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, Titov'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 CNN."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:1.Does your head sometimes ache when you think too hard? (Head pain can
indicate overloaded brain circuits.)2.Do you ever hear a faint ringing or humming sound in your ears? (It could
be the sound of electricity in the skull cavity.)3.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.)4.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.)5.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.)6.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.)7.Do you tend to analyze yourself too much? (HCE sufferers are often
introspective,
"over-thinking" their lives.)
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