There’s a new headache medicine called “Head-On.”  Apparently, it’s roll-on deoderant style headache-reliever.  (It’s not actually deoderant, but you apply it in the same way…only to your forehead.)

How could this stuff possibly work?  It doesn’t seem logical at all.  Here’s a quote from their website ( http://www.headrelief.com/about_headon.html ):

HeadOn

Sounds like a load of snake oil to me, Sakano. However, it may work for people who aren’t a bunch of skeptics like us: It has been proven that if you belive something will cure you, then it will, and vice versa. In one test, they smeared a cream over subject’s arms and applied heat, telling the subjects that the cream would not protect them. then, they used the same stuff, this time telling subjects that the cream would stop the pain. It worked because the subjects belived it did. Cool, eh?

I’m not sure how you guys define “hoaxes” here.  If something is a real product that’s actually for sale, but that’s based on the placebo effect, is it a hoax?

Anyway, this is basically homeopathy:

http://skepdic.com/homeo.html
http://www.homeowatch.org/

If you don’t want to follow the links here’s some quoted text:

Proponents call homeopathy’s defining principle the “Law of Similars.” (“Like cures like.”) This holds that substances that cause healthy people to get symptoms can cure diseases that have these symptoms.

If the allegedly medicinal substance is soluble, 1 part is diluted in either 9 or 99 parts of distilled water and/or alcohol and “succussed” (shaken) vigorously; if insoluble, it is finely ground and “triturated” (pulverized) in similar proportions with powdered lactose (milk sugar). One part of the diluted medicine is diluted, and the process is repeated to reach the desired concentration, after which it may be bottled or used to impregnate sugar granules.

Advocates claim that the lower the concentration of a substance, the more potent it becomes. This concept, often referred to as the “Law of Infinitestimals,” is the equivalent of saying that the less sugar you put into a cup of coffee, the sweeter it will become. This is just the opposite of the dose-response relationship that pharmacologists have demonstrated.

It’s a real product, probably, but it is just homeopathy. Homeopathy is a fraud, so it’s a real product, but it works (if at all) by the placebo effect.

I don’t really see how this would actually stop headaches itself, although it’s true that I’m not really an expert on the stuff.  But as has been mentioned, it would certainly be effective sometimes in curing afflictions such as tension headaches, if the person who was under tension believed that it would work:  they might calm down and become less tense, and the headache would go away. 

Such a placebo effect would probably be a lot less helpful, though, when the headache is caused by ailments such as brain tumours and migraines.  If such people want to take it because they find it reassuring, then I’m all in favour of that, but they’d also best take some measures to deal with the cause of the headache.

I

Seems funny that some idiot would put deoderant on their head.

While it’s not the same as this stuff, I have a little tube of essential oils which was manufactured and sold as headache relief.  Migrastick...Personally, I think I’d prefer to use something like this rather than this Head-On which doesn’t seem to want to list its ingredients on their website…(unless I’ve just been looking in the wrong place?)

Basically, what does this thing do? It leaks into your pores and . . . ? Maybe they are like little cells which seek out and destroy the migraine cells! I THINK NOT!!!!!

That’s what I was confused about too, Euro.  It just doesn’t seem like the type of thing that would work. (By the way, cute icon!)

Does yours work for you, Smerk?

L’elephant

I find that it does.  It’s probably more due to the aromatherapy of the oils (lavender & peppermint) than the action of rolling it on you temples.