MS Treatments Episodes

I've received some great questions from some of my listeners. And this week, Cherie Binns, an Internationally Certified MS Nurse and the co-chair of the iConquerMS Research committee, is joining me to answer listener questions. She's even going to share some of her tips for living well with MS! We'll also explain why the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to sports arenas, but not to your doctor's office. We'll tell you about an outdoor adventure organization for young adults with cancer t...

Patient-centered research is based on an understanding that patients themselves have unique perspectives that can help to mold, change, and improve the work of finding answers to clinical questions. My guest on the podcast is Laura Kolaczkowski, the co-Principal Investigator for iConquerMS. We're talking about the impact this people-powered research network is having on MS research, and how the first ever patient-driven MS drug development project came about. We'll also help you wade through th...

Caregiving carries a lot of challenges. And for some people, it can feel overwhelming. So, what are the things that make being a caregiver for someone living with a chronic illness like MS so challenging? We're kicking off National Family Caregivers Month with my guest, Dr. Amy Sullivan, Director of Behavioral Medicine, Research and Training at the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis at the Cleveland Clinic, and we're talking about how to best navigate some of the challenges that go along with...

Greetings from Day 1 at ECTRIMS in Berlin! Today, we're talking about pharmaceutical company Novartis seeking approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency for siponimod, a once-daily oral medication that significantly reduces disability progression for people living with secondary progressive MS. This is important news, as 80% of the people living with relapsing remitting MS are eventually diagnosed with secondary progressive MS. And currently, there is no...

The RealTalk MS podcast is celebrating its one-year anniversary this week! And to kick off our 2nd year, I'm launching the RealTalk MS app! You can download the iOS version of the app from the Apple App Store, and you can download the Android version from the Google Play Store. The app is free, and it's the very best (and easiest!) way for you to connect to the podcast. And the RealTalk MS app will allow me to share free bonus content with you. So in the weeks and months ahead, I'll be sharing v...

I spent this past weekend attending the iConquer MS Leadership Summit in Boston. iConquer MS is a people-powered research network created by the Accelerated Cure Project for MS. Instead of just asking people with MS to provide data, iConquer MS is driven by people living with MS, and it represents a new paradigm of building collaborative partnerships to solve big healthcare questions. This past spring, I had an in-depth conversation with Dr. Robert McBurney, CEO of the Accelerated Cure Project ...

MS Research Australia has published a report titled, Health Economic Impact of Multiple Sclerosis in Australia 2017. The report provides a detailed snapshot of the economics behind MS, looking at employment, quality of life issues, and even calculating the cost per person living with MS in Australia. The report concludes with some powerful recommendations for future steps. My guest is Dr. Lisa Melton, Head of Research at MS Research Australia, and we're talking about what this report is telling...

Part of the unpredictability of multiple sclerosis is that it can attack in so many different ways. MS can impact your physical well-being, your emotional well-being, your functional abilities and your quality of life. And if your response to MS is to be seen by a single healthcare professional, some of those many aspects of MS can end up being overlooked and, sometimes, even unrecognized. And so they go untreated. That's why the best approach to treating MS is a team approach. My guest is Dr. ...

We take advantage of digital tools every day to make our lives easier. But when it comes to managing our health, there's still a long way to go. That's why the MS Society in the UK commissioned a report titled "Improving Care for People with MS: The Potential of Data & Technology". That report has just been published, and we're discussing some of the observations and recommendations contained in this remarkable report with my special guest, Michelle Mitchell, CEO of the MS Society in the UK. We...

Using cannabis to treat MS symptoms has become a hot topic. And thanks to social media, a lot of opinions about cannabis and MS are posted as if they're facts...and that's not always the case. So, we're talking about cannabis and MS in this episode of RealTalk MS. We'll try to demystify it a bit and we'll give you an idea of what some of the research is telling us. We'll talk about which MS symptoms cannabis might be good for...and which ones it might not be good for. We're also talking about t...