The MS Wire

News, info and tips for living with multiple sclerosis

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Who’s in Charge, You or Your Neurologist?

To be in charge be a boss

Is treating multiple sclerosis only about being treated with a medication? At least one neurologist thinks so, and probably more. The other day, posting in an MS Facebook group, a woman named Debbie wrote about her first visit with a new neurologist: “He asked if I was on a DMD [disease-modifying therapy] and I told him not anymore. I’ve had bad experiences. He told me that he wouldn’t treat me…Continue Reading

Saving With an ABLE Account for Disabled Folks

An ABLE savings account for disabled

Have you ever heard of an ABLE savings account? I hadn’t until a couple weeks ago. The acronym stands for the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act, a law passed by the U.S. Congress in 2014. It created special savings accounts that allow disabled Americans, including people with multiple sclerosis, to save money without jeopardizing their public benefits such as Medicare, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and food stamps. People in…Continue Reading

Can Cannabis Products Help MS symptoms?

Cannabis

A recent question on the MS News Today Facebook page generated some buzz about getting a buzz on to treat your multiple sclerosis (MS). The question was, “What helps you the most to manage your daily life with MS?” Many people with MS said the thing that helped them most was using cannabis. A survey in 2020 reported that nearly half of people with MS in the U.S. said they…Continue Reading

Attention Bioness L300 Users

A reader of my blog who lives in Belgium needs a replacement shoe sensor for his Bioness L300 functional electrical stimulator. The problem is, when Bioness upgraded the L300 to the L300 Go several years ago it stopped supporting the original FES. Apparently the sensor, which isn’t required for the L300 Go but is essential for the L300, is no longer available. Is there a sensor, lying unused, in somebody’s…Continue Reading

Some MS Research is Out of this World

MS research on the ISS

As you read this, a group of scientists is doing MS research high above the earth. Their laboratory is in orbit about 250 miles up, aboard the International Space Station. Working with researchers at the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF), astronauts have been helping with a study about how astrocytes — cells that hold other cells together in the central nervous system — can be manipulated to halt or…Continue Reading

Briumvi, a New MS Treatment, Could Improve Life Quality

briumvi vial

The multiple sclerosis treatment arsenal has gained a new weapon. Shortly after Christmas, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Briumvi (ublituximab), joining a small group of disease-modifying therapies that aim to halt MS progression by knocking out certain B-cells in the immune system. Why does Briumvi target B-cells? B-cells remember past threats to the immune system so that invaders, like viruses, can be stopped quickly. But some B-cells, carrying…Continue Reading

Some Things to Know About MS Brain Shrinkage

brain shrinkage

I was amazed when I read a comment from one of my “MS Wire” readers recently about brain shrinkage. “I’ve had MS since 2011. I had no idea about brain shrinkage,” she wrote. But I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. A survey taken in 2018 by the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America reported that, of the 1,337 people affected by MS who responded, only 20% considered themselves to be…Continue Reading

Does it Matter What Your MS is Called?

Does it matter what your MS is called?

What’s in a name? Does it really matter if your MS is called relapsing or progressive, or secondary rather than primary? I’ve never thought so, and it seems as if the International Advisory Committee on Clinical Trials in MS agrees with me. In recommendations published in The Lancet Neurology, the panel calls for new methods to classify MS — methods that reflect the disease’s underlying biology, rather than differences in…Continue Reading