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By On July 7th, 2014

Metal Fan Suffers Brain Injury From Headbanging

There are plenty of common ways people suffer brain injuries. Car crashes, falls, and sports are all widely recognized for their potential for brain injuries, but there is one way to get a brain injury rarely observed until recently: rocking too hard.

Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead

Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead

A 50-year-old fan of the band Motorhead was experiencing worsening headaches for over a period of weeks, but the patient showed no history of head trauma or substance abuse. However, he did admit to seeing Motorhead a few weeks before and rocking out, as one does.

Technically, the cause of this recent brain injury was headbanging, or as described by researchers in The Lancet, “a contemporary dance form consisting of abrupt flexion-extension movements of the head to the rhythm of rock music, most commonly seen in the heavy metal genre.”

After the revelation that headbanging may have caused a brain injury, the man underwent a scan which found a subdural haematoma which required a clot to be removed from the right side of his brain.

“Even though there are only a few documented cases of subdural haematomas [due to headbanging], 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,” Ariyan Pirayesh Islamian told The Independent. “This case serves as evidence in support of Motörhead’s reputation as one of the most hardcore rock [and] 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.”

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