German doctors treated a man whose habit of headbanging led to a brain injury. However, the doctors say that there is very little risk to metal fans in general.

Last January, medical professionals treated a 50-year-old man who complained of constant headaches but had no history of head injuries or substance abuse. The man did admit to years of concert headbanging -- most recently while attending a Motorhead concert with his son.

After some testing, doctors discovered a brain bleed in the patient's head and had to drill a hole in his head to drain the blood. The man's headaches soon subsided, and follow-up scans revealed a cyst that made the patient more susceptible to injury.

"We are not against headbanging," Dr. Ariyan Pirayesh Islamian, one of the doctors who treated the man, said. "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."

Islamian explained that shaking the head in headbanging can sometimes cause damage when the brain collides with the inside of the skull. There have been three other linked cases of subdural hematoma and headbanging, with one ending in fatality. The latest instance was reported Friday in the journal Lancet.

Doctors defined headbanging as "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."

Motorhead is a British band best known for creating the "speed metal" genre, whose quick-tempo music leads to vigorous headbanging. Islamian described Motorhead as "one of the most hardcore rock n' roll acts on earth."

Islamian added that heavy metal fans don't need to stop headbanging.

"Rock n' Roll will never die," he said. "Heavy metal fans should rock on."

Related