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Online gaming nowadays is setting the trend in almost all aspects of our daily living. It features plenty of information about modern technology, fashion, and socializing. People of all ages are mostly attached to online gaming, especially its availability and accessibility through all forms of gadgets. Online games come in many different types of platforms, such as a downloadable app, or you can play their games on their website.
People spend so much time dealing with competitive opponents and the software itself, which also promotes online gaming health problems and this persists in India. Locals in the country are experiencing addiction in online gaming, as they are struggling to deal with gamers who are already causing trouble inside their homes.
Online gaming doesn’t only toggle a player’s skills but also their health disorders because of prolonged gaming time. Health issues can be a serious matter, and it can do permanent damage to a person if they do not identify and treat it immediately. Players should be aware of the symptoms of any online gaming health problems so that they could prevent it from getting worse. Here are some of the health issues that any player should know.
Symptoms of a Gaming Disorder
The World Health Organization defines a player with a gaming disorder as someone who prioritizes their gaming more than their daily activities at home or work, having social problems, and having problems controlling their game habits. Some of the symptoms that develop from online gaming are anxiety, obesity, depression, stress, and sleeping disorders.
7 Top Health Issues of Online Video Gaming
Online video gaming health problems may prolong tension injuries, psychological issues, and other health issues. There are also other implications of health problems from playing online gaming. A video game-provoked seizures in players with existing epilepsy is one of the most imminent severe health conditions of gamers.
1. Vision Problems
Online gaming is always associated with vision problems because of prolonged exposure to video game screens, which causes eye strain. Our eyes are not built for long-standing viewing of digital images heavily from electronic gadgets. With constant use of these devices may result in headaches, nausea, vomiting, and dizziness. Though there are other cases that gamers enhance their spatial distribution of attention as compared to those who do not play.
An error in transmission to the brain from the eye will lead people to suffer from the blurring of vision. Because of this, they will find help from video games. There are reports of combining occlusion therapy with video game therapy helps in enhancing corrective visual acuity in players with blurred vision or amblyopia.
2. Obesity and Weight Problems
Obesity is a common health problem all over the world. Online gamers are more prone to have weight problems because of the lack of movements or physical activities. The standard position for players will either be seated or lying down comfortably and not noticing the long hours of playing without any significant action. There are studies that video gaming and television watching increases Body Mass Index (BMI) to people, especially those who are less physically active.
Unfortunately, this problem seems to be growing and considered one of the most severe online gaming health problems. A lot of people, especially young ones, see video gaming as a form of recreation rather than going outside and doing some physical activities. Players also enjoy playing their games as they eat snacks, mostly junk foods. The food intake increases for gamers as they play for long periods.
3. Musculoskeletal Issues
Some tenacious players also complain about their musculoskeletal issues in which it ranges from pain in wrists and hands, the back and neck. PlayStation thumb emerged as one of the health issues with video gamers, and It is the numbness and a pustule resulting from friction between the controller and the thumb from playing games that require speed and persistence to finish a task.
Players with hyperkeratosis have hemorrhages and onycholysis (detachment of the fingernail) as dermatologists discovered. Tendon injuries of the wrists and hands are because of non-stop playing. Wii fractures are the fracture of the bottom of the fifth metatarsal. These are some of the painful musculoskeletal issues that gamers complain most of the time.
4. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Carpal tunnel syndrome is the median nerve compression that causes tingling, numbness, or weakness of the hand. It is the pressure on the median nerve, which lies the whole length of a person’s arm, that goes through a passage called the carpal tunnel that is inside your wrist. The median controls every feeling and movement of all the fingers except the pinky.
The carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms indicate a tingling, burning, or itching numbness in your thumb or index and middle fingers and also your palm. You will have difficulty holding things, and you will feel the weakness in your hand. There are also shock-like and tingling that you would feel into your fingers and move up into your arm. You would notice your fingers that become numb at night and especially in the morning when you wake up.
Many factors with using your hand can cause carpal tunnel syndrome. You can get it from repetitive motions like typing, or constant movements of the wrists. It can also be the cause of obesity, arthritis, diabetes, rheumatoid, hypothyroidism, and pregnancy.
5. Insomnia
Insomnia is when you experience disarray in your regular sleeping habit. You will find difficulty in falling or staying asleep. This condition can be acute if you experience it from one night to several weeks. It can also be chronic insomnia if the situation occurs three nights a week up to three months and above.
Primary insomnia is one type of insomnia where it is not associated with any existing health problem. In contrast, secondary insomnia is a health condition that causes depression, cancer, heartburn, asthma, or arthritis. People who take pain medication, or with alcohol problems are also experiencing secondary insomnia.
Insomnia is one of the online gaming health problems which is caused by fatigue loss, depression, anxiety, and concentration problems. Today’s games require more attention and time devotion to beat the objective. That’s why more people are going out of their time limits to finish or win the game. They would exert more effort and stamina to avoid losing the game. Insomnia can be a common health condition for gamers which doctors are suggesting a behavioural therapy to fix this problem. Doctors do not advise taking over-the-counter pills because it may have side effects, and it won’t be effective over time.
6. Stomach Ulcer
Stomach ulcers are agonizing pain in the stomach lining, which is also known as gastric ulcers, a type of peptic ulcer disease. Peptic ulcers strike both the small intestines and the stomach. Ulcers are the reduction of thick layers of mucus, which protects the stomach lining from digestive juices, which paves the way for the digestive acids to devour the tissues that cover the stomach.
Gamers tend to forget to take their meals properly because of losing track of time. Ulcers can be excruciating, especially when your stomach is empty. The pain will last for a few minutes up to several hours. Some players suffer this type of condition because of the negligence of their proper diet. There are cures for ulcers, but if a person did not attend to it immediately, the remedy might end up in surgical procedures.
7. Hearing Problems
Our ears suffer from loud noises, which destroys the hairs or nerve cells inside the cochlea. The signals that these nerves send to the brain may be erroneous or no signals at all. The loud blasts of noise that most players experience is the leading cause of their hearing problems. Gamers enjoy much of their game whenever outstanding audio effects accompany it. But sometimes things are getting out of hand, and these players tend to increase their game volume to feel the intensity.
Hearing problems are another type of online gaming health problems and can prevent this from happening by protecting their ears and setting limits of exposure to noise. Gamers should regulate the intensity of the audio output of their games and should take some breaks to rest their ears.
Treating Online Gaming Health Problems
There are effective ways of dealing with online gaming health problems, like through medical procedures. One strategy that can be beneficial would be to educate gamers about the possibilities of acquiring such health conditions and how to prevent it from getting worse. Prevention would be the best way of dealing with any health problems and knowing the limits of each other’s capacity in the gaming field.
A gamer should also do some research about their favourite games so that they will formulate their strategies to beat the game easily. Online games should not stress out gamers but must provide entertainment and promote good intentions.
