In 2017, the word “normal” no longer applies to anything even remotely political in America. This weirdness is perfectly encapsulated by a story about Donald Trump’s longtime doctor, the gloriously odd Harold Bornstein. According to the New York Times, Bornstein has revealed in a series of four phone chats that Trump takes a handful of medications, and yes, Bornstein was intent upon revealing all of them.
During campaign season, Bornstein boasted — in a letter that took him five minutes to write while Trump’s limo waited outside — that his patient would “be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” Now, he reveals that Trump takes a hair-growth drug that doubles as a prostate pill, along with antibiotics for rosacea, a cholesterol-lowering drug, and a single baby aspirin every day to reduce the possibility of a heart attack. Here’s more strangeness on the hair details:
The disclosure that Mr. 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 Mr. Trump has a very low level of prostate specific antigen, or PSA, a marker for prostate cancer. Mr. Trump takes a small dose of the drug, finasteride, which lowers PSA levels. Finasteride is marketed as Propecia to treat male-pattern baldness.
Dr. Bornstein said he also took finasteride and credited it for helping maintain his own shoulder-length hair and Mr. Trump’s hair. “He has all his hair,” Dr. Bornstein said. “I have all my hair.”
One would assume there’s some doctor-patient confidentiality issues here, but the White House has declined to comment on Bornstein’s claims. Yet there’s no denial either. Bornstein was apparently thrilled to dish and reinforced that Trump’s checkups were “exactly up to date,” which is a smart call for a 70-year-old man, who happens to be the oldest person ever elected as U.S. president. Man, this is a bizarre story.
(Via New York Times)