A new pain in the neck

Head bangers are at a risk for neck & head injury, possibly even stroke

“The song has reached its chugging rhythm. You were unimpressed before, but now it has infected you. That ‘heavy metal thunder’ riff from the guitars. You can't help but start to bob your head a bit. Then it becomes larger, you don't bob, you bang it. Pretty soon that long hair that you have been growing for the past 5 years is flying up and down looking like the heads of a hydra chasing a new born lamb” goes the way metalheads describe headbanging and windmilling.

With the increasing number of concerts in Hyderabad the risk is growing higher even in a city like Hyderabad. Headbanging has been a way to affirm the listener’s love for music. Not only that but, it has also became a way of showing appreciation. For metalheads, they don’t dance and headbanging is pure and natural for them but not everybody can get cybernetic implants like Mekaneck, and most probably last night's gig is still taking a toll of your neck.

This is a new age disease, that has came with western heavy metal music. Bill Hendrick from WedMD health reviewed this problem and said that head bangers are at a risk for neck and head injury, possibly even stroke. “Head banging involves violent up-and-down, circular swinging, or side-to-side movements of the head and neck while dancing or listening to music, and the risk of injury increases as the music's tempo does,” professor Andrew McIntosh and his research assistant Declan Patton reported in the an online version of BMJ.

You can reduce your chance of injury by using protective equipment like neck braces, or simply moving your head to slower tempos, the researchers say.

The researchers attended concerts by Motorhead, Ozzy Osbourne, and Skid Row, among others, identifying the up-and-down style of head banging as most common. Then they constructed a theoretical head banging model to study the relationships of various risks for brain injury related to music tempo and range of head and neck motion. They found an increasing risk of neck injury starting at a tempo of 130 beats per minute.

After compiling a list of 11 top head-banging songs from a focus group of musicians, the researchers found the average tempo to be 146 beats per minute. Head banging at that tempo may cause headaches and dizziness if the range of movement of the head and neck is greater than 75 degrees.

So how do you as a head banger prevent injury?

Try getting a band like AC/DC to play songs like Moon River instead of Highway to Hell, for one thing, say the researchers, who report that young people at heavy metal concerts often report feeling confused or dazed. What's more, they suggest, it might be good for musicians to label CD packages with head banging warnings.