Hair-growth drug behind Trump's mane: his longtime physician

The secret behind Donald Trump's flowing mane is out with his longtime physician saying the US President takes a prostate-related drug to promote hair growth.

The 70-year-old President takes medication for three ailments, including a prostate-related drug to promote hair growth, his longtime physician Harold N Bornstein told New York Times.

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, said Trump takes a daily baby aspirin to reduce the risk of a heart attack. Over all, he pronounced Trump healthy and his medical care "as exactly up to date".

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, the report said.

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."

Trump's flowing mane has been frequently in the news and during the campaign in August 2015, Trump settled all speculation over his famed hairdo by proving in front of hundreds of people that his hair is very much "real" and no toupee.

He called a person from the crowd to check out that his hair was real. Bornstein has been Trump's primary physician since 1980, and first stepped into the public spotlight when he released a brief letter about the President's health in December 2015.

He said that he had had no contact with Trump since he became president, and that no one from the White House staff had asked for copies of the medical records that he has kept for the last 36 years, or called to discuss them.

Trump is the oldest President to have ever taken office.