Saturday Quack – HeadOn

We plan to devote one health topic each week to addressing some of the fraudulent medical products being promoted today. These products can cause people to waste valuable time and money chasing an outcome that might be well within reach using more traditional medical approaches. We’ll call the series ‘the Saturday Quack’. Here’s the first – it deals with a product called HeadOn®.

The TV stations in New Mexico are now carrying commercials for HeadOn, a treatment for headaches (including migraine) that is applied directly to the forehead as a dermal stick (like a lip-salve or lipstick). It’s also recommended for children over 12.

HeadOn is reported to contain potassium dichromate, Blue Flag, and White Bryony as active ingredients. The manufacturers state that the active ingredients are listed as homeopathic remedies in the US Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia. However, there are serious doubts about their safety, according to the Environmental Working Group ‘Skin Deep’. One of them is the carcinogenic potential of potassium dichromate, the so-called analgesic ‘active-ingredient’. This wouldn’t be so bad if there was any evidence of beneficial activity (I discount all individual testimonials). Save your money and buy some Tylenol or Advil.