Category: News

So, Masks Are No Longer Needed

But until another Florida judge bans “Long Covid,” new studies about diagnosis and treatment of this frequently disabling disorder will continue to be published. Symptoms of long Covid can be gastrointestinal, respiratory, or neurological.   Jack H. Florin MD | Your Neurologist in Orange County. A new study looked at 10 patients with postural orthostatic… Read more »

What Is Visual Snow?

It is grainy or pixelated vision, resembling a TV static overlay, and can be constant. It can be mistaken for floaters or visual ghosts. Even though the first case was reported in 1995 and only 10 cases by 2014, it clearly not rare. New studies show it affects 3% of everyone. Some people have had… Read more »

A Multiple Sclerosis Diet?

Newly diagnosed people with MS in particular want to know.   Jack H. Florin MD | Your Neurologist in Orange County. The answer has been elusive without biomarkers, other than MRI, to evaluate treatment efficacy and disease course. Serum neurofilament light chain protein(sNfL) is a new sensitive and accurate biomarker of damage to neurons and… Read more »

Questions about Long-COVID-19 Brain Fog

Is it real? Depression and anxiety are tightly intertwined with cognition. But the distinctive pattern of the deficits supports the conclusion that, in most patients, depression and anxiety are the result and not the cause of the cognitive impairment. What are the symptoms? A new study looked at 740 patients with an average age of… Read more »

What Causes Depression and Anxiety in Multiple Sclerosis?

The obvious answer — the response to an unpredictable and potentially disabling disease. But how to explain the fact that levels of depression and anxiety are higher in MS than in rheumatoid arthritis patients with the same level of physical disability. Or that depression, insomnia, fatigue, and cognitive impairment can occur before onset of typical… Read more »

A Toast to Good Health

According to Abraham Lincoln, “the problems with alcohol relate not to the use of a bad thing but to the abuse of a good thing.” This, of course, is not news, but what exactly is a “healthy” drinking habit? According to a study from the Mayo Clinic, the key is to drink before or with… Read more »

Vaccine Safety: The Latest from the Mayo Clinic

Vaccination offers the only way out of the COVID-19 pandemic, threatened more by vaccine hesitancy than anything else. Of concern is a recent report of six cases of cerebral venous thrombosis 1–2 weeks after the Johnson and Johnson/Janssen (JJ) vaccine, the first reported such complications despite the use of 7 million doses. Is this a… Read more »

The Next Blockbuster Parkinson’s Treatment: Exercise!

Every study that looked at it found that exercise is beneficial for people with Parkinson’s. What is new is a study that revealed that higher levels of physical activity slow cognitive decline in APOE-4 carriers, an especially high-risk group. Exercise acts as a symptomatic therapy, much like levodopa, meaning that it alleviates motor, mood and… Read more »

Another Supplement for Multiple Sclerosis

The road to a cure for MS is littered with failed supplements. Biotin is the most recent fatality. The latest candidate is N-Acetyl Glucosamine (NAG), a building block of complex sugars and glycoproteins. It is a reasonably priced over-the-counter dietary supplement used to treat joint pain and inflammatory bowel disease, and to prevent cardiovascular disease…. Read more »

COVID-19 “Long-Haulers”

Possible causes of this new syndrome include autoimmune reactions, lingering reservoirs of virus, and functional neurological disorders. Several new reports provide some insights. One study found that very few long-haulers were hospitalized and about 30% had no or very mild symptoms. Most were middle-aged and not elderly. Over 40% had depression or anxiety before being… Read more »