The secret to President Trump's hair is a prescription prostate drug, his doctor says
The doctor who made everyone temporarily giddy in December 2015 by declaring candidate Donald Trump the "healthiest individual ever" to seek the presidency has now revealed the secret of President Trump's luxuriant locks to The New York Times: "a prostate-related drug to promote hair growth." Dr. Harold Bornstein said he also uses the drug, finasteride, and he credits it for his own full head of hair, too. "He has all his hair," Bornstein said. "I have all my hair." Bornstein, 69, has been Trump's personal physician since 1980, before which Trump was treated by Bornstein's father, Dr. Jacob Bornstein. Trump has never had an enlarged prostate or prostate cancer, Bornstein said.
Bornstein parceled out other information about the 70-year-old president over four interviews with the Times' Dr. Lawrence Altman. Aside from low doses of finasteride (sold as Propecia, a treatment for male-pattern baldness as well as enlarged prostate), Trump takes a statin for elevated cholesterol, baby aspirin to reduce the risk of heart attack, and the antibiotic tetracycline to fend off rosacea, a skin condition where visible blood vessels can make the face appear flush or sometimes bumpy. He said Trump is healthy, up-to-date on an HIV test, and not particularly germaphobic as far as he has observed. "He always stands there and changes the paper on the table himself" after an examination, Bornstein said. "Other than that, nothing."
Bornstein says he hasn't spoken with Trump since the inauguration, nobody from the White House has asked for Trump's medical records, and he is not yet sure if he will continue being Trump's doctor in the White House. If he is asked to continue treating Trump, he said, he would be disinclined to administer annual psychometric tests for dementia; Trump's father, Fred Trump, suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his 80s. The White House declined to comment when the Times asked. You can read more about Trump's health at The New York Times.
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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