Hello friends --How are you all doing?  I'm SWAMPED with 3 podcast interviews this week!  I'm introducing a new segment of the FUMS Podcast I'm calling the MS Pod Squad - where different MS advocates join me in a roundtable format to discuss MS'y "stuff"! This inaugural episode will feature Dan & Jennifer Digmann, Kathy Chester, Alene Brennan & Ardra Shephard.  We're talking all things MS & the holidays.  Then - I'm talking with Dr. Terry Wahls about a new companion app to her Wahls Protocol that she's introducing to help people in their quest for better health. And finally, I'm interviewing a TikTok expert for the Patients Getting Paid podcast on how chronicpreneurs can best utilize that platform. Got questions for any of my guests?  Hit reply to this email and send them to me.  I'll get them asked and answered!Let's have a look at what's happening in MS this week:1. A smartphone-based app now under development may help people with multiple sclerosis stave off cognitive decline, a new preliminary study shows. Interesting - but WAY early in development.  Something to keep an eye on though. APP MAY HELP PEOPLE WITH MS WARD OFF COGNITIVE DECLINE2.  A National Multiple Sclerosis Society grant is supporting an Australian-led research team aiming to better understand how the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) may be acting as a trigger for MS. Australian-led team looking into whether lymphocytes launch mistaken attacks  HURRY UP, I say!!  NMSS Grant Supports Work Into Epstein-Barr Virus as MS Trigger3.  Where are my progressive MS'ers?  This one's for you.  In an early clinical trial, Atara Biotherapeutics’ investigational treatment ATA188 stabilized or eased disability in most people with non-active, progressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) — with those benefits now having been sustained for up to four years.  Atara's therapy candidate shown to stabilize or ease disability up to 4 years!!  ATA188 Could Be ‘Game Changing’ for Progressive MS4.  Depression is among the most common - and debilitating - symptoms of MS, oftentimes resistant to treatment.  I'm just going to leave this little gem right here:  Magic mushrooms: Single dose may relieve treatment-resistant depression symptoms   ☮️5.  OK - next on the docket - where are my Vumerity folks??  I'm one. I made the switch (as many of us did) from Tecfidera.  Here's some good news for us: Up to two years of Vumerity (diroximel fumarate) treatment was generally well-tolerated and led to significant decreases in disease activity in people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), according to a final analysis of data from the open-label EVOLVE-MS-1 Phase 3 clinical trial.  Vumerity Lowers RRMS Activity Over 2 Years6.  A recent study published online in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry found that people with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more at the time of a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) were twice as likely to reach disability within six years, no matter what treatment they received.  Multiple Sclerosis (MS): How Weight and BMI at the Time of Diagnosis May Increase Risk of DisabilitySo - that's all folks.  Hope something in this little newsletter o'mine was helpful to you.  If there's anything that I can do to help you - please - drop me an email and let me know at [email protected] or meet me over in the FUMS Facebook community and let's chat!  Thanks.Warmly -- Kathy#FUMS

Sometimes it helps the stress, just to say "F-U-M-S"