By: Jeff Freeman Re: Brain Explosion : How To Tell If Your Head's About To Blow Up : From

By: Jeff Freeman
Re: Brain Explosion

 :  How To Tell If Your Head's About To Blow Up
 :          From the WEEKLY WORLD NEWS, May 24, 1994

 : MOSCOW-- Doctors are blaming a rare electrical imbalance in the brain
 : for the bizarre death of a chess player whose head literally exploded
 : in the middle of a championship game!

 : No one else was hurt in the fatal explosion but four players and three
 : officials at the Moscow Candidate Masters' Chess Championships were
 : sprayed with blood and brain matter when Nikolai Titov's head suddenly
 : blew apart. Experts say he suffered from a condition called
 : Hyper-Cerebral Electrosis or HCE.

 : "He was deep in concentration with his eyes focused on the board," says
 : Titov's opponent, Vladimir Dobrynin.  "All of a sudden his hands flew to
 : his temples and he screamed in pain.  Everyone looked up from their
 : games, startled by the noise.  Then, as if someone had put a bomb in his
 : cranium, his head popped like a firecracker."

 : Incredibly, Titiov's is not the first case in which a person's head has
 : spontaneously exploded.  Five people are known to have died of  HCE in
 : the last 25 years.  The most recent death occurred just three years ago
 : in 1991, when European psychic Barbara Nicole's skull burst.  Miss
 : Nicole's story was reported by newspapers worldwide, including WWN.
 : "HCE is an extremely rare physical imbalance," said Dr. Anatoly
 : Martinenko, famed neurologist and expert on the human brain who did the
 : autopsy on the brilliant chess expert.  "It is a condition in which the
 : circuits of the brain become overloaded by the body's own electricity.
 : The explosions happen during periods of intense mental activity when
 : lots of current is surging through the brain. Victims are highly
 : intelligent people with great powers of concentration. Both Miss Nicole
 : and Mr. Titov were intense people who tended to keep those cerebral
 : circuits overloaded.  In a way it could be said they were literally too
 : smart for their own good."

 : Although Dr. Martinenko says there are probably many undiagnosed cases,
 : he hastens to add that very few people will die from HCE.  "Most people
 : who have it will never know.  At this point, medical science still
 : doesn't know much about HCE.  And since fatalities are so rare it will
 : probably be years before research money becomes available."

 : In the meantime, the doctor urges people to take it easy and not think
 : too hard for long periods of time.  "Take frequent relaxation breaks
 : when you're doing things that take lots of mental focus," he recommends.

 : Although HCE is very rare, it can kill.  Dr. Martinenko says knowing you
 : have the condition can greatly improve your odds of surviving it.  A
 : "yes" answer to any three of the following seven questions could mean
 : that you have HCE:

 :   Does your head sometimes ache when you think too hard?  (Head pain
 : can indicate overloaded brain circuits.)

 :   Do you ever hear a faint ringing or humming sound in your ears? (It
 : could be the sound of electricity in the skull cavity.)

 :   Do you sometimes find yourself unable to get a thought out of your
 : head? (This is a possible sign of too much electrical activity in the
 : cerebral cortex.)

 :   Do you spend more than five hours a day reading, balancing your
 : checkbook, or other thoughtful activity? (A common symptom of  HCE is a
 : tendency to over-use the brain.)

 :   When you get angry or frustrated do you feel pressure in your
 : temples? (Friends of people who died of HCE say the victims often
 : complained of head pressure in times of strong emotion.)

 : Do you ever overeat on ice cream, doughnuts and other sweets?  (A
 : craving for sugar is typical of people with too much electrical pressure
 : in the cranium.)

 :   Do you tend to analyze yourself too much?  (HCE sufferers are often
 : introspective, "over-thinking" their lives.)

I believe it.  It was in a newspaper, after all.