Seven Professional Baseball players recently revealed the winner of the year long “Charity Challenge with Propecia”.
A year ago these seven players announced that they would take Propecia (finasteride) for one year to see who would have the best response in regrowing or maintaining hair, and to raise money for their selected charities.
Propecia is the only FDA-approved pill to treat certain types of male pattern hair loss.
“I’m excited that I came out on top in the Challenge,” Weiss said. “I joined the Challenge because it was a good thing to do for charity and because my hair loss bothered me. The Challenge was a win-win — it helped my charity and my hair. I think Propecia really worked for me and I’m sticking with it even now that the Challenge is over.”
For participating, each player’s designated charity received $25,000 from Merck & Co., Inc., maker of Propecia. The Lois Joy Galler Foundation is getting an additional $25,000 for Weiss coming out on top in the Challenge, bringing the total amount donated to $200,000.
Linda Stein-Gold, M.D., associate director of clinical research at the Henry Ford Medical Center’s Department of Dermatology in West Bloomfield, Mich., selected the winner based on a review of “before” and “after” photographs and examinations of the players’ scalps.
“It’s been a very exciting year keeping an eye on the competing players and hearing about their experiences with Propecia. It’s important to keep in mind that this was not a clinical study and that the winner’s results are not necessarily representative of what all men can expect. Propecia does not work in everybody,” said Dr. Stein-Gold. “What’s important is for each guy who wants to do something about his hair loss to find out more by talking to his doctor.”
“I had nothing to lose and everything to gain by raising money for charity and having the chance to maintain what I have,” said Saberhagen. “So, I would just recommend to men who think that they have a hair loss problem to go and see their doctor and talk to their physician about Propecia.”
Unfortunately Merck did not reveal exactly how much hair each player grew or maintained, as many people had hoped.
