Hello friends --I hope this finds you doing well.  With this beautiful Fall 🍁 weather - I couldn't be better.  The heat and humidity of this past summer were beyond MS-triggering. So good to put that behind us.  AND - my girls are coming home!!  One from JMU and one from her big girl job in her big girl apartment in her big girl city.  I can't wait to just hang out and catch up! So - what's on YOUR agenda this fine Fall week??  You know I love to hear from you.  Hit reply to this email and let me know how you're doing.  Alright, alright, alright.  Let's get to the good stuff.1. Data passively collected by smartphone apps and fitness trackers can be used to accurately predict the risk of depression, severe fatigue, poor sleep quality, and symptom worsening in people with MS when in-person health visits are suddenly limited.  FINALLY - a great excuse for the over-usage of my iphone! I'm doing it - just for the health of it!   Passive Health Tracking Can Predict Changes in MS2.  Risk of RRMS transition to SPMS fell by 42% with first-generation DMTs.  Data showed that SPMS conversion risk rose by 3% each year before the first generation of DMTs came into use in Sweden in 1995, and declined by 2.6% annually after their introduction.  Go ahead - read that again.  Anybody else feeling good about taking their DMTs right about now??  RRMS Transition to SPMS Fell With Start of DMTs3.  Over the years, I've done a decidedly unscientific, some may consider rag-tag survey of MS'ers asking if their neurologist inquires about potential sexual dysfunction at their office visits.  Know what they told me?  Not 1 had been asked.  Some MS'ers brought it up themselves - and the majority didn't even know that sexual dysfunction could be yet another gift of our old friend MS (Missing Sex, in this case 😉).  So - the results of this study came as little surprise to me.  Sexual Dysfunction in MS Real But Often Ignored: Neurologist Survey: Responses by doctors in Colombia point to 'underdiagnosed, undertreated' issue  Bottom line: if you're experiencing any sexual dysfunction symptoms - talk to your doctor.  You may have to bring it up - but open up that dialogue and get some help.  4.  🎶 Baby You Can Drive My CAR-T Cell Treatment🎶  OOPS.  Sorry.  Always a sound-track running through my mind - which is why that old Beatles tune came to mind when I saw this: Scientists hail autoimmune disease therapy breakthrough.  Study finds CAR T-cell treatment sends lupus into remission, raising hopes it could be used to treat diseases such as multiple sclerosis5.  Are you following the latest Patron Saint of MS - Selma Blair - as she takes on "Dancing with the Stars"?  It's quite inspirational, actually.  This week she donned a blindfold and there were many  guesses as to the existential meaning behind the blindfold.  In this article she explains something I bet a lot of us can relate to: she used the blindfold to dial down the overstimulation of the lights, the music, the movement, the anxiety.  I think that's kind of brilliant. Do you ever close your eyes to limit the sensory overload??  🙋🏽‍♀️  I've done it.  It helps.  Rock on Selma.  The Real Reason Selma Blair Performed Blindfolded on ‘Dancing With the Stars’6.  I'm going to stick with Baclofen and Cannabis, thank you very much.  But - here's a different take on it:  Direct Electrical Stimulation of Brain Found to Ease MS SpasticityThat's all folks.  Hope you learned something, got a giggle, or just enjoyed my emojis! 😉It there's anything I can do to help you - send me an email or meet me over in the FUMS Facebook community and let's chat!  Warmly -- Kathy#FUMSP.S. Don't forget to check out the FUMS merch as we're inching ever closer to the most wonderful time of the year:  FUMS Merch Shop 

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