Episode 108 - Clinical Trials: Why I Never Considered This For My Alopecia

And at the time I had a very close uncle and he was so important in my life and just so, so important to my whole family. He was 24 years of age... and sorry if you hear my voice crack, it's a little bit emotional, but I was 8, he was 24, and at 24 years of age, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. And this is way back, like, way back in the day, 1990. The medical establishment, the medical research on brain tumors, the medical knowledge is a lot different now than it was then, correct? Things have changed, there's more knowledge. There's more education, there's more everything.

At the time I was living in California and so was he, and when he was diagnosed, he was actually, how can I tell you? He was actually diagnosed during the time of his wedding. So he started off having lots of headaches on the day that he got married to his childhood sweetheart. They had been boyfriend and girlfriend since they were 15 and they finally decided to get married at 24. They were both the same age and they finally got married and the night of his wedding.

So at the reception of the wedding, he had like these massive, massive headaches. He had a destination wedding. So he went to a local doctor, the doctor's like, go see a doctor back in the US. They didn't really say anything, they didn't want to diagnose him, but they knew it was severe enough that he should see better, western medical doctors and the doctors where he was. And so he came back to the US at UCLA and he was seen at the doctors there and he was told: Look, you have a brain tumor, it's in a position in the head where we can't operate on and it's so severe where, you know, this and this and this is going to happen and you have 6 months to live.

And if I can just even describe to you who my uncle was, you know, he was 24 years old, he, he was 6'4 you know, 6'5 in height. Which for my Europeans and all my internationals, that's almost 2 meters high in height. He was fit, he was active, he was muscular, and yet at the young age of 24, he was told he only has 6 months to live. This news, you know, devastated my family and has left a very emptiness within the family as well, you know, cause we're missing somebody.

I understand when people pass, you know, depending on the situation, when they're, whether they're 90 years old or 80 years old, like I get it, your time is up 80-90 years old, you've had a long life. You've had lots of options. At 24, you're barely starting your life, you're barely understanding what you want, what you want to do, and how you're going to make that happen. He essentially was for all intents and matters and purposes here, essentially diagnosed on his wedding day.

And at UCLA they told him his options, and he said: Okay, I'm gonna take the clinical trials, and he did. And yes, that elongated his lifespan by 6 months, but at the same time those 12 months that occurred and happened until his death were filled with challenges were filled with time consuming doctors visits. Were filled with just an unrecognizable person right in front of us transforming and transforming in the worst of ways.

I'm going to spare you all the details, but this young 24 year old went from being, let's say 200 pounds because he's 6,5 muscular to over 300 pounds in less than 6 months, but because of the medication, because of the side effects of the medication, he ballooned to such an extent where he couldn't maneuver his body. Imagine like gaining so much weight in such a small amount of time and then having to not only buy a bunch of new clothes and shoes, but then also having to maneuver your body and how to balance it and how to do all these things.

On top of it a lot of the other side effects was loss of eyesight, loss of mobility and all the right side of his side, so he wore like an eye patch on his right eye and everything else on the right side stopped working, only the left side was functioning. He's a big guy, was a big guy. And he was married to a very petite girl. My grandma's very petite too and they had to help shower him, they had to help take him to the restroom and all these things. And so for 2 petite women, this was difficult.

And here I am, 8-9 years old, witnessing all these things, all these transformations, all these discussions. Not only is it heartbreaking, but it's heart wrenching to see that, by choice, you decided to undergo these clinical trials, and yet the worst came out of it because it just caused more angst, more suffering, more pain, more everything, more challenges, more obstacles, much more side effects than anything else and let me take this back to alopecia because I know this is what you're waiting for.

But whenever I hear the word clinical trials, it's a hell no. I'll never submit myself or any child of mine or any family member, like we've all learned our lesson. The clinical trial route is not an option, not just for us, but it shouldn't be an option for you either. The ramifications, the side effects, the things you can't even imagine that would happen, happened. And I saw this firsthand with my uncle. And so now when I see ads for clinical trials from pharmaceutical companies trying to cherry pick people of, you know, online or social media, it just sickens me. It absolutely sickens me and it creates like this nausea in my stomach.

And It's not worth it. At the end of the day, clinical trials are not worth it. It's not worth your health, your situation might be dire in terms of hair loss, but at the same time it's not worth it to undergo some sort of unknown treatment, unknown efficacy, unknown safety, unknown long list of ramifications and side effects. Only to deteriorate your health even more, only to deteriorate your situation even more. It's not worth it.

And if you start looking back at medical history and how people recover from mistakes or how people learn about these side effects and things of this nature, it's because people have been harmed. People have been disabled, people have died because of so many of these trials and errors. And that's the word I want to highlight, is errors.

And many times when people come out with a new drug or a new thing, you don't know exactly the ramifications of it until later on. And maybe not even 5 or 10 years. And I'm not saying like this is going to show up like it's an allergy to some sort of food within 24 to 72 hours. I'm talking, it can take years for us to realize that A has a correlation to B. There's a podcast episode that I talked about blind spots and one in particular that I mentioned was breast implants. If you haven't heard it, I highly, highly recommend that you do.

