Music, Not Gadgets, Related to Teenagers' Headaches

[The Straight Story]

Music, Not Gadgets, Related to Teenagers' Headaches

ScienceDaily (Feb. 9, 2010) — Use of most electronic media is not associated with headaches, at least not in adolescents. A study of 1025 13-17 year olds, published in the open access journal BMC Neurology, found no association between the use of computer games, mobile phones or television and the occurrence of headaches or migraines. However, listening to one or two hours of music every day was associated with a pounding head.

Astrid Milde-Busch, from Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany, worked with a team of researchers to study the links between exposure to electronics and the prevalence and type of headaches. She said, "Excessive use of electronic media is often reported to be associated with long-lasting adverse effects on health like obesity or lack of regular exercise, or unspecific symptoms like tiredness, stress, concentration difficulties and sleep disturbances. Studies into the occurrence of headaches have had mixed results and for some types of media, in particular computer games, are completely lacking."

The researchers interviewed 489 teenagers who claimed to suffer from headaches and 536 who said they did not. When the two groups were compared, no associations were found for television viewing, electronic gaming, mobile phone usage or computer usage. Daily consumption of music was significantly associated with suffering from any type of headache, although, as Milde-Busch points out, "It cannot be concluded whether the habit of listening to music is the cause of frequent headaches, or the consequence in the sense a self-therapy by relaxation."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100208211928.htm

[Jokerman]

1. Were the test subjects using headphones?

I've listened to several hours of music a day through speakers, most days of the past 35 years without suffering from headaches but more than a few minutes with headphones or ear buds tends to make my head pound.

[KittyWampus]

3. maybe they were listening through speakers- while sitting in their cars.

I've been standing next to cars in parking lots and felt physically assaulted by the bass pounding out from another driver's stereo.

[Romulox]

4. Listening fatigue may have more to do with the quality of the source material than anything...

Hannah Montana through your system = pounding headache! :wow:

[The Straight Story]

5. They were probably listening to pop

:evilgrin:

[KittyWampus]

2. Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music by Greg Milner

really fascinating.

I heard Milner on an interview one day and he spoke of the artificial loudness that became popular in last decade or so.

[Romulox]

6. Yep. Good call. Music is massively compressed to be optimized for cell phones, ipods...

and the radio. Without dynamics, music becomes oppressive very quickly. These young ladies may be entirely ignorant of what it is about this music that is irritating if they came of age during the "loudness wars".

[Ganja Ninja]

7. I suffered with terrible pounding headaches all my life.

I can remember at 7 years old laying on my bed on my side because that was the only way I could get relief from the pain. I kept thinking 'Is everybody like this?' By the time I was in my mid 20's I would spend one day a week vomiting every 20 minutes to a half hour for 6 hours at a time eating handfuls of Tylenol between bouts to try and kill the pain. I went to doctors and had every test imaginable but they never found anything. The headaches continued. It was terribly frustrating.

Finally when I was 51 I had my first full blown attack of Bells Palsy. It was bad enough to leave some mild yet permanent damage to the nerves on the right side of my face. The one blessing is that the headaches are gone. Because of this experience I suspect that a lot of the undiagnosed migraines are caused by the same condition that causes Bell's Palsy. I know that was the case with mine. Also there's no test for it and there's no cure for it. I think that's why they can't find the cause in a lot of these cases.

[pansypoo53219]

8. volume.

EARBUDS. duh. irefuse to use buds and even with low volume, i only wore it on my left ear. save one for old age.