Arsene Wenger Rages Against Hair Loss Remedies

Arsenal football club manager Arsene Wenger has gone on record to warn his players against using medications for non-sporting conditions. Among the treatments he has tried to ban are diet pills, ‘water tablets’ and hair loss remedies.

Arsenal’s season has been marred by many high profile players being injured and needing extended periods of time in order to recover. Wenger claims that the use of non-sporting remedies is actually slowing the players’ rates of recovery, placing the team’s success in jeopardy.

Despite the stark warning, however, Wenger admits that he does not actually know whether the use of hair loss treatments can be directly linked to sporting injuries and recovery times. He also does not differentiate between medically proven treatments and the array of ineffective 'alternative' cures. He does however believe that using hair loss treatments in secret could compromise other recuperative techniques used by the club, slowing the rate of recovery.

Factual inaccuracies

During his weekly press conference, Wenger was asked whether he thought certain injuries could be avoided. “Some of them are down to the medication that the players take that you don’t even know about it. Then you realise afterwards that they took this medication but that’s not prudent,” he responded.

Wenger went on to say: “If you lose your hair and if you’ve taken something to make your hair grow it might not be good especially for the rest of your body.”

Despite Wenger’s obvious concerns about the health of his players, his comments about potential problems are, in the main, incorrect. Here in the UK, hair loss treatments are heavily regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare Product Regulatory Agency (MHRA) who must check that a treatment is safe to use before it can be licensed and prescribed to patients.

The MHRA will therefore have verified that the most effective hair loss treatments are safe to use, rendering Wenger’s fears about hair loss treatments unfounded. Furthermore, any reputable hair loss clinic will prescribe the best combination of treatments for the individual concerned, and will closely monitor the results.

Since the press conference, Arsenal football club have sought to distance themselves from Wenger’s comments, claiming that they “knew of no incidences of any of their players taking long-term medication” for any conditions.

As a man under pressure to succeed, Wenger is no doubt looking for any possible improvement that will help his team win. Unfortunately, his suspicions appear to be completely misdirected when it comes to the use of medically-sound hair loss treatments.