Washington: An Indian man, who suffered from porn-induced headaches, was advised to take painkillers 30 minutes before watching the X-rated movies, a case study by Indian researchers has revealed.
The unnamed “unmarried male software professional,” complained of “severe, exploding” headaches that increased gradually and peaked 10 minutes into the intimate scenes.
“Progressively, he started to refrain from viewing videos as a means of avoiding headaches,” ABC News quoted researchers from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University in New Delhi, India, as writing in the case study.
The reason for the 24-year-old`s ill-timed headaches, triggered only by porn and not by sex or masturbation, is unclear.
“This guy is interesting because he`s just watching porn and not actually having sex,” Dawn Buse said.
“But he probably still gets aroused and excited, which may be even worse than having sex because there`s no release,” he said.
Buse, associate professor of neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and director of behavioral medicine at the Montefiore Headache Center in New York, said that about 1 percent of the population -- mostly males – suffer from headaches associated with sexual activity.
She said that even arousal could cause changes in muscle tension, nerve sensitivity and blood flow in the brain that boost the perception of pain.
“It makes sense,” she said.
“There`s definitely blood pumping through his head and his body,” she said.
According to Buse, like exercise-induced headaches, sex headaches are nothing more than a nuisance, easily negated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
But in rare cases, the pain can signal something more serious, like a brain tumor or an aneurysm.
“If someone has a stiff neck, dizziness or confusion along with the pain, they should talk to a doctor,” Buse said.
The man, ready to abstain from watching porn, was instead advised to take 400 milligrams of ibuprofen and 500 milligrams of acetaminophen 30 minutes in advance, to which, according to the study, “he reported significant pain relief.”
The study was published in the June issue of Archives of Sexual Behavior.
ANI
