My husband, Justin, works in fitness. Six months ago he opened a small-group personal training gym in our little Wisconsin town, and he’s been working to grow his membership, which now includes me. Something Justin talks about often with clients — while he’s discussing training, nutrition, or other lifestyle…
Unearned guilt is one of the most useless emotions in the world. Guilt never has a full belly. It feeds eternally upon itself and adds to what’s there. Unearned guilt glues itself to the soul and wearily weighs it down. As the Depeche Mode song “Halo” says, guilt is like…
Amgen’s antibody-based therapy inebilizumab reduces the severity of generalized myasthenia gravis (MG), according to top-line data from a Phase 3 clinical trial. Dubbed MINT (NCT04524273), the study showed inebilizumab’s therapeutic efficacy in gMG patients who test positive for self-reactive antibodies against the acetylcholine receptor (AChR) or muscle-specific…
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus, king of Corinth, offends the gods and is sentenced to spend eternity rolling a stone up a mountain, only to have it roll back down just as it reaches the top. The punishment doled out to Sisyphus is horrifying. How awful it is to…
ARGX-119, an antibody designed to increase the activity of the muscle-specific kinase (MuSK) protein, protected against the development of neuromuscular disease in mice in a model of MuSK-associated myasthenia gravis (MG), and eased or reversed evident symptoms in animals with disease onset, scientists report. With further work, such an…
Blood levels of specific antibodies that target the muscle-specific tyrosine kinase (MuSK) may be biomarkers of disease severity and treatment response in people with myasthenia gravis (MG) who are positive for anti-MuSK antibodies. A study finds that high levels of MuSK-IgG4 — an anti-MuSK antibody subclass – were associated…
Snow in September? Last week I got a new tattoo. The session was my husband’s gift for our anniversary this year. I told the tattoo artist that I wanted something to mark my myasthenia gravis (MG): a snowflake with the color teal, incorporated into some sort…
The most crippling disability in the world is the mindset of nondisabled people who define people with disabilities by their physical limitations, refuse to view them as full human beings, or ignore their disabilities for self-serving purposes. I’ve been guilty of the latter offense for a long time. I know…
Treatment with the immunosuppressant Prograf (tacrolimus) within one year of the onset of juvenile myasthenia gravis (JMG) was found to be safe and effective in a study of pediatric patients in China. Patients who were started on Prograf earlier after JMG onset were significantly more likely to achieve…
The use of myasthenia gravis (MG) treatments did not increase COVID-19 infection risk or severity, according to a new study of Chinese patients with both generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) and ocular types of MG. In fact, continuing treatment with nonspecific nonsteroidal immunosuppressants and antibody therapies during infection…
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