Latest news with #MS
WebMD
2 days ago
- Health
- WebMD
I Keep Losing Things
Does MS cause this, and what can I do about it? I've always had a problem with losing things, but lately it's gotten ridiculous. In the last four months, I've lost wallets, keys, a phone, a treasured kitchen knife, and even a couple of shirts. It's getting to be a major problem, so I have been asking for help, and I've found some really useful ideas. One doesn't have to have multiple sclerosis (MS) to lose things, but it helps. According to the National MS Society (NMSS), at least half of people with MS will experience some kind of unwanted changes in memory or thinking. 'Somewhere between 4 and 7 in every 10 people with MS,' they write, 'will experience some kind of changes in memory or thinking.' You can see how memory loss could make it harder to find things – Where did I put that pen? Where did I leave my car keys? Memory loss often leads to losing things. It happens to people as they age, so a lot of ways to cope with it have been discovered. I will divide them into two categories: losing things in the home and losing them in the outside world. Losing things at home is annoying and time wasting, but at least things usually get found eventually. The best way to prevent it is to have an ordered, uncluttered living space. When I was young, I often heard adults say, 'A place for everything, and everything in its place.' An excellent idea, but what if you have more things than places to put them? Or what if you have so many places that you can't remember what goes where? We might have to simplify our lives to make that work. Have less stuff. Personally, I like living simply; I've never enjoyed having lots of random stuff, but others disagree. The NMSS advises having a set place for essential things – like car keys, or your glasses – and always putting them there. Make the place specific; not just 'on the table by the door,' but 'in the blue bowl on the table by the door.' Then we have to train ourselves to consistently use the chosen space. Making organization a habit is the key. In remembering what goes where, labels are a big adult son recently came over and labeled many of our drawers and shelves with what's supposed to live there, which makes things easier to find. The NMSS suggests keeping important stuff in a place you visit frequently, like in a bag with pockets over the kitchen door. Label the pockets. When we do lose things, stressing out about it makes it and wait, try to visualize where you put the thing, and it may come to you. Sometimes my wife can find things I'm looking for, so I may ask her. And sometimes I can find things for her. I think people we live with may know our habits better than we know them ourselves, so may know where lost things are likely to be. Choosing exact spots for the disappearing things and using them consistently is key. Then you can expand to choosing exact spots for everything, 'from your scarves and belts to your receipts and house bills.' But you have to use the system. Don't cheat because you won't remember tomorrow where you put things today. That happened to me yesterday, and I almost lost another wallet. I have a shopping bag on my scooter where my wallet usually lives. I need to remember to put it back in the bag, but yesterday I bought something at the farmers' market, then moved on to the next booth. I kept the wallet in my lap instead of putting it back in the bag. When I got to the next purchase, the wallet was gone! I was freaked, but another shopper walking behind me had seen it fall out of my lap, picked it up, and returned it to me. Thank God for his honesty, but from now on, I have to be more consistent in putting it back. That gets much easier if I have fewer alternative places. Stop riding around with four or five bags and just have two: one for purchases and one for personal stuff. I also have to be slower and more careful about putting things in bags, because sometimes I think my hand is inside the bag when it's really between bags. Then things drop to the ground without me realizing it. That's how my last wallet got lost. I have to look at where I'm putting things to make sure they're really in there and to help me remember where I put them. Technology can help It's too bad I'm old and haven't grabbed on to the technological fixes younger people are using, but I'm going to start. For example, attaching a Bluetooth tracker to connect your keys or wallet or your glasses to your phone. You can call the wallet or maybe find it with a GPS tracker. Your phone manufacturer probably has a Find My Phone app that will show exactly where your phone is. Check out the manufacturer's website or store. There are also 'out of range finders' that you could put on a purse — or whatever you like — that will call your phone if it gets too far away. These devices are all battery powered and cost between $20 and $50 in most cases.
