This episode is sponsored by Celgene and the MS MindShift Initiative, which aims to educate about the important role the brain plays in MS. My guest is Caroline Craven, who is a paid spokesperson for the MS MindShift. Caroline could not walk or see without assistance when she was first diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2001. Today she is thriving and shares her personal experiences, life hacks, and the holistic lifestyle choices that she has made to help manage her MS symptoms, via her blog. ...
Nov 21, 2019•9 min
Last week, the National MS Society and RealTalk MS announced a new partnership. And we're definitely talking about it! My guest is Dr. Soha Saleh, a research scientist at Kessler Foundation's Center for Mobility and Rehabilitation Engineering Research, and we're talking about her innovative research in understanding how MS impacts dual-tasking -- something that all of us do, all day long. We'll tell you about the newly announced Weill Neurohub, and why that's such promising news for people affec...
Nov 18, 2019•31 min•Season 3Ep. 116
My guest this week is Dr. Mary Bailey, a neurologist specializing in MS care at the Mandell Center for Multiple Sclerosis in Hartford, Connecticut, and we're talking about some of the changes that occur as relapsing-remitting MS transitions to secondary progressive MS. Since about 80% of the people living with relapsing-remitting MS will experience that transition to secondary progressive MS, I think it's an important conversation to have. Since yesterday was Veterans Day in the United States, w...
Nov 12, 2019•28 min•Season 3Ep. 115
This episode is sponsored by Celgene and the MS MindShift Initiative, which aims to educate about the important role the brain plays in MS. My guest is Yvonne DeSousa, who is a paid spokesperson for the MS MindShift. Yvonne was diagnosed with MS in 2009. She quickly discovered that humor was able to help settle her fears and act as a release. Years later, Yvonne has continued using humor to not only improve her mood, but she’s also worked to spread laughter and joy to the rest of the MS communit...
Nov 07, 2019•10 min
My guest this week is Dr. Silvana Costa, a research scientist in the Neuropsychology and Neuroscience Center at the Kessler Foundation. Dr. Costa's work is focused on cognitive impairment in MS, specifically, information processing speed, which is something that people living with MS often have to deal with. We'll talk with Dr. Costa about some of her specific research, along with a promising intervention designed to improve cognitive processing speed for people living with MS. We're also talkin...
Nov 05, 2019•26 min•Season 3Ep. 114
My guest this week is TV personality, Montel Williams. Since receiving his MS diagnosis in 1999, Montel has been a highly visible advocate for people living with MS. We're talking to Montel about his initial reaction to his own MS diagnosis, and what advice he would give to someone who was diagnosed with MS today (HINT: it's great advice!). We'll also talk to Montel about My MS Second Act, a new initiative that he's helping to launch and that you can get involved in. We're also talking about the...
Oct 29, 2019•27 min•Season 3Ep. 113
This special episode of RealTalk MS is sponsored by Celgene and the MS MindShift initiative, which aims to educate about the important role the brain plays in MS. My guest is Ashley Ringstaff, who is a paid spokesperson for the MS MindShift. Ashley was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS at the age of 22. Many of us know that MS can be very unpredictable – never knowing what symptoms you’ll have to deal with day-to-day. This can lead to frustration for many people living with the disease. Ashl...
Oct 25, 2019•9 min
I'm back from attending the MS International Federation's People With MS Forum in Athens, Greece, and it was a remarkable few days spent with some truly remarkable people. In this episode of RealTalk MS, you'll meet two of those remarkable people. First, we'll talk with Dr. Laura Musambayi, the founder of the MS Association of Kenya. Dr. Musambayi will share her experiences in a country of 50 million people, with just 20 neurologists, and no access to disease-modifying therapy. Then, you'll meet...
Oct 22, 2019•30 min•Season 3Ep. 112
For almost 20 years, the CLIMB Study has been following thousands of MS patients, discovering so many aspects of multiple sclerosis and documenting how the disease changes over time. My guest is Dr. Tanuja Chitnis, Director of the CLIMB Study, Director of the Partners Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center at MassGeneral Hospital for Children, as well as the Director of the Translational Neuroimmunology Research Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital. We're also talking about an emerging topic that...
Oct 14, 2019•31 min•Season 3Ep. 111
When you're living with MS, it can feel as though you're taking a few extra things with you when you go to work. For instance, if you haven't told your employer that you've been diagnosed with MS, you're taking along the extra burden of having to keep a secret. You might be trying your best to manage your MS symptoms on the job, dealing with things like fatigue, vision problems, and even physical balance. During the workday, all of these things -- these "extra burdens" -- get piled right on top ...
