November 2, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias MS and the Flu Shot: What If You Don’t Want One? I’ve written several times about MS and the flu. I’ve always encouraged people to get an annual flu shot, but I know some people, for whatever reasons, don’t get one. I know I’ll never convince some of…
October 30, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias Thinking About Selma Blair and Her MS By now you may have heard that actress Selma Blair has revealed that she has multiple sclerosis (MS). That took a lot of guts. Those of us who share her diagnosis might learn a few things from…
October 29, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Cannabis Pill, Stem Cells in Outer Space, Gut Bacteria and T-cells, Herpes and MS Stanford Researchers Open Medical Cannabis Company with Oral Therapy for MS Pain, Spasticity as Initial Goal Let’s be clear up front. There’s no indication that you’ll be able to buy a cannabis pill from this company…
October 26, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias FTC Challenges Amniotic Stem Cell Treatment Clinics’ Claims “Deceptive” and “false” are two words used by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to describe marketing claims by two stem cell treatment clinics in California. According to an FTC complaint, the clinics had been advertising that they were…
October 23, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias New Rules May Bring Updated Rights to Flyers with Disabilities Flying isn’t what it used to be, as everyone who’s taken a flight in the past 15 years or so knows. Flyers with disabilities can have a particularly challenging time dealing with airports, airlines, and aircraft. Airports are…
October 19, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias I’m Too Tired to Write Tonight Please forgive me, but I’m too tired to write tonight. My wife had surgery last week, so I’ve been doing a couple of things that I haven’t done much in the 42 years since our wedding: shopping and…
October 12, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias MS Patients Capture the Ear of a Pharma Company People with multiple sclerosis (MS) rarely get the opportunity to talk to the people who design their medications. But a new collaboration is providing that opportunity to a few of us. The Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple…
October 9, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias Buddy, Can You Give Me a Lift to the Doctor? Is getting from home to a healthcare appointment a pain in the butt for you? Do you have to search for someone to take you? Do you haul yourself into your car and hope that you can find…
October 8, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: aHSCT and Fatigue, What’s Hot at ECTRIMS?, Genes that May Impact MS Lower Fatigue Reported by MS Patients After aHSCT in Canadian Study Fatigue affects 90 percent of people with MS. It certainly impacts my life. This study, though very small, reports a 36 percent reduction in the…
October 5, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias Could Government Probe Threaten Pharma Patient Assistance Programs? Many of us have received help to pay for our MS medications. Now there’s a chance that assistance could be threatened. A recent article in the The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. government prosecutors are looking into…
October 2, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias MS Patient Argues Over Where She Had Parked — And Won! We all know how difficult it can be to find an accessible parking spot — one that allows us to park and get from our car to where we’re going with a minimum number of steps. There aren’t…
October 1, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: MRI Signal, Cost-effective DMTs, Age Benefits, Generic Ampyra Often-overlooked MRI Signal May Aid in Early Diagnosis of MS, Other Brain Conditions, Study Suggests A part of an MRI scan that radiologists call a “background signal” is what’s being looked at. It’s usually ignored because…
September 28, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias Serious DMTs Need Serious Care Coordination Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) is a serious disease-modifying therapy. It has the potential to deliver a major blow to a patient’s MS, but it also carries the possibility of severe side effects. The protocol for Ocrevus requires different doses…
September 25, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias Wearables Focus on Tracking Your Health I never thought I’d want a wearable internet device until I got an Apple Watch for my birthday. One of its neat apps tracks the laps that I swim, the steps that I (try to) take, and my…
September 24, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Treating MS with a Statin, Ocrevus, Remyelination Phase 3 Trial in the UK Soon to Test Statin, Simvastatin, in Slowing SPMS Progression I’ve taken a statin medication for years to keep my cholesterol in check. Now, a study is getting underway to see if one…
September 21, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias Pharma Exec Calls a 400 Percent Price Hike ‘Moral.’ Is it? Is quadrupling the price of a medication “moral”? One pharmaceutical CEO not only thinks so, but he also says it’s a “moral requirement.” The medication is liquid nitrofurantoin, an antibiotic mixture that’s primarily used to treat bladder and…
September 18, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias A Generic for Ampyra Could Be Released Soon Editor’s note: Shortly after this column was published, Mylan pharmaceuticals announced it will begin distributing Dalfampridine Extended-Release Tablets, 10 mg, the authorized generic version of Acorda’s Ampyra. There’s been no word, yet, on what it will cost or…
September 11, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias Things to Know About Flu Shots if You Have MS The start of flu season here in the United States is just a few weeks away. It’s time for my wife and me to get our flu shots, just as we have for as long as I can…
September 10, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: B- and T-cells, Tysabri, Sexual Silence How B-cells Work to Promote T-cell Attacks on Myelin That Lead to MS Detailed in Study I keep a close eye on reports about B-cells and T-cells because they’re the targets of Lemtrada, which is my…
September 4, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias Ocrevus Predicted to Be a Billion-dollar Blockbuster Ocrevus, a disease-modifying MS treatment that’s only been on the market a little less than 18 months, appears poised to be a cash cow for its maker, Genentech. The research firm Spherix Global Insights, which analyzes…
April 22, 2024 Columns by Desiree Lama Learning to manage cognitive impairment with multiple sclerosis
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