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...
What can do I to prevent myself from being infected with coronavirus if someone in my household gets COVID-19? This is a topic that I have not covered directly, but it is obviously very important and an oversight on my part. Apologies. The following advice is pretty intuitive and has been hacked from an amazing website, by the Univesity of Southampton, called Germ Defence. If you have the...
This is not about coronavirus. Epstein-Barr Virus is an(other) extremely common virus which has infected the vast majority of people (~95%) by their late 20s. Unlike coronavirus, EBV has co-evolved with humans and the observation that it is so ubiquitous suggests that it actually may confer some kind of evolutionary benefit, e.g. by enhancing the host’s ability to respond to novel...
As you are aware we, or I depending on your perspective, have recently have hit a brick wall trying to convince the MS community that the big unmet need in MS is smouldering disease. The central hypothesis is that smouldering MS is the real MS. The following YouTube presentation summarises some of the main arguments for the hypothesis. Your comments will help me make a decision to giving-up...
Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer ★ ★★ ★ ★ I gave my first on using diet as a potential symptomatic and disease-modifying treatment for MS and as a preventative therapeutic strategy in MS, last night. The symptomatic part of my talk was about food coma and using diet to prevent or reduce the impact of food coma. We are still studying why pwMS are so susceptible to food coma. I suspect it is because...
Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer ★★★ Just back from the NMSS ‘Pathways to Cures’ meeting in Washington DC during which we pledged to STOP, RESTORE and END multiple sclerosis. The END refers to prevention. We discussed at the meeting modifiable risk factors that could be tackled to reduce the incidence (new cases) of MS and one risk factor childhood and adolescent obesity. One...
Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer ★★★★★ I am en route to a ‘Pathways to Cures’ meeting in Washington DC hosted by the National MS Society. The aim of the meeting is to refine the ‘Stop, Restore, and End Pathways’ for MS and to develop an international consensus on what an MS cure looks like. I am honoured to be invited to participate in this meeting and would like to thank the NMSS for inviting me. ...
About three years ago I started wearing another hat; a preventive medicine hat. We started the Preventive Neurology Unit within our medical school focusing on MS, Parkison’s Disease and all-cause dementia. The unit is growing rapidly and gaining momentum. It was with great pride that I was able to attend and speak at first symposium. I have uploaded my slides for anyone who wants to download them...
When I posted the link to our EBV and MS meta-analysis on social media yesterday I was taken to task because of the slow progress we have made in MS prevention. Why has no preventative action been taken yet? What are they waiting for? I have had MS for more than 50 years and in all those decades the Epstein- Barr virus has been a usual suspect over and over and over again. Had glandular fever...
On the 5th August, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) to teplizumab (anti-CD3) for the prevention or delay of clinical type 1 diabetes (T1D) in individuals at risk of developing the disease. This is quite amazing and has implications way beyond T1D. The question in relation to anti-CD3 treatment is this ‘true prevention’ or simply a disease...