The End of Baldness? The Chemical Controlling Life and Death in Hair Follicles Identified

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#7

This is still very basic research. Notice the careful wording how it „could“ lead to hair loss treatment in future. New treatments based on this are likely far away. When I frequented hair loss forums in the early 2000s, „the cure“ for hair loss was always just five years away. However, the fundamental treatment options have not really changed since then.

Based on that I wouldn’t worry about the potential impact on our community. Also remember that our condition is likely not limited to Finasteride. Once this is established once and for all, alternative hair loss treatments do not matter.

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#8

My view is irrespective of whether fintrash becomes obsolete or not, the people who are currently suffering from this should simply do more to get ourselves out of this situation. Rather than implicitly hoping that more people end up in this inhumane torture chamber. I think it’s incredibly sad that as a community we tacitly wish for more people to end up here, just because the overwhelming majority of current sufferers can’t be bothered to lift a finger.

I’ve spoken to numerous people who work full time and have suffered from this condition for years to see whether they’d be willing to speak publicly, join our monthly donation group, or do anything at all to move this issue forward. They often either ignore me or get angry. It’s truly pathetic, short sighted, illogical and incomprehensible. They do however have money for an endless supply of HCG and other bullshit.

If every registered member contributed a measly 20 bucks per month we’d have 1.6 million per annum for research. If 1000 patients could simply have the courage to go public, our issue would look like an indisputable health crisis. I really can’t fathom what legitimate excuse a person could have for not being able to spare 20 per month.

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#9

I don’t disagree with any of that. I was merely pointing out that this research has little impact on us and shouldn’t lead to despair. It doesn’t change anything. It is all in our hands and whether we do enough. As you point out, we could do more.

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#10

Never going to happen, I’m sorry.

And regardless of how many people complain, if you don’t have researchers there’s nothing you can do.

You can’t just complain your way out of a disease.

Anyway, baldness has been “a couple of years away from being solved” forever, literally centuries, ever since somebody noticed eunuchs didn’t go bald.

Maybe Fin will stay on the market for another 50 years. Maybe it’ll be banned tomorrow.

But if I had to take a guess, I’d say the next drug after Fin will be probably 99% identical to Finasteride, with same sides and new victims.

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#11

We have excellent researchers. All people need to do is donate and speak out about this condition. If we collectively did that we would be on our way out of here.

#12

I agree, and also if fin becomes obsolete there would be less monetary incentive to deny it’s negative effects which could actually be useful for us.

#13

Either way, we just need to focus on raising awareness, organisaing the community and looking for donations. Everything else is out of our control.

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#14

I’m sorry, I completely misread your message.

I agree with you.

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#15

Do you have any faith at all in the current project? Or do you think researchers should be doing a different project.

#16

I’ve read the literature review Axo and Awor put together and I think it’s the most compelling and logical theory for this condition, backed up by some real hard evidence provided by Baylor. I think the scientists they spent 2.5 years finding are our single greatest hope for getting out of this.

In short, I do have a lot of faith in the current project.

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#17

Good, I hope the sample collection goes smoothly.

#18

I mean it’s good to have faith but look at the forum 2013/14 and the amount of hope that was invested in Baylor and Harvard and nothing came of it. I suspect this will be better but don’t get your hopes up.

#19

Baylor at least pointed us in a certain direction and provided us with insight into this condition. What other hope do we have? Ideally we’d wake up a month from now and the 7,000 some registered members of this site would be contributing to research, messaging journalists and philanthropists, speaking out on YouTube etc. Then we could actually get out of this quickly. But alas, that’s asking too much of people apparently.

#20

If you had faith in the project you’d say ideally we get good samples collected, they support Baylors findings, and the researchers are able to use them to determine what drives the changes found. Instead you’re idealizing an imagined outcome to an imagined other project.

#21

What a bizarre dichotomy you’ve constructed. I can simultaneously have faith in the currently funded study as well as hope for more patients to do sensible things which will speed up the process of getting us out of this. How are those two things at all mutually exclusive?

You don’t want to see more patients donating, speaking out and taking action?

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#22

It’s a big move for people to abandon anonymity and could backfire both in the present and future. I personally can vouch for this. Also, there was a flurry of major media channel coverage and nothing really happened on the back of it.

I agree about funding but most members were either transitory or are now living near normal lives, putting aside money for themselves. I gave a grand to the foundation and boy was that a mistake.

It sickens me that there has been no successful litigation against Merck for even a few million that could have funded research though. A broken system.

#23

Yeah it’s an incredibly unfair situation. The system is incredibly broken. But we have no choice but to push and do everything we can. It’s our lives at the end of the day.

I wouldn’t say the grand you gave to the foundation was a mistake. Baylor was an important study.

#24

I never considered donating to the foundation because they did not propose any clear path ahead, both in terms of litigation or research.

I feel the PFS Network is different and I gladly donated and hope to have more funds available soon to donate more. They’re organised, have a clear strategic roadmap, top researchers, patient stories…

I don’t think we should underestimate the power of being organised. This lends a lot of credibility to the stories, PFS itself, but it’s also easier to stimulate further research or even legal action I’d presume, should the opportunity arise. The difference with the foundation is that the network is actually interested in finding a cure.

I agree about speaking out though and admit I’m deeply ashamed to go public with this, even though I understand how important it is and I commend everyone who has done so.

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#25

The current project is a long term observational study that MIGHT provide insight into what’s happening in our bodies. Depending on what they find there MIGHT be another direction to go toward investigating treatment. Then again there might not.

Yet you keep posting as fact that more money and patient action will speed up the path to a cure. You have absolutely nothing to base that on and insisting on it sounds like you’ve completely dismissed the pace and focus of the project. So no I don’t think you have faith in it, you have faith in an imagined outcome and what you’ve imagined it will take to get there.

If patients want to put money in PFSN’s bank then they should…in the event the study branches out in a direction that needs funding then it’ll be there. Good. But the only thing I want to see at this point is for the sample collection to get underway.

#26

Sample collection can progress while we simultaneously raise funds for subsequent or parallel studies. Again, why is this somehow mutually exclusive? Is there some law in the universe that says we should only do one study at a time, or that we should stop asking patients to get involved simply because one study was funded?

I post that more money and patient action will speed things up because that is an obvious fact. We are limited in our progress due to a lack of funding and awareness. Mostly the former. It is that simple.

I find it remarkable that you are seemingly annoyed that people want to encourage more action taking and support for research which will speed things up. Amazing.

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