October 18, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Pushing to Put a Symbol for Invisible Disabilities on Driver’s Licenses 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…
October 14, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Mavenclad and Ocrevus Use Rising in EU, Ampyra Patent Appeal Denied, Exercise and MS Pilot Study 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…
October 11, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias It’s Not All in Your Head 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.
October 7, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Rituximab vs. Ocrevus 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…
October 4, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias My Fortuitous Footwear Discovery: I Found the Right MS Shoes 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…
September 27, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Taking Vitamin D for Your MS? Use It Wisely 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…
September 23, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Ozanimod, Achtar Gel, Onset Age Progression Link, Glial Cells Could Differentiate MS Types 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…
September 20, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Neuros Say that Flu Shots and Other Vaccines Are OK for Those with MS 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…
September 16, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Stem Cell Transplants, Remyelination Agent, Tecfidera Study, Plasma Exchange and Tysabri-linked PML 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…
September 13, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Stem Cell Program That Treated Selma Blair Closes Its Doors 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…
September 9, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Cancer Medication Slows MS, Vitamin D and Myelin, Targeting ‘Helper’ T-cells, Vaccination Guidelines 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…
September 6, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Social Cognition: Does It Impact MS Symptoms? 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…
August 30, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Another Study Shows That Costs of Disease-modifying Therapies Are Zooming 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…
August 27, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias I Dreamed That I Was Walking 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…
August 26, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Rituximab Helps Reverse Boy’s MS, Top Secondary DMTs in Europe, Tricking Remyelination, Early MS Treatment Strategies 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,…
August 23, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Are Your MS Disease-modifying Treatments Old School or New School? 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…
August 19, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Dark Rimmed Lesions, Sativex in the UK, NHS Care Toolkit for Neurological Diseases, Wahls Diet 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…
August 16, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS Progression’s Speed Tagged to ‘Smoldering’ Brain Inflammation 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…
August 13, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Keeping a Positive Attitude with Advocacy: Why I Write ‘The MS Wire’ 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…
August 12, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Solution for Lemtrada Complications, CBD Infusions, Vaccines and MS, Music and Exercise 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…
April 29, 2024 Columns by Leigh Anne Nelson My biggest worry post-diagnosis was whether MS could be inherited
April 25, 2024 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister Finding safety while living with the constant threat of MS progression