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PIP assessment last week

Good morning all, I had my pip assessment on Thursday it was around an hour long over the telephone - the assessor then called me back a few hours later and told me she had spoken with her manager and my case is quite complex and that they wanted to get it right for me - I’m guessing complex becaus...

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3

@Randyadams

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Got room organized including new surge protector and outlet surge protector less wires to trip over and room is organized and bed is made. . Just have to do medicine pill holder and vacuumed bedroom floor. Infusion Thursday morning went great. Im doing great

Jurupa Valley, United States

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@randy11

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I'm doing good. Got paid now we can pay rent and infusion went good

Jurupa Valley, United States

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@nkinley

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I was diagnosed with RRMS over 10 years ago, but only recently started experiencing what seem to be flares and relapses. I’m meeting with a neuroimmunologist tomorrow and would appreciate hearing from others who have been through something similar.Was anyone initially misdiagnosed or told their MRI findings were unclear? My MRI only shows a few white matter lesions/scars, and I also have a history of Traumatic Brain Injury, which makes it difficult to know which symptoms are coming from MS versus TBI.Some of the symptoms I’m experiencing include:• Blurry vision, double vision, impaired color vision, and eye pain• Muscle weakness, stiffness, balance problems, dizziness, tremors, and difficulty walking• Numbness, tingling, heat intolerance, and possible Lhermitte’s sign• Brain fog, memory issues, concentration difficulties, depression, and mood changes• Bladder urgency and bowel issuesFor those with RRMS:Were you ever misdiagnosed before receiving a definitive MS diagnosis?Did your MRI show only a few lesions initially?What questions do you wish you had asked your neurologist early on?Which treatments have helped you most with fatigue, brain fog, mobility issues, vision problems, or relapses?Have any affordable medications or infusion therapies worked well with insurance coverage?Thank you for sharing your experiences and insights. I’m still learning how to navigate this journey and appreciate any advice.Questions I’d ask your neurologist tomorrowDo I meet the current diagnostic criteria for RRMS, or is further testing needed?Could any of my symptoms be related to my TBI, migraines, vascular changes, or another neurological condition rather than MS?Do my MRI findings show active inflammation, old lesions, or evidence of progression?Should I have MRI scans of my cervical and thoracic spine if they haven’t been done recently?Would a spinal tap (lumbar puncture) or additional testing help confirm the diagnosis?How can we tell whether what I’m experienced recently are true relapses versus symptom fluctuations?Am I a candidate for a disease-modifying therapy (DMT), and if so, which one do you recommend and why?What are the risks, benefits, and expected effectiveness of oral medications versus infusion therapies?What can be done specifically for fatigue, brain fog, pain, bladder issues, vision symptoms, and mobility problems?Given my family history, TBI history, and concern about possible CADASIL, are there additional tests you recommend?Common MS Treatments to Ask AboutDisease-modifying therapies (to reduce future relapses and new lesions) often include:Oral medicationsTecfideraVumerityAubagioMavencladInfusion therapiesOcrevusBriumviTysabriKesimpta (monthly self-injection rather than infusion)Many insurance plans cover these, and manufacturers often have copay assistance programs. Your neurologist’s office typically has staff who help obtain prior authorizations and financial assistance.One thing I’d specifically tell the neuroimmunologistBring up:Your history of MS diagnosis 10+ years agoRecent worsening symptomsHistory of TBI and cerebral contusionCognitive changes and memory issuesVision symptomsFamily history of stroke/CADASIL concernsAny heat intolerance and bladder symptomsThose details may help them determine whether there is one diagnosis explaining everything or whether multiple conditions are contributing to your symptoms.I’ll hoping tomorrow’s appointment gives me some clear answers and a concrete treatment plan. A neuroimmunologist is exactly the kind of specialist who can help sort through complicated situations like MS and my other neurological conditions.

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@ruari

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PIP assessment next week.

I’ve finally got an assessment over the phone next week and don’t know what to expect. Could anyone shed any light? How long will it take and what will they be asking? Bit nervous about it.

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@tusagni

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Wearable tracker use

Who wears a tracker for things like fatigue and such? Visible? Apple Watch app? Hume? Garmin? Fitbit? What device and programs work best for MS? I’m so sick of listening to the Visibie commercial and knowing it costs a stupid amount a month subscription but it sound super cool for chronic illness sp...

