In a few days, the 30th annual meeting of the European Charcot Foundation will kick-off on the shores of Lake Maggiore in Italy. This year the theme is ‘Progressive MS from Pathology to Treatment’ – which is laudable as there has been less focus on this form of the disease compared to relapse-remitting MS. What is not so laudable is how few women will be speaking at the three-day conference...
MS, Virginia Woolf and the Raverats
He was slowly dying from MS. His renewed friendship with the writer Virginia Woolf sustained him in the final years. More than one hundred years ago, the French artist Jacques Raverat and his wife Gwen, née Darwin, a wood engraver and granddaughter of the evolutionist, moved to southern France in hopes of slowing the progression of his multiple sclerosis. While living in Vence, away from the...
MS = Menopause Silence
For too long, the impact of menopause on women with MS has been ignored and understudied. Isn’t it time to change ‘the change’? Recently I was asked by Dr Ruth Dobson – as part of her lecture on MS and menopause at the MS Trust’s Annual Conference – to give a patient’s view on the subject. So I did. I wrote about how at 49 – six years post MS diagnosis – I noticed some...
Loneliness and MS: Could e-health be a Solution?
By Rachel Horne For people with multiple sclerosis, we know this much is true. Dealing with the physical side of the disease is just one part of the struggle. Feeling alone is another. Not only are people with MS significantly more prone to loneliness compared to the general population, but strong evidence shows it also puts our brain health and overall health at risk. It can lead to depression...
ProfG is back!
Well, that headline should give us a peak on our dashboard 😉 But seriously, TheMSBlog is pleased to welcome ProfG back for a visit, persuaded by our PPI member and MS editor-at-large, Rachel Horne, to discuss the hot topic of the day, or dare I say the past few decades, that is EBV and MS. Here is what they said: “EBV/MS – We now know EBV is a major cause of MS. So what’s next? A...
A Tale of Two COVIDs – Delta and Omicron: What happens when you’re vulnerable & vaccinated – but still get the virus?
PART 1 – Rachel Horne tells her story It started in mid-November with a headache – a continual pain clamping down on my skull. Then came the tiredness. Reluctantly, I opened a lateral flow test – swabbed, squeezed and watched as two red lines quickly appeared on the test pad. Positive. I had COVID: the virus which for the past twenty months I’d done everything to dodge. I’d followed all the...
MS-Selfie
Educating/Empowering MS patients Every five minutes someone, somewhere in the world, is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis – joining the 2.8 million people already living with it. What they soon discover is MS is a fiendishly complex disease. No two people have the same disease course or symptoms – nor do they respond to drug treatments in a similar way. They also find – in the...
Severed
Cast your mind back… Can you remember the very first time when your body began acting independently? Was it an unexpected stumble, a bout of double vision that mysteriously came and went or a spell of numbness? And your reaction? Confusion, disbelief or even fear? Pre-illness, we take our bodies for granted. As healthy adults we move through the day, confident our body will simply “follow” our...
Life after Lockdown with MS
Is it time to hit the pubs, give hugs and bin masks? Five experts answer. After a year of lockdown, it looks like ‘normality’ is returning thanks to the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. For an overwhelming percentage of the population, this is hugely reassuring. And for those people with multiple sclerosis (MS) – doubly so. We know our disease makes us more susceptible to infections...
MS charities – beyond the pale
UK MS charities say they represent all people with the disease. But how can they – with so little ethnic and racial diversity at the top? Take a look: “Representation is important,” says Dr Sharmilee Gnanapavan, consultant neurologist at Barts Health NHS Trust. “When people don’t see this, they’ll likely bypass it.” And that representation – judging...