RealTalk MS

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 Jodi Johnson, who is a paid spokesperson for the MS MindShift. Jodi has been living with MS for almost 12 years after having been diagnosed in January of 2008. Since her diagnosis, Jodi has shifted her perspective on the disease to focus on what sh...

My guest is Stubhy Pandav, the lead singer of Lucky Boys Confusion and The Hoodie Life . Last year, Stubhy was diagnosed with MS. Then, Stubhy's insurance company told him that he couldn't start the disease-modifying therapy that his neurologist had prescribed.   We'll talk with Stubhy about how he's managed to navigate this first year since his MS diagnosis, and we'll also talk with him about MS...

November is National Family Caregiver Month, and while I was at the 4th Annual National Caregiving Conference in Chicago, I met this week's guest, Caregiver Strategist Penny Patnaude. Penny and I talked about some of the things that caregivers want to be thinking about in planning their own strategy for providing great care to their loved one without losing themselves in the process.    I'll also...

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,...

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...

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...

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 on...

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 inte...

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 i...

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...

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 mill...

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 Neuroimmunol...

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...

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 M...

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...

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 trea...

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 ab...

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 infor...

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, hea...

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...

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...

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...

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 y...

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...

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 understa...