News, info and tips for living with multiple sclerosis

FDA OKs Monthly Multiple Sclerosis Drug: Zinbryta

There’s now a once-a-month injection for treating relapsing multiple sclerosis. The drug is called Zinbryta (daclizumab) and it was just approved by the Food and Drug Administration.  Zinbryta is self-administered subcutaneously, which means using needles that are shorter than the ones that are used for drugs, such as Avonex, which are administered into the muscle. Clinical data, reported by Zinbryta’s manufacturer, Biogen, shows Zinbryta significantly reduced relapses and brain lesions…Continue Reading

I Won’t Stop Running on World Multiple Sclerosis Day

I’ve been remiss in not noting World Multiple Sclerosis Day today until the day is almost over.  But I hope that sharing this music video, by the band A Great Big World, will encourage you to take the name of the song to heart and that you Won’t Stop Running.     Band member Chad King was diagnosed with MS in 2007.   His first symptoms were vertigo and a weakness…Continue Reading

Good Test Results for Primary-Progressive MS Drug Ocrelizumab

My neurologist tells me “the buzz is good” about ocrelizumab. The investing web site Motley Fool calls it “the revolutionary Multiple Sclerosis drug you’ve never heard of.” Ocrelizumab, which Genentech hopes to market under the name Ocrevus, is special because it’s designed to treat primary-progressive, as well as relapsing-remitting, MS. How does it work? I’m not a scientist, but after reading a lot of scientific writing here’s my best attempt to…Continue Reading

Are wearable robotics in the future for MS gimps?

You have MS but you have some mobility.  You need help to walk because your legs are weak or stiff, and your balance is off, but canes don’t give enough help and braces are too cumbersome or limiting.  How great would it be to have something that’s relatively lightweight that you could wear and would help your legs move? That’s what a group of roboticists, mechanical and biomechanical engineers, software…Continue Reading

Trip to Ground Zero

I grew up in Lower Manhattan. Though I’ve lived in Maryland since 1973, once a New Yorker…always a New Yorker.  So, I’ve always felt the closeness of a New Yorker to the events of September 11, 2001.  Earlier this month I finally had the opportunity to visit the 9/11 Memorial and Museum to pay my respects to those who died there and also to see the magnificent 1 World Trade…Continue Reading

Belly to Brain…Maybe There’s an Inflammation Connection

“You are what you eat,” some say, and that may be even truer when it comes to your MS. Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston report that bacteria living in your stomach may influence cells that help control inflammation and degeneration in your brain. “For the first time, we’ve been able to identify that food has some sort of remote control over central nervous system inflammation,” says Francisco…Continue Reading

New Cancer Risk May be Linked to Mitoxantrone

Patients who use mitoxantrone appear to be at increased risk of colon cancer, according to a new study, and as well as acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Mitoxantrone is used to treat aggressive relapsing-remitting, and also progressive, MS when the patient doesn’t respond to other drugs.  It suppresses the immune system and was first developed as a treatment for some cancers.  Its use is limited because past studies have shown that…Continue Reading

This Bike Rides Like I Walk

Want to know how it feels to live with MS?  Take a ride on this bike. Those of us who have MS know that our disease has lots of symptoms.  There are the legs that feel like they have 20 pound weights on them…balance that can have you lunging for the grab bar in the shower..feet that trip on the smallest crack.  Some of us have some of these symptoms,…Continue Reading

Study to Monitor MS Symptoms in Real Time

Would it be useful to monitor your Multiple Sclerosis symptoms during the course of your day so that you and your doctor could be alerted that an exacerbation might be just around the corner? A research project based in Europe is studying whether a wearable device and a smart phone could be used to monitor MS patients and those with two other relapsing/remitting central nervous system diseases; epilepsy and depressive…Continue Reading