Cautious Optimism

Perhaps one of my first pieces of advice to anyone newly diagnosed with lupus is to be highly wary of anything you read on the internet, especially regarding ‘miracle cures’. It is a simple fact that, as yet, a cure does not exist (if there was I’d be straight onto it – wouldn’t you?!) and there is no one natural, chemical or dietary ‘answer’ to SLE, whatever bold claims are irresponsibly made in cyberspace. The sad truth is such claims are usually made to get some money out of you – you have to buy a book or some pills or something - and I think they are designed, intentionally or not, to exploit people when they are feeling vulnerable.

It is with this in mind then that I am always very cautious about trusting new medications that are as yet unproven, but there are two developments on the pharmaceutical front that have been drawn to my attention that I feel may warrant at least keeping a cautious but hopeful eye over. This is because both drugs (‘Lupuzor™ and ‘Benlysta™’) have been developed and tested by what are I believe are well known and reputable pharmaceutical companies and both seem to be reporting very positive results in clinical trials

Check out:

http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/prices-and-news/news/market-news/market-news-detail.html?announcementId=10279990

http://www.lupusresearch.org/about/press-room/press-releases/new-study-findings-represent.html

So, whilst there is still a long way to go and it is worth remembering drugs often fall down at the last hurdle revealing fundamental flaws, I think it is reasonable to keep our eyes open to the progress of both these trials. Anyway, at least let's keep our fingers crossed because it is always nice to feel there is a glimmer of hope, especially on those more challenging days. After all, as my personal favourite ‘dude of the moment’, Thich Nhat Hanh the Vietnamese Buddhist and activist, says:

“Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.”