From ABC.com web site re: tonight's 20/20 episode tonite

ttaco · January 10, 2003

The products sound great in the ads. But experts say the bold claims in some ads often rest on a foundation of shaky research.

The heavily advertised Avacor, for example, costs $260 for a three-month supply. That's a lot of money, but you might think it's worth the price if you've heard Dr. David Gordon guaranteeing it works.

Gordon has been a familiar fixture in many of Avacor's radio and television ads. But he's also been familiar to inmates of a New York prison where, according to a Men's Health magazine investigation, Gordon was jailed in 1993 following his conviction for Medicaid fraud. The state also revoked his medical license.

Expert Calls Research Flawed

Avacor has since told 20/20 they've pulled Gordon from their ads. Even without the endorsement of a physician, Avacor makes bold assertions in its ads. One of Avacor's ads claims that "in six years of clinical use by tens of thousands of men and women "??? Avacor re-grew hair on virtually everyone."

Dr. Douglas Altchek, a hair loss expert at New York's Mt. Sinai Hospital, disagrees, and says Avacor's research is flawed because it relied on patients themselves or company employees to assess hair growth.

Avacor ads describe the product as "a natural herbal treatment." It includes the herb saw palmetto, which some experts feel may have some effect on hair growth. However, as far as its all-natural claim, Avacor's ingredient list includes the chemical name for minoxidil "??? an FDA-approved hair growth solution that's been around for years.

But minoxidil, which Avacor says will be marked more clearly on the label, only grows significant hair in about 26 percent of users.

A month's supply of generic minoxidil goes for $13 "??? a lot cheaper than the nearly $90 a month for the Avacor system. But not every product has got minoxidil in the mix.

Buyer Be Wary

Another product out there "??? Hair Genesis "??? is a combination of herbs including saw palmetto. It was invented by Geno Marcovicci, who for years in a now-discontinued commercial claimed that the product "has been shown in clinical studies to work in over 90 percent of the patients."

After sponsoring a new, double-blind study Marcovicci had to revise that claim downward. "We found approximately 66 percent re-growth in our treatment population," the new ad claims. That's still impressive until you find out the study consisted of only 10 patients who used the product. "In a study such as this, with such few subjects, it's frankly invalid," Altchek said.

Marcovicci also boasted in his infomercial of an endorsement by a medical expert "??? Dr. Michael Sassman. In the ad, Marcovicci refers to Sassman as a physician and a hair restoration expert.

We learned, however, that Sassman is not a hair restoration expert. He's a radiologist.

Marcovicci said, "Well, perhaps he doesn't have the expertise that some other physicians in this area of medicine might."

And some of the impressive "before and after" pictures featured on Marcovicci's infomercial and on the Hair Genesis Web site, aren't so impressive after all. Some of the clients featured in the photos had hair transplant surgery. "In at least two of those, I know for sure that the main improvement was due to surgery," said Dr. Dan Didocha, referring to the photos. Didocha said he not only performed hair transplant surgery on some of the before and after subjects, but said he also operated on Sassman and Marcovicci before Didocha and Marcovicci had a bitter falling out as business associates.

Marcovicci says he did not use the pictures in a misleading way. When asked whether viewers should be told that some people in the infomercial had hair transplant surgery, including Marcovicci, he said, "Maybe you should be told that I would have needed a heck of a lot more hair transplant surgery if I hadn't used Hair Genesis," he said.

An ad for another product, Hair ZX, says you can "re-grow dense natural hair safely and effectively, free." The fine print notes a "shipping and handling" fee, but how bad could that be? As it turns out, it's pretty steep "??? $95 to ship and handle a dozen bottles.

After shelling out nearly $100 for Hair ZX, we waited six months and still hadn't received it. The company blamed a distributor for the problems and has promised to refund to consumers thousands of dollars in orders that were never shipped.

A Brave New Bald World?

Of course there is another option for men losing their hair. The guys at the annual Bald-headed Men of America convention in North Carolina say hair loss is a cause for celebration "??? not shame. They say women find it sexy.

Whether it's considered sexy or not, Dr. Altchek thinks baldness will become more common. "Like it or not, I think that in the 25th century "??? the whole concept of hair will be something that will be seen as a relic of the past," he said.

In essence, Altchek says, the world is becoming progressively bald. "Due to increased cranial capacity, we're going to have tighter scalps. Tighter scalps, less hair. That's the way it works ... even with all the remedies, I think it's inevitable."

For men desperate to postpone the inevitable "??? the only FDA-approved treatments are minoxidil and the drug propecia "??? neither of which works for everyone. Hair transplants are getting better "??? but cost thousands. Or you can forget the plugs, the drugs and the rugs and let nature take its course.

ttaco · January 10, 2003