Oct 08, 2019•34 min•Season 3Ep. 110
I imagine everyone involved in MS research has their own reasons that make it important to them. My guest this week is Dr. Anisha Doshi, and Dr. Doshi's reasons are personal and powerful. Dr. Doshi will also update us on her current research project, and we'll talk with Dr. Doshi about the path that women face as they pursue a career in Neurology. You'll also hear Atara Biotherapeutics Chief Medical Officer Dr. AJ Joshi discuss Atara's clinical trial aimed at mitigating MS by using lab-engineere...
Oct 01, 2019•27 min•Season 3Ep. 109
Sometimes, you can just look at someone and know how they're feeling. Our ability to "read people" is called social cognition. And we're learning that people living with MS can lose their social cognition skills, making every face-to-face interaction more difficult. My guest is Dr. Helen Genova, the Assistant Director of the Kessler Foundation's Center for Neuropsychology and Neuroscience Research, the Director of the Social Cognition and Neuroscience Laboratory at the Kessler Foundation, and an...
Sep 24, 2019•27 min•Season 2Ep. 108
Being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis means learning to live with a whole new set of challenges. Rising to meet those challenges and learning how to thrive in spite of those challenges is called resilience. But resilience isn't something that you're necessarily born with. Just like a muscle, resilience is something that you can choose to develop. My guest, Dr. Brandon Beaber, specializes in treating people living with MS and he's the author of Resilience in the Face of Multiple Sclerosis , a b...
Sep 17, 2019•23 min•Season 2Ep. 107
Welcome to a special episode of RealTalk MS coming to you from Day Three of ECTRIMS 2019 in Stockholm, Sweden. This final day at ECTRIMS has become my favorite day of the conference because it's the day that I get to sit down with Dr. Bruce Bebo, the Executive Vice President of Research at the National MS Society, and get his perspective on the highlights of the entire conference. We're talking about new Phase 3 clinical trial outcomes, research that shows that lifestyle choices can impact the c...
Sep 13, 2019•26 min
Welcome to a special episode of RealTalk MS coming to you from Day Two of ECTRIMS 2019 in Stockholm, Sweden. ECTRIMS is an acronym that stands for the European Conference for Treatment & Research in Multiple Sclerosis, and this annual scientific congress is the largest MS research conference in the world. There are over 9,000 attendees here from more than 100 different countries to share new information, hear research updates, and get face to face with the leading MS researchers in the world...
Sep 12, 2019•11 min
Welcome to a special episode of RealTalk MS coming to you from ECTRIMS 2019 in Stockholm, Sweden. ECTRIMS is an acronym that stands for the European Conference for Treatment & Research in Multiple Sclerosis, and this annual scientific congress is the largest MS research conference in the world. There are over 9,000 attendees here from more than 100 different countries to share new information, hear research updates, and get face to face with the leading MS researchers in the world. We're tal...
Sep 11, 2019•9 min
This week, we're talking about palliative care for MS. It's a topic that a lot of people living with MS still don't know enough about, but palliative care can offer real benefits in attaining the best overall quality of life. Joining me in discussing palliative care is my guest, Cherie Binns. Cherie was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS in 1994. She's been a Registered Nurse for 45 years, and Cherie is also an Internationally Certified MS Nurse. Cherie serves as the co-chair of the iConquerM...
Sep 10, 2019•25 min•Season 2Ep. 106
Five years ago, James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Shepherd decided to hold a barbecue event in his restaurant's parking lot, to raise money for the National MS Society. Today, the Southern Smoke Festival has grown into the largest 3rd party MS Society fundraising event in the United States, and with the 5th Annual Southern Smoke Festival just a few weeks away, we're talking with Chris about how this event got its start, and how it's grown to be one of the most noteworthy culinary events in th...
Sep 03, 2019•28 min•Season 2Ep. 105
Fatigue isn't only a common symptom of MS; it's also one of the most disruptive symptoms of MS. It's hard to be out living life when you're trying to overcome that feeling of just not having any gas left in the tank. My guest is Dr. Ekaterina Dobryakova, a research scientist at the Kessler Foundation's Center for Traumatic Brain Injury Research, where she conducts research in cognitive dysfunction caused by traumatic brain injury and multiple sclerosis. Dr. Dobryakova's research has shown that t...
Aug 27, 2019•30 min•Season 2Ep. 104
My guest is Kyra Millich, who, until October of 2013, was a consumer protection litigator in San Francisco, recently married, and already thinking about planning a family. And that's when she received her MS diagnosis. I don't know if Kyra would say that her diagnosis changed her life, or clarified it, but I found Kyra's MS journey to be interesting, inspirational, and instructional. And I think you will too. We're also talking about a breakthrough study in which a research team was able to reve...
