Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer: ★★★★★ What do you do you do when you realise that your baby has grown up! Several years ago someone on this blog recommended launching OCTRIMS, i.e the Online Consortium of Treatment and Research In Multiple Sclerosis. I diligently registered the domain name and approached ECTRIMS for support and they said no they weren’t prepared to support an online offering...
Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer: ★★★★★ What is a black swan event? “The black swan theory or theory of black swan events is a metaphor that describes an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalised after the fact with the benefit of hindsight”. (Source Wikipedia) The case study below is another example of a mounting number of case studies of...
Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer: ★★★★★ I have just completed the Virtual New York City Marathon in London and have clearly survived to tell the tale. Not only did I prove many doubters wrong, I even managed to surprise myself by dipping under the 3:20 mark (3:19:07 when I clocked 42.2km on my Garmin). It was only 3 years ago, due to chronic right hip pain, that I decided my running career was over...
Most of you will have heard by now that NICE has green-lighted siponimod for the treatment of active secondary progressive multiple sclerosis on the NHS. As the UK member of the EXPAND trial steering committee, Novartis who market the drug asked me for a quote, which sums up my opinion about the news. “The NICE approval of siponimod to treat secondary progressive multiple sclerosis with active...
Thank you for being such kind and generous supporters for our Barts-MS COVID-19 antibody study. It is clear that Prof G running the virtual NYC marathon this weekend, or next, depending on the weather, is not going to get us to the finish line. Therefore, we are going to take your advice and launch Barts-MS webinars. The webinar idea was suggested by one of you in the comments when we launched...
If you are a Healthcare Professional (HCP) and are interested in getting up to speed on some advanced topics around the management of MS please take a look at the programme below. We converted our November meeting to be virtual, which has opened some spaces for more people to attend. Please register via the following link: Advanced MS Academy 4-6 November 2020 Online. If you have any queries...
Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer: ★★★ Mouse Doctor studied zoology and as a result, he tends to use animal analogies to describe various phenomena. In the past, he has been known to use his favourite invertebrates to describe some neurologists or even groups of neurologists. Why invertebrates? If anyone comes up with the correct answer I will send you an MRI scanner lego set as a prize. ...
Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer: zero stars or one ★ depending on your disposition I prepared this post not knowing that Prof. Laura Airas has submitted a guest post in response to a request from the Mouse Doctor. Before reading this post please make sure you read her blog post first. It provides an important counterbalance to my contrarian view below. Thank you. More than 20 years ago, when I was...
Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer: ★ The reason why so many people are coming down with COVID-19 and the second-surge is truly surging is the observation that three-quarters of people who are actively shedding SARS-CoV-2, i.e. have positive tests, are asymptomatic at the time of testing (see the latest study below). In summary, having symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 is a very poor marker of whether...
Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer: ★★★ Since my rather neutral “#DIETSPEAK: IS THERE AN IDEAL MS DIET?” post last week, in which I refuse to support any particular MS diet I have had a torrent of social media abuse about my position. Intriguingly, many people out there have bought into the falsehood that saturated fats are bad for you and some commentators even believe that saturated fats cause MS...