BBC News
3 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Aberdeen student creates comic to highlight hidden MS symptoms
A student has created a new comic to help highlight the "invisible symptoms" of multiple sclerosis (MS).University of Aberdeen PhD student Claire Robertson was inspired to create the comic because her father lives with the condition.A team of MS experts and comic book artists helped her create the book titled Through the MS Looking story follows an Alice in Wonderland-style narrative to help highlight the condition's symptoms. The 27-year-old student said she wanted to create something engaging and to present information about the condition in an "approachable way". She said: "MS is a topic that is quite close to my heart, because my dad has it. He was diagnosed back in 2011. "It is something I've grown up around and I'm very used to. "I feel like there is quite a lot of stigma with MS, so I wanted to visualise the symptoms through a comic using things like visual metaphors."Invisible symptoms of MS are things that people struggle with but are not immediately apparent to others. These include pain, fatigue, brain fog, bladder and bowel difficulties, dizziness and mental health challenges. The story follows two friends - one who has MS and one who does not. "The friend who doesn't have it struggles to understand it," Claire explains. "So they go on a journey to interact with different hidden symptoms along the way and gain a better understanding of what it can be like to live with these hidden symptoms."The artwork was created by Cat Laird and Ashling Larkin, while a team of experts were also involved in making the story to ensure the detail about living with MS was accurate. MS advice 'more approachable' Claire hopes presenting the information through a comic can make understanding it "less scary". She added: "It is more approachable to read health information when there is this kind of interplay between the text and the image. "With the comic it is just trying to get people thinking about health information and engaging with it when you are maybe not looking for it."The story can be found on the MS Trust is hoped a wider physical run will be produced soon. The MS Trust said the comic could help raise awareness about the "less obvious symptoms" and "improve knowledge" about MS."With invisible symptoms, there's a lot of stigma that can come with them, especially from people who don't have an understanding of MS," it said."There can be a lot of misunderstanding surrounding hidden symptoms and a lack of awareness of the difficulties that individuals with MS can face daily."
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
What is actually in Trip CBD drinks?
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an ad for Trip drinks following unauthorised claims they can "help you feel calm" and reduce stress and anxiety. The self-proclaimed "No. 1 CBD brand" in the UK has since removed this messaging from its marketing material – which included a statement on its website, seen in December, about how the drinks could be used to help people "unwind when work is over" or could be consumed in the morning "before a long day." The brand also claimed that its blend of ingredients – including magnesium citrate – "has been crafted for calm." Following an investigation, which examined complaints over three key issues, the watchdog concluded that the messaging around certain health claims were "not authorised." Yahoo UK has contacted Trip for comment. View this post on Instagram A post shared by TRIP (@ So, what is in Trip? Depending on the flavour, the ingredients vary from drink to drink. However, the base ingredients in all flavours are: Sparkling water Fruit juices from concentrate Flavour enhancers Botanical extracts L-theanine CBD extract Citric acid Sweetener Soya Some blends, such as the raspberry orange blossom and chamomile drink, also include magnesium citrate (according to its site, one 250ml can contains 24mg). Magnesium citrate, specifically, can help relieve constipation by increasing the amount of water your intestines absorb. The mineral magnesium, meanwhile, is important for bodily function and contributes towards healthy nerves, muscles, bones and cardiovascular system. It has also been linked to improved sleep and reduced anxiety. As for the CBD extract present in Trip drinks, the brand states that there is 25mg in each can. The rise of CBD products Cannabidiol (CBD) products have become increasingly popular – not just in the UK, but around the world. According to a 2023 report by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), there were 100 CBD products on its public list, on sale across England and Wales – with more than 12,000 CBD products linked to food applications. Samples included everything from sprays and oils, to beverages and even dog treats. CBD doesn't cause a high, though it is a chemical derived directly from the hemp plant. While there are various health claims associated with the active ingredient, further research is needed to determine its benefits and safety. In conjunction with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, aka, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis), it is used in medicine to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms. Similarly, there are traces of CBD in certain epilepsy medications, too. Read more about health: Are nicotine pouches as bad as vaping and smoking? (Yahoo Life UK, 6-min read) 11 side-effects of cannabis, as Sadiq Khan calls for partial decriminalisation (Yahoo Life UK, 6-min read) Eight foods that have the additive glycerol in, as experts warn against slushies (Yahoo Life UK, 4-min read)