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@SChaudhry

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HOT WEATHER

Yes it's lovely outside BUT not for a person who's already dragging his self and feeling extra fatigued 🥵

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@PumaPie

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Gut Microbiome Likely Influences Neurodegenerative DisordersChristine KilgoreApril 02, 20252584WASHINGTON, DC — Age-related neurodegenerative disorders — motor neuron diseases, demyelinating diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, and other proteinopathies — are at an “inflection point,” said researcher Andrea R. Merchak, PhD, with a fuller understanding of disease pathophysiology but an overall dearth of effective disease-modifying treatments. And this, Merchak said at the Gut Microbiota for Health (GMFH) World Summit 2025, is where the gut microbiome comes in. “The gut-brain axis is important to take into consideration,” she urged, both for gut microbiome researchers — whose collaboration with neurologists and neuroscientists is essential — and for practicing gastroenterologists.“We are the sum of our environmental exposures,” said Merchak, assistant research professor of neurology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, in Indianapolis. “So for your patient populations, remember you’re not only treating the diseases they’re coming to you with, you’re also treating them for a lifetime of healthy [brain] aging.”At the center of a healthy aging brain are the brain-residing microglia and peripheral monocytes, she said. These immune cell populations are directly influenced by blood-brain barrier breakdown, inflammation, and gut permeability — and indirectly influenced by microbial products, gastrointestinal (GI) function, and bacterial diversity, Merchak said at the meeting, which was convened by the American Gastroenterological Association and the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility. immune-privileged site, but we’ve been establishing that this is fundamentally not true,” she said. “While the brain does have a privileged status, there are interactions with the blood, with the peripheral immune cells.”Merchak coauthored a 2024 review in Neurotherapeutics in which she and her colleagues explained that the brain is “heavily connected with peripheral immune dynamics,” and that the gut — as the largest immune organ in the body — is a critical place for peripheral immune development, “thus influencing brain health.” Gut microbiota interact with the brain via several mechanisms including microbiota-derived metabolites that enter circulation, direct communication via the vagus nerve, and modulation of the immune system, Merchak and her coauthors wrote. Leaky gut, they noted, can lead to an accumulation of inflammatory signals and cells that can exacerbate or induce the onset of neurodegenerative conditions. As researchers better understand the role that GI dysfunction plays in neurodegenerative disease — as they identify microbiome signatures for predicting risk, for instance — there will be “opportunities to target the microbiome to prevent or reverse dysbiosis as a way to delay, arrest or prevent the onset and progression of neurodegenerative diseases,” they wrote.At the GMFH meeting, Merchak described both ongoing preclinical research that is dissecting gut-brain communication, and preliminary clinical evidence for the use of gut microbiota-modulating therapies in neurodegenerative disease.Support for a Gut-Focused ApproachResearch on bile acid metabolism in multiple sclerosis (MS) and on peripheral inflammation in dementia exemplify the ongoing preclinical research uncovering the mechanisms of gut-brain communication, Merchak said The finding that bile acid metabolism modulates MS autoimmunity comes from research done by Merchak and a team at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, several years ago in which mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) — an animal model of MS — were engineered for T cell specific knockout of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR). The AHR has been directly tied to MS, and T lymphocytes are known to play a central role in MS pathophysiology.Blocking the activity of AHR in CD4-positive T cells significantly affected the production of bile acids and other metabolites in the microbiome — and the outcome of central nervous system autoimmunity. “Mice with high levels of bile acids, both primary and secondary, actually recovered from this EAE” and regained motor function, Merchak said at the GMFH meeting.The potential impact of genetic manipulation on recovery was ruled out — and the role of bile acids confirmed — when, using the EAE model, gut bacteria from mice without AHR were transplanted into mice with AHR. The mice with AHR were able to recover, confirming that AHR can reprogram the gut microbiome and that “high levels of bile acid can lead to reduced autoimmunity in an MS model,” she said.Other elements and stages of the research, which was published in PLOS Biology in 2023, showed increased apoptosis of CD4-positive immune cells in AHR-deficient mice and the ability of oral taurocholic acid — a bile acid that was especially high in mice without AHR — to reduce the severity of EAE, Merchak said.Evidence for the role of gut and peripheral inflammation on neurodegeneration is building on numerous fronts, Merchak said. Unpublished research using spatial transcriptomics of colon biopsies from patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), and neurologically healthy control individuals, for instance, showed similar cell communication patterns in patients with IBD or PD (and no history of IBD) compared with healthy control individuals.And in research using a single-cell genomics approach and a mouse model of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced system neuroinflammation, microglia were found to preferentially communicate with peripheral myeloid cells rather than other microglia after peripheral LPS exposure.