November 15, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias Have Scooter, Will Travel “Round, round, get around. I get around.” I was humming that classic 1960s Beach Boys tune this morning (yes, I’m that old) as I thought about a feature story that I saw on one of the TV…
November 11, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias Letter to a Scared Young Woman Dear Lauren Parrott, I know you’re scared. The fears that you shared in your video blog ring true to any of us who have faced the unknowns of a new multiple sclerosis medicine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS9-nSfvgSI I’ve been…
November 8, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias Are You Ready for Bed at Noon? It May Be More Than Fatigue I thought I’d finish writing this last night, but I was too tired. Same thing the night before, and I’m sure this sounds familiar to a lot of you. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society estimates about 80% of…
November 4, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias Would You Fund My MS Treatment? (Part 2) “… in 3 years we went from living decent not rich to poverty and will prob have no utilities soon and maybe homeless.” An MS patient wrote that after I posted Part I of this column a…
November 1, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias Would You Fund My MS Treatment? I’m not asking for your money. (At least not yet.) But I’ve recently seen a lot of news stories about MS patients who are. Multiple sclerosis battler fights for $200,000 treatment Or… Fundraiser…
October 28, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias Getting in the Front Door It’s happened to us all. You arrive at a business and discover there are steps at the entrance. A few years ago my wife and I arrived to check-in to a 4-star hotel near The Wheel in London,…
October 25, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias Brace Yourself for MS One of the MS blogs that I follow is written by Jen, who lives in England. It’s called Tripping Through Treacle. Doesn’t that neatly sum up the lives of many of us in just three alliterative words? From…
October 21, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias MS Drugs – Who’s Using What? Most of us who live with multiple sclerosis also live with a disease modifying therapy (DMT) — a drug that, we hope, will positively modify the course of our disease. One of the earliest of these was Avonex,…
October 18, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias Are the Benefits Worth the Risks of Lemtrada? My neurologist calls Lemtrada “HSCT lite.” She says that not only is the drug able to reduce exacerbations and limit the overall progression of multiple sclerosis, it’s actually reversed some symptoms in some of her patients. I…
October 12, 2016 News by Ed Tobias MS, Cancer Risk and a Trip to the Dentist. What’s the Connection? I made a trip to the dentist today. What does that have to do with multiple sclerosis, you ask? Stay with me. We’ll get there. But first, let me tell you about a weekend conference that my local…
October 10, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias MS Patient’s Pick of the Week’s News: Viruses and MS, New Therapy Device, Tysabri vs. Gilenya and More I’m filling in for Ian Franks this week on news item picks for Multiple Sclerosis News Today while Ian is in Moscow taking the first step in his HSCT (hematopoietic stem cell transplantation) quest. We wish him well.
October 6, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias MS, Osteoporosis and Men – What a Guy Needs to Know Osteoporosis (fragile bones) is only a women’s problem, right? Wrong, especially if you have multiple sclerosis — as I’ve discovered. Osteoporosis causes bones to become weak and brittle. A fall that probably wouldn’t harm a healthy person can…
October 4, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias Pilates: A Good Therapy for MS? Have you tried Pilates to improve your mobility? When my wife and I tried it, a few years ago, I thought that it was sort of like doing yoga stretches using exercise equipment. It felt good and, for…
September 29, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias Is Your Drug Plan the Best One for You? It’s that time of the year. Drug insurance companies in the U.S. are making changes to their formularies — the list of drugs that your insurance company will pay for. Those formularies change from year to year so…
September 26, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias Packed House at FDA Stem Cell Hearing – Public Can Comment Through Tuesday What should be done about stem cell treatments? Are stem cells safe? Do they work? Do stem cell clinics need more regulation, or less? With some studies reporting encouraging results from using stem cells to treat a…
September 22, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias Growing Old with MS I hate to admit it, but I’m getting kind of old. That’s not to say that 68 is really old, but I’m probably older than a lot of you who are reading this. I’m also 36 years old…
September 20, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias Laugh with TV Ads that “Get” Disabilities You don’t see people with disabilities very often in television ads. And when you do, the person with the handicap is usually playing a secondary role or the ad uses the disabled person for an emotional appeal. It’s not…
September 15, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias MS and the Shingles Vaccine: Can They Go Together? A post on another website, asking about whether it was wise for someone with Multiple Sclerosis to receive the shingles vaccine, caught my attention the other day. “Have any of you had the Shingles vaccine? I’m…
September 13, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias 7 Marathons on 7 Continents for MS Runner Tripping, falling and bloody knees. Been there. Done that. (Who with MS hasn’t)? But this wasn’t me. This was Cheryl Hile and it was happening to her as she was running a half marathon in Carlsbad, California. Cheryl…
September 8, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias Have a Say About MS Drugs Anyone with a chronic medical problem knows how expensive drugs can be, and how a drug that you need can be here today … gone tomorrow on the list of drugs that your health plan will pay for.
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