January 4, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS Treatment Decisions Can Cause a ‘Gambler’s Dilemma’ One of the toughest decisions facing someone with MS is whether to begin treatment with a disease-modifying therapy (DMT). Equally tough, I think, is deciding which DMT road to travel — because there are three roads that can be…
December 21, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias Shots, Infusions, or Pills for Your MS? There are more than a dozen disease-modifying therapies available to treat MS. Some are shots, some are infusions, and some are pills. Some are more effective than others. The marketing intelligence company Spherix…
December 18, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias Thinking About Quitting My Bioness L300 The L300, made by Bioness, is a functional electronic stimulator. It’s a cuff that I wear just below my left knee. It stimulates a nerve that lifts my foot and helps keep it from…
December 17, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Cannabis, Switching Interferons, Brain Stimulation by Smartphone, Lipoic Acid MS Patients Report Beneficial Effects of Cannabis with Few Side Effects, Survey Shows This survey agrees with what I’ve found in my limited experience with cannabis (in my case, CBD oil). A…
December 14, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias Pregnancy, DMTs, and MS: A New Study Many years ago a woman I know who has multiple sclerosis (MS) became pregnant. After her child was born her MS became significantly worse. There have been many studies on the impact of pregnancy on someone with MS,…
December 11, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias Consensus Lacking on How MS Medications Are Prescribed in the UK Living in the U.S., where disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) seem to be prescribed as a matter of course to people with multiple sclerosis (MS), I was surprised that it doesn’t seem to be the case…
December 10, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Palliative Care, Lemtrada and Lung Bleeding, Stroke Risk, Rebif Report Use of Hospital Palliative Care by MS Patients in US Rose 30-fold Between 2005-14, Study Finds Palliative care emphasizes prevention and relief of a patient’s suffering. Its goal is to improve the…
December 7, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias These Doctors Have the Right Idea, but … Patients want to be more involved in their healthcare, but it’s not an easy process. I’ve written before about the hurdles we have to overcome to get some healthcare providers to communicate with us,…
December 4, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias How Worried Should We Be About MS Medication Side Effects? Over the past couple of weeks, two warnings have been issued about side effects of multiple sclerosis (MS) medications. First, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned about a slight risk of seriously worsening MS…
December 3, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: MRI Dyes, Lipids and MS, Gilenya Advisory, Possible Stem Cell Trial Artificial Intelligence May Help Reduce Dosage of Gadolinium in MRIs, Researchers Suggest There’s been concern recently about the accumulation of gadolinium in the brains of people who’ve had MRIs. Gadolinium is the dye…
November 30, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias My Lemtrada Journey: Round 2, Plus 7 Months I’m coming up on the second anniversary of my Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) treatment. My first infusion round was the first week of December 2016. Round 2, delayed by four months, was done last April. So,…
November 27, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias FDA Warns of Possible Dangers of Stopping Gilenya If you are being treated with Gilenya, take note. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning that if you stop using Gilenya (fingolimod), there’s a chance your MS could become worse. The FDA issued…
November 20, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias Can’t Afford Health Insurance for Your Family? Who Do You Cut? We all know how expensive health insurance can be. On the social media sites that I browse, I always see stories of people with MS who find themselves in a bind due to the healthcare…
November 19, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: New Thinking About MS Development, Rhythm to Improve Walking, UK Nurse Shortage, B-cells MS-specific Lineage of Oligodendrocytes May Provide New Hints on MS Development Our immune system, according to this study, may not be the only thing playing a role in the development of our…
November 16, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias When You’ve Gotta Go, but There’s No Place to Do It We’ve all been there. That “uh-oh” feeling hits and you know you’ll be in trouble if you can’t find a restroom, fast. You hope the clerk in the store with the “Restrooms for Customers Only”…
November 13, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias I Know I’m in a Handicapped Spot, but I’ll Only Be 2 Minutes I’m writing again about someone with MS who was blocked from a handicapped parking spot by someone who isn’t handicapped. I know, it happens all the time. But this time was a little different.
November 12, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Ballet and MS, Salt and the Immune System, How Tecfidera May Work, Doctor-Patient Communications Exercise Program Based on Ballet Improves Motor Control and Balance in MS Patients, Study Reports It makes sense. Yoga helps multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms, as do Pilates and simple stretching. So why…
November 9, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias MS, a Foot Brace, and a Car Crash A tragic car crash involving a man with MS is a reminder that we all should be just a little bit more careful than the average driver when we get behind the wheel. The accident…
November 6, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias MS Medications in Mexico: Insurer Encourages Patients to Go South MS medications are expensive in the United States. We all know that. We also know that some of those expensive meds are a lot less expensive in places like Canada and Mexico. Now comes a…
November 5, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Ocrevus in the UK, Environmental Triggers, PPMS Research NICE Postpones Final Opinion on Adding Ocrevus to Public Health System for PPMS Patients in UK This last-minute reprieve from the agency that dictates which medications may be prescribed for patients of…
May 2, 2024 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister There’s comfort in putting a name to a multiple sclerosis symptom
April 29, 2024 Columns by Leigh Anne Nelson My biggest worry post-diagnosis was whether MS could be inherited