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
IndyGo's riders with disabilities, low incomes protest 57% fare hike as final vote nears
Diagnosed with the immune system disorder multiple sclerosis a decade ago, Ryan Malone uses an IndyGo program for people with disabilities to schedule a private cab to and from work every weekday. Before his diagnosis, he relied on a typical bus for his daily commute because he's legally blind. "I use the paratransit services really for the MS more than the vision, just because with MS, you really need to have a steady, predictable environment," Malone said, referring to the bus system's paratransit program, IndyGo Access. His symptoms, mainly neuropathy that makes him lose feeling in his hands, legs and feet, "get worse if (I) get too hot or too cold or even too stressed." If IndyGo passes a 57% fare increase next month for all routes, Malone will be among the riders facing the largest new costs when the policy takes effect in January 2026. He expects to pay roughly $80 more a month for IndyGo Access services — similar to adding a new utility bill to his monthly budget. Under the new policy, the typical bus fare would increase from $1.75 to $2.75 per trip, while the starting IndyGo Access fare paid by riders like Malone would rise from $3.50 to $5.50 per trip. The price is higher for paratransit service, which picks up people from the door of their home and drops them off at their destination, because it costs more per rider than a fixed-route bus, IndyGo says. While Malone earns a good wage in his role at the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, he worries about other riders with disabilities who are on fixed incomes. Their struggle to make ends meet is similar to that of the typical IndyGo rider, who has no car, lives in a household earning less than $25,000 a year, and rides IndyGo to and from work every weekday, according to a 2022 rider survey. 'You're talking about people that by and large just don't have as many options financially or practically," Malone said. "They don't have a lot of options as far as how they get places and especially what they can afford." With ridership still down at three-quarters of pre-pandemic levels, IndyGo officials say they need to increase fares for the first time since 2009 to prevent service reductions or deferred upgrades to buses and facilities. The rising costs of fuel, labor and construction are outpacing the old fares. But more than a dozen riders who spoke with IndyStar and in IndyGo public meetings throughout June said they're frustrated by the attempt to increase fares all at once after a 16-year freeze. If the IndyGo board of directors passes the policy in an Aug. 21 vote, the new standard fare of $2.75 would be higher than those in comparable Midwestern cities like Columbus, Detroit, Nashville and even Chicago, where a single bus ride costs $2.25 (or $2.50 with cash). To riders like Kimberly Eskridge who are struggling to get by, the 57% fare hike seems "outrageous." Eskridge, 56, sat with a suitcase and bags full of laundry at the Julia Carson Transit Center on a recent weekday morning. She had ridden to a laundromat on the south side before heading downtown to meet her husband at a storage unit where she keeps some of her belongings. She and her husband currently earn little to no income and have no vehicle, she said. They're staying with someone they know on the south side because they can't afford their own place. "We can barely afford to ride the bus as it is," Eskridge said. "And then you want to raise it a whole dollar? You can't do it a quarter at a time or something?" IndyGo officials say that simple math brought them to the proposed 57% increase: $1.75 in January 2009 — the last year in which fares increased — is equal to about $2.61 today, adjusting for inflation. They rounded up to $2.75. In the 2000s, IndyGo increased fares by 25 cents every few years, going from $1.00 for a fixed-route trip at the start of the decade to $1.75 by the end. It's not clear why previous leaders abandoned that strategy during the 2010s, Chief Public Affairs Officer Carrie Black told IndyStar. Black suggested they were more focused on planning major initiatives like the 2016 Marion County Transit Plan, for which transit advocates convinced voters to approve a new 0.25% income tax to fund the creation of three new bus rapid transit lines. Purple Line: IndyGo's Purple Line jumps to No. 1 in monthly ridership as Red Line, other bus routes falter While expenses have kept rising, IndyGo has dealt with dwindling ridership and shrinking fare revenue in the years following a 23-year high of 10.2 million trips in 2014 — a slow downward trend that accelerated rapidly once the pandemic hit. Money from paying passengers in 2014 hit $11.6 million. By 