Saturday, December 27, 2008

Research published in the British Medical Journal suggests that heavy metal fans engage in "head-banging" behavior that risks self-inflicted brain injuries, and offers a biomechanical model to explain why...

There are obvious parallels with SBS.

As the authors note in the article:

Young people at heavy metal concerts often report being dazed and confused, possible symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury. Little formal injury research has been conducted on the world wide phenomenon of head banging, even though case reports indicate the inherent risks in this activity, especially in head and neck injury.
The authors offer some tongue in cheek prescriptions for prevention - training programs before concerts, "personal protective gear" or substitution of music by Michael Bolton...

A summary from Cosmos magazine:
Head-banging a health hazard
Thursday, 18 December 2008Agence France-Presse

Headbanging hurts: Be careful of your range of motion when rocking along to metal music, or you could end up injured, new research says.

Credit: DarkLight Nocturnal Entertainment

PARIS: Head-banging to heavy metal music can be hazardous to your health, researchers have found.

In the first-ever study of its kind, published this week in the British Medical Journal, metal aficionados jerking their heads up and down to a fast and furious beat are found to be at risk of everything from whiplash to strokes.

Modelling the technique

Australian risk and safety researchers Declan Patton and Andrew McIntosh, from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, attended hard rock and heavy metal concerts to observe head-banging techniques.
They then worked up a biomechanical analysis, culminating in a "theoretical head-banging model".

In their offbeat study the pair said that thrashing about to the music may cause similar effects to whiplash.

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