It takes a bit for a hair loss story to surprise us, but the promise of a hair loss cure, from a nationally respected Doctor on his prime time TV show definitely had our attention, for a while at least…
Trust Me, I’m A Doctor
Dr. Ranj is a familiar face to British TV audiences. He co-presents a nationwide evening show called Save Money: Good Health. As such his exalted position makes him an authoritative voice on health matters. So it came as a surprise when one of the national newspapers this morning ran a teaser on this evening’s show promising he would be describing how, over the last three months, a daily medication has seen him regrow hair he thought lost forever.
Naturally we were in rapt attention. What on earth was this miracle cure? Inevitably. the truth was as disappointing as the brief promise had been wonderful. The good Dr. had been taking the world’s most popular FDA approved drug for the purpose, Finasteride. It is marketed under various brand names, including Proscar and Propecia, as well as under it’s own name as a generic. Finasteride was originally developed as a prostrate drug in the 1970’s, but in 1992 the manufacturer, Merck, received approval for the drug as a treatment for male pattern baldness.
Handle With Care
The fact is that to win it’s FDA approval the bar was not exactly set high for Finasteride. It simply had to show that it stopped the advance of hair loss, not that we are underestimating the achievement but it is not exactly the same as the promise of your hair back. Nonetheless the clinical trials did show that some patients did grow new hair during treatment, it is worth noting that the commitment to the drug is for as long as you want to stop your baldness getting worse. These patients might have only shown an improvement of a few percent, barely noticeable to anyone but themselves, but it gave Merck a unique opportunity to claim their drug could achieve the impossible and regrow your hair.
So while we have no doubt that Dr. Ranj is reporting an honest experience, it could be argued that to report it without any caveats setting expectations for hair loss sufferers is rather misleading. For that matter, not reporting the associated side-effects of the drug might dissuade people from further investigation… seeing them troop down to the local pharmacy to begin their own lifetime course. In fact, the longer we look at this article the more it would seem to us to be an advert, using a TV celebrity doctor, a prime time show and a near full page spread in the highest circulation UK paper to market their wares (and probably flout a few rules that would apply if any of them were adverts).
HIS Hair Clinic
So the world of hair loss turns out to be pretty much where it was yesterday. No new wonderful addition to our options, of which there are plenty. If you want to discuss your own hair loss situation with one of our friendly team of experts then simply complete the form at the side of this page, or click here to find your nearest clinic.
