February 25, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Early DMT Use, Aubagio vs. Tecfidera, Lipoic Acid Study, MS Forums Early Use of High-efficacy DMTs of Long-term Benefit to MS Patients, Real-world Study Reports The question of whether to start treating multiple sclerosis (MS) with an older, less effective disease-modifying therapy (DMT) and then move to…
February 22, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias My Lemtrada Journey and a 90-minute School Bus Ride My wife and I joined our son and his family on a tour of a Southwest Florida nature preserve today. It required riding on an old school bus-swamp buggy for a little over an hour and a half.
February 19, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias I’m Living With MS, I’m Not ‘Battling’ It A former colleague recently asked me, “How are you doing in your battle with MS?” It was a legitimate question, not one of those throwaway lines of mock concern that we often hear. We were discussing the death…
February 18, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Misdiagnosing MS, Gilenya Relapse Study, Ocrevus in England, Estimate of Americans with MS Doubles Almost 1 in 5 People Wrongly Diagnosed with MS at Two Specialized Centers in US, Study Finds We know that MS is a difficult disease to diagnose, but is it really possible that 20 percent of…
February 15, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias 4 Things I’ve Learned About Paying for MS Medications Are you having trouble paying for MS medications? If so, you’re not alone. People change or lose their insurance, and plans change the medications they cover from year to year. Your neurologist may change your medication without realizing…
February 11, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Marijuana and MS, MS Solutions Contest, MS Diagnosis Delays, Medicare DMT Costs Medical Marijuana ‘Can Help Everyone,’ Says Director at Maryland Cannabis Facility Keeping in mind that the person quoted in this article, Mr. Castleman, is growing medical marijuana to make money, I wouldn’t expect him to say anything else.
February 8, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias DMT Approvals for Medicare Users Decline While Costs Rise, Study Shows This probably won’t come as a surprise to you if you’re on Medicare: It’s getting harder to obtain approval for many of the disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) prescribed for people with multiple sclerosis (MS). I see complaints about this…
February 5, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Have You Joined Our MS Forums Yet? It’s been about nine months since we created the MS Forums section on the Multiple Sclerosis News Today website. It’s a place designed to host conversations about our MS experiences and to find some answers from reliable sources…
February 4, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: MS Pain Research, Myelin Studies, Antibody Trial MS Patients Sought to Test Alternative Chronic Pain Treatment Methods Do you have serious pain issues along with your MS? If so, you might be interested in this study that’s looking for participants. By the way,…
February 1, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Why Aren’t You Using an MS Medication? I see a lot of answers to the question about why people stop, or refuse to start, an MS medication. “Thinking of stopping the…meds. Sick of the shots and how they hurt to take them”…
January 29, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias New Study Supports Hitting MS Fast and Hard The question of how quickly to start a disease-modifying therapy (DMT) after a multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis is one that I frequently see when I browse online. It goes hand in hand with questions about which DMT is…
January 28, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Herbicide and MS, ‘Incredible’ Foot Stimulators, Tysabri and Brain Shrinkage Herbicide Called Linuron Seen to Trigger Inflammatory Signals Linked to MS in Study This is only a mouse study, but this herbicide has been banned in Europe because of health concerns. Its…
January 25, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: HSCT vs. DMTs, Mindfulness for MS, Ocrevus and T-cells, Pregnancy Guidelines Blood Stem Cell Transplant Better than DMTs at Reducing Risk of Disease Progression in RRMS Here’s more evidence that hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) works better than some disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) at…
January 22, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Selma Blair Is Posting About Her MS Again — Is This Good or Bad? Last October actress Selma Blair revealed that she’d been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). She did it by posting the announcement on her Instagram account. Back then she wrote, “I have MS and I am ok.” She described…
January 18, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Mindfulness: Putting Mind Over MS Can you use your mind to attack your MS, just as you use things such as medications and physical therapy? Some people who believe in the benefits of mindfulness think you can, at least to some extent. Mindfulness is…
January 15, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias US Hospitals Are Now Required to List Service Prices. But Does That Help? Since the first of this year, hospitals in the U.S. have been under new government orders. They must make their “list price” for specific services — things like an MRI or an infusion — available…
January 14, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Stimulator for Spasticity, Tysabri Dosing Trial, Mobility Devices Contest, Stem Cell Phase 2 Trial WeHealth, PathMaker Collaborating to Develop MyoRegulator as Noninvasive Treatment for Spasticity I’m one of the many people with multiple sclerosis (MS) for whom spasticity is a significant problem. This is a nonmedicinal…
January 11, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias A Novel Idea for MS Living: An Accessible Add-on for a House When my wife and I were remodeling our two-story home many years ago, we made a few accessibility changes with my MS in mind. For example, we enlarged a first-floor half-bath to include a roll-in shower. We also installed…
January 8, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias US Airlines Are Now Tracking Wheelchairs They Break or Lose It’s happened to me, and if you fly with a scooter or a wheelchair, I bet it’s happened to you, too: a busted or missing set of wheels on arrival. On a flight…
January 7, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Stem Cell Transplant, Cooling Therapy and Exercise, FDA OK for Generic Tecfidera, Top Stories of 2018 Stem Cell Transplant Lessens Disability and Relapses in RRMS Patients, Phase 2 Trial Shows Here’s another study indicating that a stem cell transplant should be a treatment choice available to all MS…
April 15, 2024 Columns by Leigh Anne Nelson What does ‘delicate balance’ mean in my life with multiple sclerosis?