“In saline-treated mice, the microglia are talking primarily to microglia, but in LPS-treated mice, microglia spend more time communicating with monocytes and T cells,” Merchak explained. “We see communication going from inside the brain to cells coming in from the periphery.”In another experiment, 2 months of a high-fat, high-sugar diet in mice with an engineered predisposition to frontotemporal dementia led to significant upregulation of major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC II) expression on monocytes in the brain, she said, describing unpublished research. Because MHC II handles antigen presentation in the brain, the change signals increased central-peripheral immune crosstalk and increased brain inflammation.State of Clinical ResearchOn the clinical side, Merchak said studies of gut microbiome-modulating therapies are currently not longitudinal enough to accurately study neurodegenerative diseases that may develop over decades. Still, her review of the literature — part of her 2024 article — suggests there is at least some preliminary clinical evidence for the use of probiotics/prebiotics/diet and fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) in several diseases.Parkinson’s Disease: “There has been some evidence,” Merchak said at the meeting, “for the treatment [with probiotics, prebiotics and diet] of nonmotor symptoms — things like gastrointestinal distress and mood changes — but no real evidence that such treatments can help with the motor symptoms we see in Parkinson’s.” Over 60 patients with PD have been treated with FMT, she said, with reduced GI distress and mixed results with motor symptoms.Alzheimer’s and related dementias: “Diet shows promise for cognitive outcomes, but there hasn’t been much evidence for probiotics,” she said. Her review found 17 patients diagnosed with dementia who were treated with FMT, “and for many of them, maintenance of cognitive function was reported — so no further decline — which is excellent.”Multiple Sclerosis: “We see higher quality-of-life measures in patients getting probiotics, prebiotics, and changes in diet,” Merchak said. “Again, most of this [relates to] mood and digestion, but some studies show a slowing of neurological damage as measured by MRI.” There are reports of 15 patients treated with FMT, and “three of these document full functional recovery,” she said, noting that longer follow-up is necessary as MS is characterized by relapsed and periods of recovery.Merchak reported no financial disclosures.2584CreditsLead image: iStock/Getty ImagesMedscape Medical News © 2025 WebMD, LLCSend comments and news tips to [email protected] this: Gut Microbiome Likely Influences Neurodegenerative Disorders - Medscape - April 02, 2025.CommentsWhat to Read Next on MedscapeBUSINESS OF MEDICINEUnlocking Longevity: Aging ReimaginedUS FDA Warns Four Firms Over Unapproved Fluoride Drugs for ChildrenLong COVID and Mental Illness: New GuidanceRecommended ReadingNEWSWhere Is the 'Microbiome Revolution' Headed Next?NEWSThe Long, Controversial Search for a 'Cancer Microbiome'NEWSHypothyroidism Linked to Gut Microbiome DisturbancesNEWSInfant Microbiome Drives Immune DevelopmentRelated Conditions & ProceduresInfective EndocarditisTrending Clinical Topics for February 2019Fast Five Quiz: Alzheimer's Disease ComorbiditiesFast Five Quiz: Can You Advise Nutrition and Diet for Patients With Crohn's Disease?EpinephrineA Man With Hypertension and Recent Personality ChangesSLIDESHOWPhysicians of the Year 2022: Best and WorstExpert CommentaryWhere Is the 'Microbiome Revolution' Headed Next?The Long, Controversial Search for a 'Cancer Microbiome'Hypothyroidism Linked to Gut Microbiome DisturbancesLog in or register for free to unlock more Medscape contentUnlimited access to our entire network of sites and services

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@NumbTingles

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Wet leg / foot sensation

My body isn’t my friend at the moment and I have been experiencing burning sensations on my skin since the beginning of March, particularly in a specific area across my hip, but it has now spread. My GP has been trying to support me with this but so far with little success. I am awaiting a referral ...

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@taesham

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Wegovy

I just was prescribed with the Wegovy injections. This is my first time using this type of medication & I am absolutely nervous about it overall . If anyone has taken or is currently taking it, please share some tips and advice 😊

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