Multiple Sclerosis Treatment

Baptist Health Lexington: Multiple Sclerosis

Neurologist James Winkley, MD gives hope for those coping with Multiple Sclerosis. Learn early about disease modifying drugs and other therapies that improve quality of life.

Multiple Sclerosis Health Talks Transcript

James M. Winkley, MD

The thing we like to tell people when they’ve been diagnosed with MS is that it’s not a terminal condition. An early diagnosis seems to be the key issue. As this disease has gone on for a longer period of time we have less ability to impact where they are going to end up.

The sooner we get it treated, and the more likely we are able to reduce their disease burden, the better they are going to do for the long term, because once they get this disease it’s a lifelong condition. And the message we try to give them is hope. With the amount of medications that we have now to really change the course, they are called disease modifying drugs because they change the course of this disease. You can be significantly better with a wide range of choices we have. We can find something for most people that’s going to really improve their quality of life. It’s not great that you’ve developed this but we do have really good therapies that are going to help you.

Our goal is to keep people working. We want to give them the things that they find to be the most fulfilling in life. We spend most of our time treating Multiple Sclerosis patients. It’s been our focus that we try to reach out to the community and let them know that there can be a greater amount of services available to them. Having them all coordinated and having such a great time with those I work with makes all the difference in the world.