7 msfocusmagazine.org wheelchairs or with mobility impairments have benefited from MSFC’s programs. David’s new book, Everyday Health and Fitness with Multiple Sclerosis, also contains instructions for adapting each exercise specifically for people who workout while seated. The best exercise is the exercise you can and will do. At MS Focus, we encourage people to get creative about exercise, and find something you will enjoy that keeps you moving. For one great example, read about the Perky Hornets on page 36. To learn more about the MS Focus Health and Wellness Grant that supports programs like these, visit www.msfocus.us/HWG4MS The YouTube video you posted on cannabinoids and multiple sclerosis was fabulous. (Editor’s note: this video of a presentation by MS Focus senior medical advisor Ben Thrower, M.D. was featured in the Read. Watch. Listen. column, of our Spring 2017 issue.) The legal use of medical marijuana has given me the strength to maintain steady employment and teach urban gardening on weekends in Miami’s inner city. Just months ago, I came very close to filing for disability and Medicare. Living for nearly 20 years with MS has left me with serious brain damage and the medical tests, procedures, and treatments have ravaged my body. Gone are the muscles from my 6’1”, 240-pound frame that I struggle today to keep above 160 pounds. When the price of my drugs surpassed $70,000 a year, it became unaffordable and led me to seek out equally effective and lower-cost medications. During the journey, I made radical lifestyle changes that included daily exercise and growing my own food. However, my biggest change came last November when a majority of Floridians voted to allow qualified people to obtain “compassionate use” cards. Today, legal access to low-THC medical marijuana helps me safely cope with vision problems, pain, and tremors much better than my prior medicines. ThankyoutoallwhosupportedAmendment 2 and voted sensibly to help seriously ill citizens in Florida have another chance at living a full life. Theo Karantsalis, Miami Springs, Fla. Dear Theo, The use of marijuana for symptom management in MS is becoming more widely accepted, particularly for the treatment of pain and spasticity.According to theAmerican Academy of Neurology’s evidence-based guidelines for CAM therapies in MS, there is strong evidence that oral cannabis extract lessens patients’ reported symptoms of spasticity, and the pain it causes. However, it must be noted that there is no evidence that cannabis can delay relapses or slow the progression of MS. As yet, only the FDA-approved disease-modifying therapies have been shown to do so. There are still open questions about the use of marijuana as a symptom management treatment. It is our hope, with attitudes changing toward the medical use of marijuana, that large, well-designed clinical trials will be conducted to answer those questions.