Aug 20, 2019•41 min•Season 2Ep. 103
My guest is Professor Helen Tremlett, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Neuroepidemiology and Multiple Sclerosis at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada. Professor Tremlett has been involved in more than 200 published research studies, and we're going to talk about a few of them -- including the research that she's done on the correlation between MS disability progression and socioeconomic status. We're also talking about a study that indicates starting disease-modifying...
Aug 13, 2019•34 min•Season 2Ep. 102
The Charcot Award recognizes lifetime achievement in outstanding research into the understanding and treatment of MS. My guest is Professor Catherine Lubetzki, this year's recipient of the Charcot Award. Professor Lubetzki is being recognized for her very significant contributions to better understanding the underlying disease processes of MS, and her groundbreaking work in furthering our understanding of demylenation and remylenation. Professor Lubetzki is a professor of Neurology at Sorbonne U...
Aug 06, 2019•31 min•Season 2Ep. 101
Welcome to Episode 100! In this special episode, we're talking with Jodi Michele Cooley, the winner of our "Be Our Special Guest on Episode 100" contest! At the age of 7, Jodi became an MS caregiver. And at the age of 34, she received her own MS diagnosis. In one way or another, MS has almost always been a part of Jodi's life. And yet, she is the very definition of the word "resilience." We're also re-visiting some of the best moments from some of our most popular interviews. You'll hear about r...
Jul 29, 2019•44 min•Season 2Ep. 100
My guest is Jenny Freeman, Professor of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation at the University of Plymouth, in the United Kingdom. Professor Freeman's research has appeared in more than 150 journals and publications. And she's the co-author of Multiple Sclerosis Care -- A Practical Manual , the reference book for all aspects of MS care. We're going to be talking with Professor Freeman about the just-published results of a clinical trial that I think will add a very effective component to physical re...
Jul 23, 2019•30 min•Season 2Ep. 99
Applying for social security disability benefits can be difficult. It's a stressful and challenging process with an outcome that seems fraught with uncertainty. My guest, Jamie Hall, has represented social security disability claimants before administrative law judges and the Appeals Council in 24 different states. He is also a strong supporter of the National MS Society, where he's conducted numerous seminars on social security disability issues. Jamie is a member of the MS Society's 2010 Leade...
Jul 17, 2019•42 min•Season 2Ep. 98
My guests this week are 2 exceptional MS warriors, Mike Zimits and Cat Tsigakos. When Mike was diagnosed with MS, he decided he could best help himself by getting into shape, so he got on a bike. And then he convinced his friend's sister, Catherine, to get on a bike. Cat was serving as her brother's caregiver after he was diagnosed with progressive MS. So these 2 people, who had each been affected differently by MS, went from being biking newbies to avid cyclists -- even taking on several stages...
Jul 08, 2019•34 min•Season 2Ep. 97
Do you ever wonder how or why your neurologist recommends one disease-modifying therapy instead of another? For some people, their first disease-modifying therapy is a mild drug with few side effects. For others, their first disease-modifying therapy might be a more high-powered drug that carries the risk of more possible side effects. But how do neurologists really know when it's appropriate to use one specific disease-modifying therapy or even when it's appropriate to switch to another? My gue...
Jul 02, 2019•34 min•Season 2Ep. 96
How do you adjust every aspect of your relationship when the partner you've known seems to be vanishing right before your eyes, yet they're still very much there? If you're a caregiver for someone with progressive MS, or any chronic illness, it's very likely that you're living with the trauma of ambiguous loss . My guest is Dr. Pauline Boss, who not only coined the phrase ambiguous loss, but has spent her career teaching university students, practicing as a clinician, and training family therapi...
Jun 25, 2019•34 min•Season 2Ep. 95
This week, we're talking about shady stem cell clinics and their shady clinical trials. We'll tell you about a study that makes a connection between stress-related disorders and autoimmune disease, and a research team that may have identified the possible genetic causes of MS. My guest is Dr. Laura Rice, an expert in rehabilitation science and technology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne. Dr. Rice's focus is on maximizing the quality of life and community participation among wheelc...
Jun 18, 2019•29 min•Season 2Ep. 94
Stem Cells are in the news, and we're talking about the U.S. District Court decision that will impact hundreds of stem cell clinics in the United States and the FDA's ability to regulate them. We'll also share two breakthroughs in stem cell research that will likely impact the future of stem cell therapy. My guest on the podcast is Dr. Karen Lee, the Vice-President of Research at the MS Society of Canada. Canada has one of the highest rates of MS in the world, and the MS Society of Canada has re...
Jun 11, 2019•28 min•Season 2Ep. 93
