Show Ofatumumab isn’t approved as a multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment. It’s a cancer medication that’s marketed as Arzerra. But…
Feeling tired, depressed, or anxious? Maybe it has to do with your social cognition. Social cognition involves empathy and recognizing the emotions that are revealed by someone’s facial expression. That expression may show fear or disgust. Or…
It probably comes as no surprise to you that the costs of some of the most popular MS medications have been soaring. A new study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh reports that their list prices have more…
When asleep, many people dream they can fly. Some dream about being naked in public, failing an exam, or (gasp!) about sex. Last night, I dreamed that I was walking. I have that walking dream a couple of…
Rituximab Leads to ‘Dramatic’ Recovery in Boy with Aggressive RRMS, Case Study Reports I dislike using adjectives such as “dramatic” when describing treatment results. I think they frequently blow things out of proportion. However,…
Choosing which MS medication to use is one of the most difficult decisions for someone with MS and their neurologist. After 39 years with MS, and with four disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) on my medical chart, I’m definitely on the…
Dark Rimmed Brain Lesions May Be Signal of Aggressive Disease, NIH Study Says Researchers in this study found that specific brain lesions, notable for their dark rims, may indicate that a patient’s multiple sclerosis…
The presence of chronic active lesions in the brain may provide a clue as to how quickly multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms will progress. Researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) call these lesions “smoldering inflammation.” Their…
This month marks the third anniversary of my column, “The MS Wire.” After writing two columns a week for most of those 156 weeks, it isn’t always easy to come up with fresh ideas. Tonight was one of…
Autoimmune Complications Associated with Lemtrada Solved Using Anti-CD20 Therapies, Case Studies Suggest One of the concerns about the disease-modifying therapy (DMT) Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) is that it may raise the patient’s risk of developing a…
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