I first met Ann Curry in 2011 when I was invited on the Today show as a medical consultant to talk about preventing stroke and cardiovascular disease. Curry wanted viewers to know how they could ward off these conditions by paying attention to key health numbers: cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar. She hoped the information would motivate people to take control of their own health.

Now, eight years later, she's taking that idea one step further with Chasing the Cure, a new multimedia project airing live on TNT and TBS this month. The television show and its online component use crowdsourcing to solve medical mysteries. In our cover story, Curry describes how she's enlisting the help of doctors, specialists, and the public to diagnose difficult cases. In short, she's turning everyone into an advocate.

Advocacy—the ability to speak for yourself or on behalf of others—is the main goal of Brain & Life. We encourage advocacy in every issue through the stories we tell, the research we highlight, and the information we provide. As our feature on Curry and other articles demonstrate, this issue is no exception. In Speak Up, we include an essay by Dan Hansen, a father who advocates for his son Kyle, who has cerebral palsy but wanted to learn to ride a bike. In the process, Kyle learned to advocate for himself, taking on the difficult but rewarding task of practicing until he mastered riding the bike.

In Healthy Living, we feature Sharon Eilts, a special education teacher who uses comic strips to empower students with special needs to stand up for themselves if they're being bullied or ignored. She also uses them as tools to teach mainstream students how to treat others with respect. In Pictures of You, Grace Jun, a professor at the Parsons School of Design, pushes for better and more accessible clothing design for people with disabilities. In a summer program at the Open Style Lab, she pairs design teams with people with disabilities to create fashionable but practical garments. Dan, Kyle, Sharon, and Grace are just a few examples of advocates inspired by their experiences.

In our story on multiple sclerosis (MS), we explain the latest thinking on how to treat newly diagnosed patients and provide up-to-date information on disease-modifying therapies. This allows readers with MS to be more informed and proactive about their treatment.

Finally, our Brain Boost column describes the effects of anesthesia on the brain and explains how neurologic conditions like epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease are more susceptible to its effects and what you can do before surgery to ensure a swift recovery. One of our experts says the best way to prevent delirium and states of confusion after surgery in elderly patients is—you guessed it—advocacy. He says family members should make sure patients stay hydrated and have a bed near a window so they can see when it's night and day. They also should be sure hearing aids and eyeglasses are handy and assess medications to avoid drugs that might cause confusion.

Whether you want to advocate for yourself as Kyle does or for others like so many caregivers, we hope our stories provide myriad ways and resources to encourage you to take charge. If you have your own advocacy story, please share it with us by writing to BrainandLife@wolterskluwer.com .

Orly Avitzur, MD, MBA, FAAN, Editor-in-Chief