News, info and tips for living with multiple sclerosis
National Nurses Week was earlier this month. So, I’m a little late in saying it but thank you, nurses. And thank you to my doctors and their staffs, too. I’m lucky to have had wonderful medical care. I’ve had a couple of top-notch neurologists and some great support staffs. My luck began in August 1980 with Dr. Stanley Cohan. Dr. Cohan, was a neurologist at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington,…Continue Reading
A little over a year ago, in my column on the MS New Today website, I asked if it was safe for someone with MS to handle a gun. I wondered whether there would be safety issues due to problems with grip strength, balance, eyesight, and all the other various difficulties people with MS have to one extent or another. A Facebook post from a woman with MS who’d been…Continue Reading
Biogen, a pharmaceutical company that markets half a dozen MS therapies, is accused of paying doctors to prescribe its medications. A former Biogen employee claimed that the company paid fake consulting and speaking fees to doctors who prescribed Avonex (interferon beta-1a) and Tysabri (natalizumab) in 2009 and 2010. The company now faces a False Claims Act lawsuit in Massachusetts. Biogen also markets Fampyra (fampridine), Plegridy (peginterferon beta-1a), Tecfidera (dimethyl fumarate), and Zinbryta…Continue Reading
For years researchers have believed a link exists between the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and multiple sclerosis. But scientists have had a hard time finding a precise association. Now, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are reporting another possible connection. Researchers at the Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have found a viral protein in EBV-infected cells. They think that the protein may turn on a “switch” that…Continue Reading
Americans who want to treat their MS with a stem cell transplant have a tough road to follow. They’re forced to travel to Russia, Mexico, or somewhere else out of the country and to spend a lot of money to avoid the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s stem cell treatment barrier. But now, a crack may be appearing in that wall. An article in STAT reports on surgeons at Houston’s Memorial…Continue Reading
I’m finished with my second round of Lemtrada (alemtuzumab). Hopefully, this will be the final round of this disease-modifying therapy (DMT) for me, and my final MS treatment of any kind. Though some have required more, most people treated with Lemtrada receive only two rounds. The first round consists of five infusions over five days. The second round, a year later, is three infusions over three days. If it works…Continue Reading
The age at which a person is diagnosed with MS is usually between 20 and 50, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. But it can be diagnosed in people much younger. In fact, of the estimated 400,000people with MS in the United States, 8,000-10,000 are under 18 years old. We older folks have some pretty good support systems to which we can turn to learn about our disease and…Continue Reading
I know, I know. I write about health issues on the internet, so I shouldn’t be discouraging people from looking for answers here. But, searching the internet to match symptoms with a diagnosis can be a real anxiety booster. Emily Sohn makes a solid case for that in a recent article in The Washington Post: “I might have jaw pain, dizziness or a stomach flu that makes me vomit. Before long,…Continue Reading
It’s nice when a negative experience can be turned into one that’s positive. I think that’s the result for a wheelchair-using MS patient following a problem she had at the Mall of America a few days before the Super Bowl. For those not familiar with the Mall of America, it’s a huge shopping mall just outside Minneapolis, Minnesota. Its promotional fact sheet says that the mall covers 5.6 million square feet,…Continue Reading
I’m sitting in Florida and the start of spring training is only about a month from now, so please forgive a baseball analogy: The heavy-hitters of the MS-fighting treatments, the monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), are moving up in the lineup. Five treatments currently are in the mAbs class: Ocrevus, Lemtrada, Rituxan, Tysabri, and Zinbryta. (Rituxan isn’t approved as an MS treatment in the United States. Nonetheless, it’s being prescribed off-label by some neurologists).…Continue Reading