Trump takes drugs for hair-loss, reveals physician

Studies find 96% of men who had used the drug continued to suffer from side-effects, including anxiety and depression

US President Donald Trump is taking a prescription drug with potentially threatening side effects.

While speaking to the New York Times, Trump’s personal physician Dr Harold N Bornstein revealed that the president was taking additional drugs: an antibiotic to control a minor skin condition that causes redness called rosacea and Finasteride – a prostrate drug often taking for hair loss.



In 2015, Dr Bornstein declared that, "If elected, Mr Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency." Followed by a peculiar  four-paragraph letter detailing Trump’s medical prescriptions: daily dose of aspirin, cholesterol and lipids drugs, and an appendectomy at the age of 10.

The second letter, however, stated that Trump got his appendectomy at age 11 not 10. Released a year later, the medical letter stuck to the same prescription drugs.

US President Donald J Trump. PHOTO: REUTERS

What is Finasteride?

It is a prescription drug to combat male-pattern baldness. Marketed as Propecia, the drug was first approved for prostrate treatment in 1992, half a decade later it was re-approved as a treatment for hair-loss despite research suggesting potential side effects as sexual dysfunction.

A 2012 study found 96% of the men who had used the finasteride, continued to suffer from the side-effects after treatment. Another study associated suicidal tendencies as a possible side-effect while a research published in 2013 showed symptoms of anxiety and depression in finasteride patients – abnormal neuroactive steroid levels and heightened testosterone.



The Washington Post reported that Merck, a company which sells finasteride, has approximately 1,370 lawsuits filed against it for sexual side effects.

While it unclear why the details of this prescription drug was not released before in the official letters, or whether there are more unhidden details about Trump’s medical history, the mystery behind the president’s hair has been deciphered!

This article originally appeared on the Independent.