Motörhead's Fan Develops Blood Clot in Brain Due to Headbanging

Headbanging to heavy metal can really damage brain and even kill, a new study has warned.

Ariyan Pirayesh Islamian and colleagues at the Hannover Medical School detail the case of a man who developed a chronic subdural haematoma (bleeding in the brain) after headbanging at a Motörhead concert.

The case report was published in the journal The Lancet. Doctors have warned that the abrupt, fast head movements during concerts could cause potentially fatal bleeding in the brain.

In January 2013, a 50-year-old man visited neurosurgical department of the Hannover Medical School complaining of a headache that had worsened over a two-week period. The man hadn't suffered from any trauma to the head. He said that he had attended a Motörhead concert a month before the hospital visit.

The man was put under a CT scanner. Doctors found that he had chronic subdural haematoma (blood clot) on the right side of his brain. Two months later, the doctors removed the blood clot and the patient recovered.

Headbanging refers to violent and rhythmic movement of the head while listening to rock music, mostly heavy metal. The term originated during a Led Zeppelin concert in 1968. Wayne, Garth, and friends headbanging to Queen's Bohemian rhapsody in the movie "Wayne's World" popularised the movement.

According to the doctors, headbanging can lead to carotid artery dissection, whiplash, mediastinal emphysema, and odontoid neck fracture. This is the first time that a person had had a blood clot due to headbanging

"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," explained lead author Dr Ariyan Pirayesh Islamian.

The study authors said that the case supports the idea that Motörhead is undoubtedly one of the greatest rock 'n' roll bands on earth. Their songs have an underlying rhythm of 200 beats per minute.

"This case serves as evidence in support of Motörhead's reputation as one of the most hardcore rock 'n' roll acts on earth, if nothing else because of their music's contagious speed drive and the hazardous potential for headbanging fans to suffer brain injury," Islamian said in a news release.

Headbanging causing serious damage to the neck and head isn't something new. In 2008, the British Medical Journal, in its cheeky Christmas issue, had a study paper that described the dangers of violently shaking head at a rock concert.

For the study, Declan Patton, a research assistant, and Andrew McIntosh, an associate professor from the School of Risk and Safety Sciences at the University of New South Wales, Sydney in Australia, attended several concerts and found that headbanging to a song with tempo of 146 beats per minute could lead to mild injury. Higher the tempo of the song, greater is the injury risk.

Patton and McIntosh had advised people to head bang to slow tempo songs and resort to banging head for every second beat.