Headbanging to heavy metal music could be hazardous to one's brain.
German doctors said they treated a Motorhead fan who headbanged so hard he gave himself a brain injury the Associated Press reported. The doctors noted the risk of this is so slim metal fans need not stop shaking their heads.
Last year doctors at the Hannover Medical School saw a 50-year-old patient who complained of headaches that were getting increasingly more severe over time. The patient had no history of substance abuse or head injuries but admitted to participating in consistent headbanging over the course of many years.
A scan revealed the patient was experiencing a brain bleed. The man also had a benign cyst which may have exacerbated the problem.
"We are not against headbanging," Dr. Ariyan Pirayesh Islamian, who participated in the treatment of the patient, told the Ap. "The risk of injury is very, very low. But I think if (our patient) had (gone) to a classical concert, this would not have happened."
The patient underwent a procedure in which a hole was drilled in his brain to drain the blood. Afterward the headaches subsided.
"There are probably other higher risk events going on at rock concerts than headbanging," said Dr. Colin Shieff, a neurosurgeon and trustee of the British brain injury advocacy group Headway, told the AP. "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."
Islamian said headbanging has caused injury in metal fans in the past. The practice could be enough to cause damage because it causes the brain to bump up against the skull. Despite this, Islamian does not feel like headbanging should necessarily be discouraged.
"Rock 'n' roll will never die," he told the AP. "Heavy metal fans should rock on."