RealTalk 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.

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. We’re discussing how Caroline pursues positivity and her personal passions while living with MS, in order to keep her brain active and engaged. We’ll also be discussing the lifestyle choices she has made to help maintain her brain health.

Last week, the National MS Society and RealTalk MS announced a new partnership. And we're definitely talking about it! And 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.

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.

This episode is sponsored by Celgene and the MS MindShift Initiative, which aims to educate about the important role the brain plays in MS. In this episode, Yvonne shares how she adopted a comedic outlook on MS and has been able to introduce different lifestyle choices into her everyday lifestyle to help maintain a healthy brain and a positive attitude.  We’re also discussing ways people living with MS can use laughter as a coping mechanism, along with shifting their focus towards brain health.

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. 

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.

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. We're talking about what it was like being diagnosed with MS while caring for young children, and the different lifestyle choices that Ashley has adopted to keep herself stress and frustration-free throughout her MS journey.

Episode 112: The MSIF People with MS Forum with Dr. Laura Musambayi and Gabriela Hidalgo

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. 

My guest is Dr. Lauren Strober, a Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research and a staff neuropsychologist at the Kessler Institute of Rehabilitation.  Among her other research projects, Dr. Strober has taken a close look at how people living with MS cope with work-related stress.

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. You'll also hear Atara Biotherapeutics Chief Medical Officer Dr. AJ Joshi discuss Atara's clinical trial aimed at mitigating MS by using lab-engineered T-cells to attack B-cells carrying the Epstein-Barr Virus.

Episode 108: Social Cognition & MS with Dr. Helen Genova

Being diagnosed with MS means learning to live with a whole new set of challenges. Learning how to thrive in spite of those challenges is called resilience. My guest, Dr. Brandon Beaber, is the author of "Resilience in the Face of Multiple Sclerosis", a book that profiles some of his patients who have demonstrated great resilience in the face of MS and provides evidence-based tools on how you can develop your personal resilience. We'll even tell you how you can get your free copy!

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.