Being a podcaster can be a lonely life. So what better way to begin the holiday celebrations than getting some of your favorite MSers together to talk about our plans for the season?  Alongside my guests, we talk about some of the things that can play on our minds during this time of year, particularly when combined with having a chronic illness like MS.  Dan & Jennifer Digmann talk about how to handle the stresses of maintaining relationships. Ardra Shephard is here to talk about staying fashionable and feeling good about yourself. Then Kathy Chester covers the different ways th ..read more

Brooke Pelczynski's life with Multiple Sclerosis is an inspiring example of someone taking their diagnosis and turning it into something great. Most recently, her varied career has led to her working for Marvel Comics! Brooke was undertaking her BFA in Illustration in New York when the fatigue and clumsiness that resulted in a number of ruined artworks was diagnosed as Multiple Sclerosis - at the age of only 21. Although she now feels that MS had crippled her career, Brooke has since used her disease to build a career as an artist, illustrator, and comic-creating multiple sclerosis fighter!&nb ..read more

MS is often described as an invisible disability. But as the disease progresses, the focus - of patients as well as medical professionals - can shift to more visible, physical symptoms, like mobility issues. However, because the majority of people with MS are diagnosed in their 20s and 30s, the psychological and cognitive effects can all too often go untreated. And these symptoms are just as common as the outward ones. In fact, as you'll hear, these may be even more common, with 50% of all people with MS having at least one clinically significant episode of depression.  My guest today is ..read more

My guest today is Jenn Powell. She's an active advocate in the MS community, imparting her hopeful optimism to the real-life challenges facing those of us living with MS. Now with secondary-progressive MS, Jenn continues to elevate the patient voice to better the lives of our community. Jenn is the Brand and Marketing Manager for BioNews, an organization that strives to create dynamic communities that give patients and caregivers a powerful voice. Jenn also writes for Multiple Sclerosis News Today (a subsidiary of BioNews) and is the host of the Multiple Sclerosis Podcast. Jenn's attitude is o ..read more

If you're connected with Multiple Sclerosis in any way - whether you're a patient, or a caregiver, family member, or loved one of somebody with the disease - it's easy (and NATURAL) to live in the what-ifs. We can all wallow in the negatives - hey, there's a reason why this podcast is called FUMS! But Sue Casey, my guest today, tries to live by a different mantra - "Grab The Happy!" Sue has been living with MS for nearly 50 years. This means that when she was first diagnosed, they didn't have MRIs or any of the procedures that we all experience today. And Disease Modifying Therapies? Forget ab ..read more

Content warning: this episode includes a discussion about Lydia's personal experiences of Primary Progressive MS and her plans with regards to Death with Dignity, aka Suicide. Lydia Emily Archibald is an artist to her core. She was born in Chicago to globe-trotting activist parents, and this laid the foundation for her socially-conscious and politically-motivated artworks, including the creation of large-scale murals. Lydia Emily's work has been featured at gallery shows in Milan, Berlin, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Washington DC, and San Francisco.  After battling cancer, Lydia was dia ..read more

More and more often, we're all hearing and talking about the use of diet and lifestyle as a way to manage chronic illness - and not just on the FUMS Podcast! In this episode, Dr. Terry Wahls (now officially our most featured guest) is here to tell us all about how we can get involved in her latest study, which asks a couple of simple but important questions: Can diet improve my quality of life with MS? And which diet is the best?  If you don't know by now, Dr. Terry Wahls is an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner and a clinical professor of medicine at the University ..read more

The truth has been out for a long time - exercise is good for MS and other neurological conditions. But of all of the programs suggested for us, how many of them really know what it's like to live with MS? My guest today is Mariska Breland. She was a video producer living a very high-stress life when she was diagnosed with MS at the age of 27. She started doing Yoga and Pilates and eventually began teaching Pilates, ultimately turning it into her full-time job.  Mariska has created multiple neuroscience and exercise workshops, including Pilates for MS (now expanded and taught as Pilates f ..read more

I don't know about you, but when I was diagnosed with MS my medical care team couldn't answer all of my questions. Although, to be honest, the stress and cog fog meant that I forgot most of the questions I wanted to ask anyway. And the pamphlets that were forced on me just didn't cut it.  What I really needed was an operator's manual. But that doesn't exist, right? Well… Over the past four decades, Debbie Petrina has lived with MS and spoken to thousands of people in the MS community - via social media, as a trained peer counselor, and as a participant in numerous MS-related events. She i ..read more

I've talked before about diet and lifestyle as a way to manage Multiple Sclerosis. It's an exciting area, with more research being done all the time! If you've been researching this for any time, you've probably heard about Intermittent Fasting (IF). But what is it? And how could this possibly help with your MS? My guest today is Cynthia Thurlow. She is a nurse practitioner, the CEO and founder of the Everyday Wellness Project, and an international speaker, with over 10 million views for her second TEDx talk, Intermittent Fasting: Transformational Technique. In this episode, Cynthia explains w ..read more