I feel a little guilty. I have posted a couple of times about dogs and how they can be wonderful for people with MS, both as service animals and as loving companions. However, I realize that many of you have cats that make your life a little more wonderful.

Although I have not owned a cat in a long time, I do remember the comfort that a purring cat could bring to me when I was under stress or sad. When I had bouts of insomnia, having a cat snuggled up next to me would work wonders in helping me "let go" of worrisome thoughts, allowing me to drift off to sleep.

I have also noticed that cats tend to come into people's lives in unusual ways, sometimes just when they are needed to fill a gap or bring some happiness.

What about you? Do you have a cat that lifts your spirits? Does your cat make you forget about your symptoms (or make you feel them a little less) sometimes? How did you get your cat? Tell us about your cat in the comment section below.

In my latest post, Are You a Vegetarian with Multiple Sclerosis?, I discussed wanting to eat less meat overall, but being restricted by the guidelines of the Best Bet Diet.

Writing this post reminded me that vegetarians, especially vegans, often need to take supplements of vitamin B12. Studies have shown that people with MS have a higher rate of vitamin B12 deficiency than the general population, probably due to a problem with binding and transport of this vitamin.

Logic would tell us that if someone is both living with MS and restricting foods containing B-12 (primarily eggs, seafood and meat), that their chances of being deficient in vitamin B12 would have to be pretty good, or at least much higher than most other people.

If you are a person with MS who is also a vegetarian/vegan, consider getting your vitamin B12 levels checked. The symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency include fatigue, headache, and memory loss. We all have our share of MS symptoms, many of which are the same as those of B12 deficiency. Wouldn't it be great to find out that a little vitamin pill could make us feel even a little better?

It should also be noted that Solu-Medrol can lower vitamin B12 levels, so it might be worth getting levels checked if you were just treated for a relapse, as well.

Have you ever had your vitamin B12 levels checked? What led you to do this? What were the results? Do any of you take a regular vitamin B12 supplement? Share your experiences and tips in the comments section below.

Read the full article: Vitamin B12 and Multiple Sclerosis

I have increasingly cut back on the amount of meat that I eat. This is for several reasons, but mostly because I prefer to cook vegetarian meals. I would really prefer to become a vegan, as I just gravitate towards that type of food.

However, I am also trying out an eating plan that is pretty close to the Best Bet Diet. This diet basically has you eliminating:

• Dairy
• Gluten
• Legumes
• Refined sugar
• Yeast

I actually have been able to do this pretty successfully. Yes, food choices are restricted, but there is some pretty delicious and healthy food that doesn't contain any of the non-allowable ingredients.

However, when you eliminate meat, poultry and fish from this kind of diet, you are pretty strapped for sources of protein. When I was an ovo-lacto vegetarian, I relied pretty heavily on eggs and dairy to fill in for the meat. When I was a vegan, it was beans and tofu, both of which are not allowable on the Best Bet Diet, as they are legumes. Peanut butter is out, too.

So, I was wondering how others may handle this. I do understand that it might not be possible to embrace vegetarianism at this point in my life, as long as I am following the Best Bet Diet. I think this diet is helping my symptoms - at least, I know I feel worse when I consume some of the things on the list. So, I can go ahead and keep eating meat and fish without too being too bothered by it. I also supplement with a rice protein powder in my smoothies, so I am already getting some protein there.

However, I did think that maybe someone out there had the answer or at least some suggestions for someone following the Best Bet Diet (or the MS Recovery Diet) who would like to eat less meat. Please, share your experiences and advice in the comment section below.

I think, with very few exceptions, those of us living with multiple sclerosis can always benefit from learning more about our disease. Whenever I have thought that I am pretty knowledgeable about MS and that my learning is done for awhile, I have been humbled by a piece of new information that I have stumbled upon that has made me realize that the amount that I understand is but a tiny percentage of the gigantic body of knowledge that exists about MS. Furthermore, information about MS is a moving target - there are few absolute "knowns" about this disease.

For these reasons, I was pretty excited to be introduced to MS Atrium at the ECTRIMS conference in October. This new web-based source of information about MS is presented in a unique and effective way - the user chooses a subject area such as "Science of MS" or "Evolutions in Care" and is then offered selections of presentations with such titles as "What is the financial burden of MS?" or "Is 'benign MS' truly benign?"

I had the opportunity to speak with one of the creators of the project, Dr. Stephen Krieger, who told me that the site was designed for doctors and people with MS, but there was no limitation on viewing the topics - people with MS could look at the materials for doctors (and docs were certainly welcome to visit the "Patient Resources" room, if they were so inclined). I'll put it out there right now - this is a project of Genzyme. However, nowhere on the site did I see anything that skewed any of the information toward any drug or product (besides the Genzyme logo in the top right corner).

So what is there for people with MS? Well, at this point, the "Patient Resources" room is still being built and just contains links to other sites, but this is supposed to be filled with all sorts of information in the near future. However, what excited me the most were the topics in the "Evolutions in Care" room. I am pretty sure many of you could find a topic or two here that is interesting to check out, with more on the way.

There is also a feature called "MS Alerts," that allows you to receive news on MS compiled from several different sources. You can even customize it to include exactly the news feeds that you want. Go to the "Community Commitment" room and click on the "Access the App" icon - once you are in that screen, clicking on the question mark will tell you how to use this feature.

I'd love for you to visit the site and give feedback. It is new and does have some bugs to be worked out and lots more information needs to be added. This is where we can help by offering suggestions, telling the creators what works well for you and what is frustrating, saying what you'd like to see more of. When I met Dr. Krieger, he was very sincere about making the MS Atrium a resource that people would want to use. Again, I have really tried to find the "catch" where I can see that Genzyme is using this to lure docs and/or people with MS into the site in order to sell them something, but I can't find anything sketchy. This is not a drug marketing tool, but an attempt to educate people about MS. Take a look and see what you think. Share your opinion in the comments section below.