Washington: President Donald Trump takes medication for three ailments, including a prostate-related drug to promote hair growth, Trump’s longtime physician, Dr Harold N. Bornstein, said in a series of recent interviews.
The other drugs are antibiotics to control rosacea, a common skin problem, and a statin for elevated blood cholesterol and lipids.
Bornstein, who spoke by telephone in four interviews over the past month, also said that Trump takes a daily baby aspirin to reduce the risk of a heart attack. Overall, he pronounced Trump healthy and his medical care “as exactly up to date.”
Bornstein granted the interviews after The New York Times asked him to discuss his role in Trump’s care and to clarify and expand on earlier statements he made about his patient’s health during the presidential campaign. At 70, Trump is the oldest person to become president.
White House officials declined to comment on Wednesday night on the information provided by Bornstein, and would not say whether he was still Trump’s physician.
The disclosure that Trump uses a prostate-related drug to maintain growth of his scalp hair, which has not been publicly known, appears to solve a riddle of why Trump has a very low level of prostate specific antigen, or PSA, a marker for prostate cancer. Trump takes a small dose of the drug, finasteride, which lowers PSA levels. Finasteride is marketed as Propecia to treat male-pattern baldness.
Bornstein said he also took finasteride and credited it for helping maintain his own shoulder-length hair and Trump’s hair. “He has all his hair,” Bornstein said. “I have all my hair.”
Bornstein, 69, was Trump’s personal physician since 1980. He said that he had had no contact with Trump since he became president. Bornstein said that Trump had gone to New York office for annual check-ups, colonoscopies, and other routine tests every year since 1980. Before that, Trump was a patient of Bornstein’s father, Dr. Jacob Bornstein.
