She felt a pop on her neck while Pilates – her spine had created a leak

The headache weren't immediately. It crept in about an hour after the Pilates class – sharpness, relentless and only calmly calmly. At first it only seemed annoying. Then it wouldn't disappear.

A 42-year-old woman felt a strange pop in her neck during one of the exercises. No pain. No dizziness. Just a noise. Your doctor assumed that it was a drawn muscle and sent her home with opiates and a muscle relaxant. But in the next four weeks the headache got worse – and stranger.

It was only when she ended up in King's College Hospital in London did someone think she was supposed to scan her head. A CT unveiled signs of bleeding near the brain. An MRI of her spine showed something more unusual: pockets of the liquid that collected along her spine. Their diagnosis was a cerebrospinal fluid leak (CSF), which was caused by a crack in the Dura Mater, the protective membrane that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord.

A woman heard a “pop” during the Pilates class. Her spine had created a leak.

This type of leak is rare, but not unknown. The Dura can tear spontaneously, often due to the physical stress or the underlying connective tissue conditions such as the Marfan syndrome. In this case, however, the doctors believe that the Pilates meeting was the trigger. The case was published in the Journal of Medical Case ReportsWith the authors that this contributes to a small but growing evidence that connects certain forms of movement with CSF leaks.

Dr. Amber Luong, specialist at the Health Sciences Center at the University of Texas, told Live science The “every blood in its spine fluid is very irritating to the brain and prepares them headaches.” Licks around the spine are more difficult to recognize than brain leaks, which are often present from the nose as a clear fluid drainage. Here the only symptom was a crushed, attitude -sensitive headache.

Operation without a precise position of the crack was not an option. Instead, the woman was bedrest, anti-inflammatory medication and high caffeine doses prescribed-to increase CSF production and blood flow. It worked. After two weeks the headache decreased and it was released.

It is a memory that even low training sessions can bring surprising risks-and that not all headaches are the same. If this is the only thing that helps, your body could try to tell you something more serious. Your spine may have created a leak.