So wait… what CAUSES this, exactly? Cecil didn’t mention the most important part…
Is it the soundwaves? Is it damage to the hands?
And… can’t you apply the principle to kill fat cells instead of muscle?
It’s caused, by definition, by muscle cells breaking open and leaking their contents into the blood. If it’s happening to enough cells, you’ll see the chemicals being excreted in the urine. As such, no it won’t work on fat cells.
While I’ve seen excertional rhabdo on occasion (speed freaks, gym overachievers), I’ve seen much more of it in little old people that fall and can’t get up. If they lay on a hard floor in one position for awhile their weight cuts off circulation to the muscles under them and those cells start to die.
Oooo, I think I know which one 
Most drummers that I know are aware of the condition, and don’t think anything about it when/if it happens.
This is more likely the explanation.
Well, then you get a gold Star. Here, I made it out of Wood. Siriusly, it’s wood. I’m not Rising above that! 
(And yes, techinically it’s two week long festivals, not one two week festival. But there’s a whole lot of overlap in attendees!)
Good to know it’s my ignorance and not the drum circle’s.
Physical impact. The muscles getting smashed between the bones and the drum.
After a while, does the muscle get killed off completely making their hands weird and/or weak? Or does it just grow back (maybe even stronger than before)?
The muscle grows back. I doubt it grows back particularly stronger.
Well, wait a sec. I agree that’s what Cecil is saying, but now that I think about it…there are hardly any muscles IN the hand, especially the fingers and the fleshy bit on the most distal part of the palm (I know there must be an anatomical term for that…) where most drumming occurs. It’s almost entirely bone, fat and tendon. So now I’m confuddled again.
I would expect it involves the muscles of the upper arm and shoulder, possibly some of the pectorals. While direct impact and pressure can cause rhabdo, swelling from excessive use can also cause it. Each muscle moves within an individual sheath, kind of like a pant leg, so they don’t rub against each other. These sheaths don’t have much give to them, and it doesn’t take much swelling to increase the pressure. Cross reference compartment syndrome if you’re in a google mood.
Ah, that makes more sense. So the muscle tissue damage probably isn’t in the hand, but from the repetitive stress in the shoulder. Thanks!
But wouldn’t their shoulders get painfully sore and tired first? I never thought drumming was such an endurance sport.
And even if it was, with practice, wouldn’t the muscle just grow strong enough for this to not be a problem? It’s like… do athletes regularly piss blood while training? Or manual laborers?
Impact-damage in general makes much more sense. (Muscles aren’t designed to specifically grow resistant to that.)
Hands definitely have muscles, even if it’s not much. How else do you think you could grip things or even pull yourself up?
But… is it possible that sitting with a loud drum in your crotch for hours, even days on end somehow causes tissue damage in itself?
Hmm, googled ‘chronic compartment syndrome’. Yeah, maybe that is it. It strikes seasoned athletes (not something the muscles can adapt to apparently), and comes on in episodes. During an episode blood is cut off, and the result is like with the old ladies who lie on the floor for too long – muscle death.
But it’s also very painful. You’d think a seasoned drummer would mention the full story like, “sometimes you arms just start hurting incredibly and then you piss blood,” instead of, “yeah so out of nowhere I’m pissing blood!”
But you expect pain in the hands and arms if you hit something a lot.
Yes, they do, and yes, it is. Or rather, it can be. Me, I drum for an hour and I’m pooped. I’m a newbie.
You grip things with the muscles in your forearm. They’re connected with long tendons to the bones in your fingers, like marionette strings. I’m not sure what “pull yourself up” means, but you bend your arm with muscles in your upper arm.
Doh, you’re right.
Agreed, but it’s all variations on a theme. Pressure, swelling, repeated impacts; symptoms can be variations on a theme as well. full on compartment syndrome is a medical emergerncy, you could loose an extremity. full on rhabdo is also life threatening, kidney failure and hyperkalemic cardiac arrest, off the top of my head. but sub-clinical presentations probably happen much more frequently.
I’m having a hard time with the rhabdomyolysis diagnosis.
Where is the supposed damaged muscle tissue coming from that’s getting into the bloodstream? We’re talking about hand drummers here (and specifically bongo and conga players) and the strokes applied with the most force (slaps, muffs, and open tones) are all finger strokes at the point of greatest impact.
Here’s something interesting:
There are no muscles in the fingers!!!
Seriously:
So there’s no muscle tissue in the fingers to get crushed. If the argument is that it’s not the finger muscles you’re talking about, but other muscles strained during prolonged exertion that are somehow crushed, why don’t we ever hear about this issue with drumset drummers, who play equally as long and hard?
A much more plausible diagnosis is what’s known as “march hemoglobinuria,” where red blood cells get broken up due to impact force, spilling their contents into the blood plasma that surrounds all the red cells. A particularly long and hard set might crush so many red blood cells that it overloads the kidney’s ability to deal with it, resulting in dark or rust-colored urine. I’m half-quoting and half-paraphrasing a conga-playing doctor’s writeup on this very subject, found here. Check it out:
http://www.mycongaplace.com/forum/eng/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4284
James
In the answer to the question on The Straight Dope, there’s a section referencing a study of Carnival drummers in Uruguay having this issue and TSD writer makes a (strange) leap and erroneously connects it to rhabdomyolysis, a deduction completely at odds with what’s actually in the study/article referenced:
The Straight Dope quote:
“Hand drumming is a well-known cause of rhabdomyolysis. A detailed study of Carnaval drummers in Uruguay found that 18 out of 26 turned in abnormal urine specimens after prolonged playing: six samples were rust-colored, and eight contained minute levels of blood, a sign of renal trouble.”
This reference had to have been pulled from a study posted on this Clinical Nephrology site:
The title of the article is “Rust Urine after Intense Hand Drumming Is Caused by Extracorpuscular Hemolysis.”
You’ll note, though, that nowhere is rhabdomyolysis mentioned, and in fact, the diagnosis given (even in the title!) in this article is “extracorpuscular hemolysis,” which is the break down of red blood cells, not muscle tissue.
Quote from last line of study:
“Conclusions: Taken together, these data confirm that rust urine is caused by extracorpuscular hemolysis.”
???
James
Looks like you have us there CongaPlayer, well done.
Whatever the source, it’s still gross. Any music that makes me pee blood is not music I want to be playing.