Medical Research is a topic I know I can’t be the only one interested in. Sadly, when you have chronic illnesses like I do, you hope and pray for medical research to be conducted on your conditions. Without medical research, many of us wouldn’t be able to live the lives that we are living. For me and many other Lupus patients, Benlysta (Belimumab) has given us part of our lives back. Without this med I only have a few GOOD DAYS a month, but with it, I have several GOOD WEEKS!!! Lupus isn’t the only condition that benefits from medical research. Any long term illness including, asthma, heart disease, migraines, diabetes, other autoimmune disorders besides Lupus and other conditions like cancer or Alzheimer’s benefit from ongoing research! Benlysta was approved in 2011 after going through many trials and final approval by the FDA. Most recently after trials and research, Benlysta was released in a injectable form that can be given at home which will further imorove peoples’ lives. So what exactly is medical research?According to The Nature journal, “Medical research involves research in a wide range of fields, such as biology, chemistry, pharmacology and toxicology with the goal of developing new medicines or medical procedures or improving the application of those already available. It can be viewed as encompassing preclinical research (for example, in cellular systems and animal models) and clinical research (for example, clinical trials).”

Many people struggle to find medical research and clinical trials for their conditions and often have difficulty understanding them due to the complex medical language used. Depending on a person’s condition & location, finding a local trial can be difficult. However, I have recently found and partnered with an AMAZING company, called Antidote. Antidote works to help patients get connected with clinical trials and provides easy to understand descriptions of each trial without all the medical jargon. They have a very easy search function on their website where you search for your condition, provide your location and indicate how far you are willing to travel. The site will then provide a list of open trials for that condition. Currently, there are 69 open trials nation-wide for Lupus alone. Once you put in how far you are willing to travel, the site asks you basic questions to try and connect you with the best trial for you! 

The best part is that this is a free search. There is no cost to search for trials for your condition and if you have multiple issues you can search for multiple trials. If you get accepted into a trial you would only be allowed to do participate in one trial at a time. 

Being part of a trial does seem scary and does have its risks like almost all things medical. Despite this, it is imperative that people participate in this kind of medical research. Without clinical trials, the world of medicine would not advance and treatments would stay the same as they have been for years. If you feel called and there is a trial near you, please at least apply to see if you could benefit from participating. Not everyone who applies for a trial will get accepted, however. I was curious as to how many people would be willing to partipate in research, so I asked a generic question to my Lupus Support Group, “If you had the option to join a clinical trial, would you?” The responses varied. Of the 27 people who responded, 22 stated that they would participate, while the remaining 5 said they would not participate. The biggest reasons reported for not participating in a trial were that it is scary/dangerous, and the amount of time and needles (for IVs or blood draws) involved. 

If you are interested in medical research and write a chronic illness blog and might be interested in partnering with Antidote, please contact me. I have just began a partnership and would love to get the word out and get others involved. I know what you are probably thinking. And the answer is NO! I do not receive any commission or payment of any kind for referring other bloggers or recommending people use the search tool! I am just truly excited that there is a tool like this that exsists and is available to everyone. They may not have your condition listed but they are working on finding more trials for more conditions. I am so excited to share this information with you and as I learn more I will continue to pass along information. If you would, please share this information with people you know or with your communities. We must get the information out about the need for more involvement in medical research so we can advance treatment of chronic conditions!!! If you would like to check out the search tool or the website for my information I will list the website below. You can also find the link on my sidebar within the blog. Soon I will also be adding a page focused on current trials available for conditions I currently have. 
ANTIDOTE WEBSITE: https://www.antidote.me/

LIST OF CONDITIONS: https://www.antidote.me/
Amber ?
Other References:

https://www.nature.com/subjects/medical-research