New research reveals something most people likely already know: banging your head, without even hitting it on anything hard, can lead to injury and sometimes long-term brain damage if left unchecked.
Scientists say it's a small but scientifically evident risk that bleeding in the brain can occur if you bang your head repeatedly, such as rock fans do at concerts.
A case study report published in The Lancet relays an example of how a German man's 'rocking' at a concert led to a headache that wouldn't quit for two weeks.
Upon visiting a doctor a scan showed a subdural hematoma, which is bleeding in the brain. The concert he attended was a Motorhead event.
"There are probably other higher risk events going on at rock concerts than headbanging," Dr. Colin Shieff, a neurosurgeon and trustee of the British brain injury advocacy group Headway said. "Most people who go to music festivals and jump up and down while shaking their heads don't end up in the hands of a neurosurgeon."
A hole was drilled into the patient's skull, a clot was removed and he recovered completely, according to reports.
"We are not smartasses who advise against headbanging," said lead author Dr. Ariyan Pirayesh Islamian of the Hannover Medical School. "Our purpose was not only to entertain the readership with a quite comical case report on complications of headbanging that confirms the reputation of Motörhead as undoubtedly one of the hardest rock 'n' roll bands on Earth, but to sensitize the medical world for a certain subgroup of fans that may be endangered when indulging themselves in excessive headbanging," he said.
Headbanging refers to violent and rhythmic movement of the head in sync with rock music, typically heavy metal music. Motörhead, according to one report, helped to pioneer such music.
The case study in Lancet is relatedly the first-reported evidence headbanging can cause "chronic" subdural hematoma.
"Even though there are only a few documented cases of subdural haematomas, the incidence may be higher because the symptoms of this type of brain injury are often clinically silent or cause only mild headache that resolves spontaneously", said Islamian.