2024, when ridership was down by about three million trips, fare revenues were cut in half to about $6 million. To make up the difference, a growing portion of IndyGo's costs have been paid for with local property and income taxes, state sales taxes and federal grants. Facing funding shortfalls down the road, IndyGo leaders are choosing to rip off the Band-Aid now. "We cannot continue to operate (this way)," IndyGo Executive Director Jennifer Pyrz said during a June meeting. "Fuel prices are going up. We've got a new collective bargaining agreement that means that our labor costs are up, and we want to make sure that we can provide fair wages to our frontline workers. The cost of construction is up." IndyGo riders like 19-year-old Desirae Biddle, who was taking the bus to her new job at Penn Station on a recent July morning, are well aware that the cost of everything seems to be rising. They just don't want a public service known for its affordability to follow that trend. "Ubers and Lyfts, they cost so much. That's why I ride the bus," Biddle said, adding that it takes her an hour and a half on two buses to get to work using IndyGo. "It's just so hard to get around." IndyGo's main solution to save frequent riders money is a fare-capping program, introduced in 2019 with the MyKey fare system, that puts daily and weekly limits on how much a rider has to pay. But those price caps would also increase under the new proposal, which would bump up the daily limit from $4 to $6 and the weekly limit from $15.75 to $24.75. And riders have been slow to make use of the MyKey system, with more than half choosing to pay with cash and missing out on savings, according to IndyGo data. Six years after MyKey's implementation, only one in five IndyGo riders uses the MyKey tap card or the mobile app for rides. Throughout public meetings in June, IndyGo leaders emphasized that paying with cash or coins while boarding is the most expensive way to ride the bus. IndyGo aims to push more people toward MyKey by educating them on the potential cost savings and phasing out other common payment alternatives like the 31-day pass, Black said. IndyGo has also faced criticism about missing out on revenue when riders purposely skip or neglect to pay the fares for the Red Line and the Purple Line, its most popular routes which are easy to board without paying. IndyGo now checks thousands of riders' fares a month. Among roughly 50,000 tickets checked through May, riders hadn't paid about 10% of the time, a June report shows. Pyrz said IndyGo would be seeking a price increase even if fare evasion weren't an issue. "Even if everybody paid 100% of the fare all the time," Pyrz said, "we would still be having this conversation." Email IndyStar Reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@ Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09 This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyGo to vote in August on 57% fare hike for bus riders
Indianapolis Star
4 days ago
- Health
- Indianapolis Star
IndyGo's riders with disabilities, low incomes protest 57% fare hike as final vote nears
Diagnosed with the immune system disorder multiple sclerosis a decade ago, Ryan Malone uses an IndyGo program for people with disabilities to schedule a private cab to and from work every weekday. Before his diagnosis, he relied on a typical bus for his daily commute because he's legally blind. "I use the paratransit services really for the MS more than the vision, just because with MS, you really need to have a steady, predictable environment," Malone said, referring to the bus system's paratransit program, IndyGo Access. His symptoms, mainly neuropathy that makes him lose feeling in his hands, legs and feet, "get worse if (I) get too hot or too cold or even too stressed." If IndyGo passes a 57% fare increase next month for all routes, Malone will be among the riders facing the largest new costs when the policy takes effect in January 2026. He expects to pay roughly $80 more a month for IndyGo Access services — similar to adding a new utility bill to his monthly budget. Under the new policy, the typical bus fare would increase from $1.75 to $2.75 per trip, while the starting IndyGo Access fare paid by riders like Malone would rise from $3.50 to $5.50 per trip. The price is higher for paratransit service, which picks up people from the door of their home and drops them off at their destination, because it costs more per rider than a fixed-route bus, IndyGo says. While Malone earns a good wage in his role at the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, he worries about other riders with disabilities who are on fixed incomes. Their struggle to make ends meet is similar to that of the typical IndyGo rider, who has no car, lives in a household earning less than $25,000 a year, and rides IndyGo to and from work every weekday, according to a 2022 rider survey. 