RealTalk MS Jon Strum

Joining me this week is Brett Drummond, a scientist in Australia who stepped away from his lab to develop an online resource designed to bridge the gap between the MS patient community and the MS research community. The result of his efforts is MSTranslate. We're talking about this excellent curated MS information resource, and Brett even shares some insights into the MS research that he finds particularly exciting.

Today, remyelination holds real promise as a strategy for restoring lost function and slowing or even stopping MS progression.  This week, we're taking a deep dive into the current state of remyelination research. 

Joining me are Dr. Jeffrey Cohen, the director of the Cleveland Clinic’s Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research, and Dr. Ian Duncan, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the recipient of the 2020 Dystel Prize for MS Research.

November 11 is Veterans Day in the United States, giving us an opportunity to honor the men and women who have served in America's armed forces. More than 70,000 U.S. veterans are living with MS, and joining me on the podcast is Karla Clay, an Air Force veteran, and a National Veterans Wheelchair Games multiple medal winner. We're talking about the life-changing turn that Karla's MS journey ended up taking. 

Fatigue is considered to be the most common MS symptom and also one of the most disabling because fatigue can interfere with every aspect of someone's life -- at home, at work, in their relationships -- in every way, fatigue can have a profound impact on your quality of life. Today, we're talking about how to best manage MS-related fatigue with two experts on the subject, Dr. Bardia Nourbakhsh, and Dr. Kathy Zackowski.

When it comes to MS and most every other chronic illness, clinical research is the common denominator of all medical progress. This week, we're breaking down the details of MS clinical research with my guests, Dr. Sandi Cassard, a research associate in the Neurology department at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Diane Kramer, who has participated in more than 20 research studies since being diagnosed with MS in 2010. 

MS doesn't only affect individuals. It affects families. And that's probably most clear when we're talking about pediatric MS. The National MS Society estimates that there are about 5,000 diagnosed cases of pediatric MS in the United States, but those numbers become far less important when your child is one of those diagnosed cases. We're taking a deep dive into pediatric MS with Hannah Schnitzler, who lives with pediatric MS, Hannah's mom, Melissa Fisher, and pediatric MS expert Dr. Brenda Banwell.