Richard Core is a retired journalist living in Los Angeles who has had multiple sclerosis since 2004. Over the years he has used at least six different disease-modifying therapies.
Core strives to continue the physically active lifestyle he has maintained throughout most of his life. He cycles, works out on machines at his gym, and takes yoga classes. He also tries to eat healthy, limiting his intake of meat, dairy products, and processed foods.
Core’s first symptoms of MS presented themselves rather dramatically. While getting out of bed one morning — 2 days after easily completing a 20-mile marathon training run — his legs collapsed. It took a year for him to find a healthcare provider who could provide the diagnosis Core suspected all along — he had the relapsing-remitting form of MS. MRIs have detected lesions on his brain, cervical spine, and thoracic spine, which cause constant numbness and tingling in both feet and lower legs, drop-foot and hyperextended knee and hip joints on his right side, and reduced strength and dexterity in his right arm.
In 2022 Core fulfilled a dream by completing a solo bicycle ride across the United States — from Santa Monica, CA, to New Bedford, MA — in which he covered more than 3,800 miles in 86 days and visited old friends and family along the way.