'You're talking about people that by and large just don't have as many options financially or practically," Malone said. "They don't have a lot of options as far as how they get places and especially what they can afford." With ridership still down at three-quarters of pre-pandemic levels, IndyGo officials say they need to increase fares for the first time since 2009 to prevent service reductions or deferred upgrades to buses and facilities. The rising costs of fuel, labor and construction are outpacing the old fares. But more than a dozen riders who spoke with IndyStar and in IndyGo public meetings throughout June said they're frustrated by the attempt to increase fares all at once after a 16-year freeze. If the IndyGo board of directors passes the policy in an Aug. 21 vote, the new standard fare of $2.75 would be higher than those in comparable Midwestern cities like Columbus, Detroit, Nashville and even Chicago, where a single bus ride costs $2.25 (or $2.50 with cash). To riders like Kimberly Eskridge who are struggling to get by, the 57% fare hike seems "outrageous." Eskridge, 56, sat with a suitcase and bags full of laundry at the Julia Carson Transit Center on a recent weekday morning. She had ridden to a laundromat on the south side before heading downtown to meet her husband at a storage unit where she keeps some of her belongings. She and her husband currently earn little to no income and have no vehicle, she said. They're staying with someone they know on the south side because they can't afford their own place. "We can barely afford to ride the bus as it is," Eskridge said. "And then you want to raise it a whole dollar? You can't do it a quarter at a time or something?" IndyGo officials say that simple math brought them to the proposed 57% increase: $1.75 in January 2009 — the last year in which fares increased — is equal to about $2.61 today, adjusting for inflation. They rounded up to $2.75. In the 2000s, IndyGo increased fares by 25 cents every few years, going from $1.00 for a fixed-route trip at the start of the decade to $1.75 by the end. It's not clear why previous leaders abandoned that strategy during the 2010s, Chief Public Affairs Officer Carrie Black told IndyStar. Black suggested they were more focused on planning major initiatives like the 2016 Marion County Transit Plan, for which transit advocates convinced voters to approve a new 0.25% income tax to fund the creation of three new bus rapid transit lines. Purple Line: IndyGo's Purple Line jumps to No. 1 in monthly ridership as Red Line, other bus routes falter While expenses have kept rising, IndyGo has dealt with dwindling ridership and shrinking fare revenue in the years following a 23-year high of 10.2 million trips in 2014 — a slow downward trend that accelerated rapidly once the pandemic hit. Money from paying passengers in 2014 hit $11.6 million. By 2024, when ridership was down by about three million trips, fare revenues were cut in half to about $6 million. To make up the difference, a growing portion of IndyGo's costs have been paid for with local property and income taxes, state sales taxes and federal grants. Facing funding shortfalls down the road, IndyGo leaders are choosing to rip off the Band-Aid now. "We cannot continue to operate (this way)," IndyGo Executive Director Jennifer Pyrz said during a June meeting. "Fuel prices are going up. We've got a new collective bargaining agreement that means that our labor costs are up, and we want to make sure that we can provide fair wages to our frontline workers. The cost of construction is up." IndyGo riders like 19-year-old Desirae Biddle, who was taking the bus to her new job at Penn Station on a recent July morning, are well aware that the cost of everything seems to be rising. They just don't want a public service known for its affordability to follow that trend. "Ubers and Lyfts, they cost so much. That's why I ride the bus," Biddle said, adding that it takes her an hour and a half on two buses to get to work using IndyGo. "It's just so hard to get around." IndyGo's main solution to save frequent riders money is a fare-capping program, introduced in 2019 with the MyKey fare system, that puts daily and weekly limits on how much a rider has to pay. But those price caps would also increase under the new proposal, which would bump up the daily limit from $4 to $6 and the weekly limit from $15.75 to $24.75. And riders have been slow to make use of the MyKey system, with more than half choosing to pay with cash and missing out on savings, according to IndyGo data. Six years after MyKey's implementation, only one in five IndyGo riders uses the MyKey tap card or the mobile app for rides. Throughout public meetings in June, IndyGo leaders emphasized that paying with cash or coins while boarding is the most expensive way to ride the bus. IndyGo aims to push more people toward MyKey by educating them on the potential cost savings and phasing out other common payment alternatives like the 31-day pass, Black said. IndyGo has also faced criticism about missing out on revenue when riders purposely skip or neglect to pay the fares for the Red Line and the Purple Line, its most popular routes which are easy to board without paying. IndyGo now checks thousands of riders' fares a month. Among roughly 50,000 tickets checked through May, riders hadn't paid about 10% of the time, a June report shows. Pyrz said IndyGo would be seeking a price increase even if fare evasion weren't an issue. "Even if everybody paid 100% of the fare all the time," Pyrz said, "we would still be having this conversation."