Breast implants is a big one when it comes to hair loss, when it comes to blind spots, when it comes to connecting A to B, when it comes to connecting the ramifications and side effects to your health, the deterioration of your health because of A, which is the breast implants. No one gave any of my friends who've done this surgery a little pamphlet, a little post it note to say: Hey, these are the things that you're going to look forward to. No, none of them were given that and none of them were given anything else once they took them out.

And so this has been only now, 20, 40, 30 years later has been like brought to light. And sometimes that's what it takes, it takes 20, 30, 40 years for things to happen, unless it's like really astounding. And sometimes medical mistakes happen that way. And if you start researching, you'll start to see the variety of medical mistakes and human error that is in medicine.

And again, I'm not against medicine, but at the same time, I have a cautious way of seeing things. And in terms of my uncle, you know, I was 9 years old, 8 years old. I don't know what alternative medicine would have done, could have done, should have done. I think with the tools and the techniques that I have now, I definitely could have helped him. Had I been more knowledgeable at 9 years old. But many times we go through things so we learn from them and many times people set the tone, set the stage for us, so that it doesn't have to happen again.

And in terms of alopecia, I strongly believe that clinical trials are a waste of time, a waste of money, a waste of efforts, a waste of everything and it will only create more havoc and more deteriorated health. And this is just me speaking about clinical trials for alopecia, and why do I believe that? Well, it's not just because of my experience with my uncle having a brain tumor at the age of 9 witnessing my 24 year old uncle with this, and seeing how horrible his last 8-9 months of life were, so much so where towards the end he was just bedridden.

That's not the last 9 months I would have wanted to live. Looking back, I'm sure he would have chosen a different route. I'm sure he would have just chosen to live life as fully as possible with his new wife and just let the cancer take over if that's what he wanted. But potentially he wanted to elongate his life. It's hard to say and to have those conversations because I never had those conversations with him, it's hard to assume a lot of things. But the healing, for sure, was not there.

So going back to my alopecia, going back to what I see online with propaganda for clinical trials. It's not a healthy route, it's not the way, and I hope to God you never succumb to it. I hope to God you never consider it because this is a warning, a warning of what could and can happen. And just with a little bit of research that I've done online, there are more clinical trials that have failed than that have succeeded. And many are very dangerous, others have gone horribly wrong.

So with anything, I highly, highly recommend that you do your own research and also understand that many times when you are succumbing and submitting yourself to a clinical trial that you're waiving all your rights, just like when you accept a vaccine, you are waiving your rights. You can't say anything. You can't go back to the company or the pharmaceutical company or anyone else.

Should you be disabled? Should you have an adverse effect? Should you have a side effect? Should you have any ancillary situation happen to you after saying: Okay, let's do the clinical trial. If something happens, you have no recourse, you can't say anything, you can't sue anyone, you can't go after anyone, all your rights are taken away.

And so, again, those are like my top 5 reasons as to why a clinical trial is never an idea for me, never a thought for me. But for those of you, I'm hoping just a small percentage of you, and maybe zero, have even considered it or even thought about it, I hope my story, I hope this Insight this information, which again, you can do yourself, you can research this yourself and see what the pros and cons are, because guess what? I can tell you that the pharmaceutical representative is not going to give you the pros and the cons. They're only going to highlight the pros and that's it.

They're not going to highlight the cons, they're not going to tell you what the fine print is, they're not going to tell you that you're signing away your life, and they're also not going to tell you or be there for you should something happen. I feel very strongly about this, and I feel very, very strongly about the knowingness , the intellectual IQ that your body has innately. You were born with an innate ability to heal.

And again, it's just understanding how to support it and how to tailor this to you and how to take away obstacles and blind spots so that you can thrive and have your hair. The clinical trial, the latest and greatest medication is not the way. And even if it's something for weight loss, you know, the weight loss topic and umbrella is humongous. And there's so many different weight loss drugs that have come and gone, many that have caused deaths directly.

Anyone from the 90s, Fen-phen ring a bell? This was one, and you know, this is also why the European Union is much more cautious about accepting new drugs that come to the market, accepting new medications that come to the market versus the US. The US is like the wild, wild west when it comes to ¿ Medications. There's something new every week it seems like. And the EU is much more conservative. But even then, when they are conservative, It's also doesn't mean it's guaranteed or it's foolproof. That also doesn't mean that you're not going to have side effects or ramifications. It also doesn't mean that it's not going to be good for you or wreak havoc for you.

Just because it's approved doesn't mean it's good for you. Just because it's there on the market doesn't mean it's going to benefit you. So I hope you take all this into consideration on your healing journey on the next time you decide to take medication on the next time you decide to, you know, heed your doctor's orders. Many times what we should be doing is doing our own research, seeing how we can lower our cholesterol naturally, how we can lower our blood pressure naturally, how we can lower our high sugar diabetic levels naturally, how we can do things naturally, supporting our bodies versus just taking and accepting a medication because it's easier. It's not easier. It's going to harm you in the long run, you just don't see it now.

I hope this has helped you. Thank you for being patient with my tears and my cracking voice, the pain that we've experienced as a family, and even myself as a 9 year old is still there. Sometimes people come into your life to show you that there's a better way to show you what not to do. And that's all you can do, is learn from others and understand that there's always a better way.

And I'll leave you with that. Take care.