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Heavy metal music can be a pain in the neck – not just for parents with
quieter tastes but for headbangers who get carried away by the music. Headbanging
can cause ‘modified whiplash’, warns a neurologist at the Boston University
School of Medicine.

Marilyn Kassirer, a specialist in pain management, was alerted to the
problem by her next-door neighbour, Naomi Manon, a 14-year-old girl who
came home from a dance marathon at her school with a sore neck. Kassirer
quickly set up a study of 37 young teenagers at the school to determine
how many were suffering the after effects of headbanging.

During the charity dance marathon, the DJ played only three heavy metal
records suitable for headbanging, lasting a total of eight minutes. Kassirer
declined to identify the songs or the bands: ‘As it is, I don’t think the
heavy metallists are going to be happy with me.’ During the three songs,
17 of the 37 teenagers indulged in a bit of headbanging. In her report in
The Clinical Journal of Pain, Kassirer describes headbanging as ‘hyperextension
and hyperflexion’ of the neck with ‘self-propelled acceleration’. More colloquially,
she describes the move as ‘banging the head on the neck to the extremes,
with a significant snap at the end of each motion. Some add a rotational
motion that causes hair to go into perpetual motion.’

Of the 11 girls and 6 boys who admitted headbanging, 9 girls and 1 boy
had cervical pain lasting up to three days. Kassirer speculates that the
girls were more likely to suffer symptoms because they have to whip their
heads back more vigorously to keep their hair flowing through the air. Some
of the students took aspirin, had massages, played relaxation tapes or wore
cervical collars to ease their pain. None experienced the more serious effects
of whiplash often seen after car accidents, such as chronic pain, nausea
or damage to the spinal cord. ‘Based on what I’ve seen so far, there’s no
permanent harm,’ says Kassirer.

She has two explanations for the teenagers’ quick recovery, one psychological
and the other physiological. The marathon was a happy event, with none of
the fear or other emotional trauma associated with car accidents which may
aggravate injuries. On the other hand, the rapid recoveries may have more
to do with the more elastic ligaments of youth. Kassirer suspects that slightly
older headbangers, especially those who may have some hidden neck weakness,
may run into more serious problems than the teenage marathon dancers. ‘People
may not realise the implications of something that seems so simple and so
fun,’ says Kassirer.