Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer: ★★ How brain-healthy is your lifestyle? Someone asked yesterday why did I give George Jelinek’s book ‘Overcoming MS’ a positive review and yet we don’t promote it openly on the blog? Very simple our policy is not to advertise commercial products on this blog and if we promoted OMS then what about the other MS-related lifestyle and wellness programmes? I am still...
Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer: ★ I did a post a few weeks ago about the secondary malignancy risk associated with longterm continuous immunosuppression and included a survey. The following are the results of the survey, which are quite disturbing. It is clear that a significant number of readers of this blog, although aware of the secondary cancer risk, are not been given standardised information...
Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer: ★★ Are you lonely? Have you lost a loved on during COVID-19? Have you lost your job or had to reduce your income because of COVID-19? Can you make ends meet at the end of the month? Are you worried about your future? How is your relationship with your partner? Are you depressed? Anxious? Are you sleeping well? Are you drinking too much alcohol? Are you feeling...
Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer: ★★ Did you know that as of September 2020, only 54.1% of the public in the UK and 42.5% in the USA would ‘definitely’ accept a COVID-19 vaccine to protect themselves? I sincerely hope these figures are wrong and have changed substantially since September 2020. Why? These vaccine acceptance rates are lower than the proportion of vaccinated people required to achieve...
I was asked about which paper I have written or co-written that has or will have the most impact in the field of MS. There is little doubt that it is our report of our 2017 workshop on “EBV Infection and MS Prevention”. This report (see below) was the catalyst for creating the Preventive Neurology Unit (PNU), which is embedded in the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine. The...
In the COVID era the movie and cinema industry has taken a bit of a beating. You may have heard of Cannes and the Oscars In the East end of London the Canning Town‘ film festival is on and ProfK has been nominated for an “En-ree” (after Henry Croft) An En-ree Category: Best Animated Shorts We will be premiering them from Tomorrow CoI: This event was sponsored by Merck. But ProfK...
Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer: zero-stars What do you say when I colleague chastises you for stating the fact that MS is potentially a ‘preventable dementia’? This particular colleague was clear that there is no need to draw any parallels between MS and other neurodegenerative diseases because of the negative connations that the term dementia has. I had to remind him that MS ticks all...
I would like to say thank you, thank you and thank you for your kind donations towards the Barts-MS coronavirus antibody study. With gift aid, we have now passed the £10,000 milestone and will be able to start the first phase of the study. This is great news. To raise the additional money I won’t be running a double-marathon, but we have taken up your suggestion of hosting a series of...
I am sure you have all read or heard a version of Goldilock’s and the three bears. Goldilocks finds one of the bears’ beds too hard, one too soft and the final bed is just right, which allows her to lie down and fall asleep. At the moment the United States is having an existential crisis about the cost and value of its healthcare system. A series of articles in the New England Journal of Medicine...
I have been asked many times about how COVID-19 is affecting our MS research programme. The short answer is massively and its true impact is yet to be realised because we are a far way off from anything that feels and looks like normal. We are still paralysed by the threat of a second wave of COVID-19; the social distancing requirements within the NHS means everything is going to be at half-mast...