MS Living Well Podcast: Aging and Multiple Sclerosis

Image: Maria Lupan on Unsplash

Our immune systems become less robust as we age. With an autoimmune disease such as multiple sclerosis, a weakened immune system can lead to less relapses and active MRI lesions.  However, many people living with multiple sclerosis develop progressive disease with worsening physical and cognitive disability as they age. Strategies to live better with MS as one grows older are shared.

The vast majority of treatments for multiple sclerosis have been studied in people 55 years of age or younger. However, 46% of people living with MS are older than age 55.  New studies are answering important questions about MS treatment in older patients. At what age, can treatment safely be stopped without risk of relapse or worsening disability? Safety concerns such as serious infections, cancer risk and immunization responsiveness in older MS patients on immunosuppressive treatments are addressed.

Season 4 MS Living Well podcast is sponsored by Octave.

Barry Singer MD, director of The MS Center for Innovations in Care, interviews:

Bianca Weinstock-Guttman MD

Bianca Weinstock-Guttman MD is a Professor of Neurology at the Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences in Buffalo, New York. She is the Director of the Jacobs MS Center for Treatment and Research since 2002. Dr. Weinstock-Guttman competed a fellowship in neuroimmunology at the Cleveland Clinic. She serves as executive director of the New York State Multiple Sclerosis Consortium.

John Corboy MD

John Corboy MD is a Professor of Neurology at the University of Colorado Denver, School of Medicine and Co-Director of the Rocky Mountain MS Center.  Dr. Corboy did his undergraduate, medical school, and Neurology training at the University of Pennsylvania, and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at John Hopkins. In 1997, he founded the University of Colorado Multiple Sclerosis Center, and has built it into a multidisciplinary group offering state-of-the-art care and research to MS patients.