Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Gamer Danger

Episode Date: March 30, 2021

When the Nintendo Wii was released, it also came with a warning about potential injuries, to yourself and to others. But are video games good or bad for your health? Justin takes the lead to educate, entertain and delight about both the medical harm and medical good that video games can do.Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers

Saw bones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, time is about to books. One, two, one, two, three, four. Hello everybody and welcome to Saul Bones, a marital For the mouth. Hello everybody and welcome to

Sal Bones, a marital turf misguided medicine. I'm your co-host Justin McElroy. And I'm Sydney McElroy. Now, Sydney I noticed that you've got your computer pulled up in front of you today, but I bet you're wondering why did I even do that? Why did I do it? You know actually I walked through this in my head I need it because I always have it up in front of me. And it's just part of it. As a special treat for Sydney, we're recording this on Friday, tomorrow's March 27th, the city's birthday. That's right. So as a special treat for Sydney, I told her,

don't worry about it. I've got the medical history podcast for this week. And I thought about this, you know, my birthday is tomorrow. By the time this is published, my birthday will be over. So this is like a double present because this will come out on doctor's day. Oh, perfect. We released on doctor's day. So this is like also my present, you know, that you get me every year for doctor's day. You know how you get me present for that. Your doctor's day present that that you get all the time. Yes, you missed giving Sydney a gift. I'm sure you can still go to Harmony House and make a donation in her name. I'm sure

she'd appreciate that for her. Actually, yes. If somebody was going to get me a present, that is exactly what I would want you to do. Yes. Is donate to Harmony House. But that is not what we're here. We're here to entertain, delight, and educate you. Thanks to Justin McRoy's Saw Bones. It's a medical history podcast that I have crafted and I'm going to tell you, Sydney. That means that you, my friend, now, are you looking ahead at the notes? I was pulling up the notes.

Are these notes really titled Game or Danger? I thought... Is that really what they're... I didn't ever think about you seeing that. It all all caps no less gamer danger. I just thought it was a good Shut up gamer danger. I did my best. I did my best. I like the all caps. I don't usually title my Google Docs A ton of caps for creaking me. It is a time for educating entertaining and delighting. Please don't read ahead. You're gonna have to read enough for me. I just pulled it up so that you pull up the notes when I'm,

you know, doing this. I'm a gamer. I'm a gamer. I'm a 100% gamer. Are you? But that comes with certain hazards. And I feel like in the medical community sometimes, those hazards, like spilling your mountain dew all over your gaming console

Okay, can I tell you something you've been in this very cruel series of types that are not helpful to this discussion I you just like mountain dew. I've been covering video games for my first writing job ever was when I was 13 years old Writing with Chuck Minsker the game view column for the hero ofo Spatch. I've been writing about video games for nearly 30 years at this point. I've been covering them for a very long time. Professionally, I cover them for the past, oh, I don't know, 15 years plus for a living. So I follow this way very carefully

and I have made a note whenever there is like a overlap between the interests of medicine and the interest of video games. there is like a overlap between the interests of medicine and the interest of video games. So we've done in the past like medically themed video games. We've talked about those on Salmons. You did that episode. I did and now I'm trying it again. I'm so far outside my comfort zone. I never realized how distracting it is when I'm looking at the, I'm never gonna look at a screen again. I'm just gonna keep my eyes locked on you because I didn't realize how disorienting it is when you're looking at the, I'm never gonna look at a screen again. I'm just gonna keep my eyes locked on you because I didn't realize how this is already ending it is when you're not looking at me. So listen, I'm not

time to come present with medical stuff. So I'm gonna try to talk to you about the way medicine and video games overlap. Okay. And I'm going to talk to you about it through the lens of game or danger. Yes. It's not a joke. And you're gonna feel bad very quickly. So I'm warning you now. I would like to. I would be ashamed of your words and deeds. I'm not going to feel bad about making fun of your all caps title game or danger. But I would like to apologize for the Mountain Dew joke. Yeah. Well, it's too bad. I would like to apologize. That was unnecessary and cruel and stereotypical. But you do, to be fair, you do really like Mountain Dew. We, I do really like Mountain Dew. So, okay. We, I want to talk about a lot of different

ways in which games are dangerous. Video games are dangerous for our youth. Sure. The number one, though, and I think that this has actually become more of a prominent issue in the past few years, and I think we'll continue to be. Esports is blossoming, it's growing. There are leagues of people who are playing video games against each other, professional game games like Starcraft 2 and Overwatch and League and you name it Fortnite. Probably, it's probably an E-sports thing.

I don't know, Fortnite's an E-sports thing. I probably couldn't name it. Call of Duty, of course, is a huge support thing. Are they still playing gold and I? Not as much as you would think. But with that has come an increase in gaming related injury specifically in this instance, I'm talking about repetitive stress injuries

or as I call them RS eyes. Mm-hmm. As you call them. The number one and the one that is probably the most common and the most cruel is Gamers Thumb. Now Gamers Thumb is more common in obviously console games. This isn't a big problem if you're doing like a keyboard mouse type game. Sure, that makes sense.

If you're using the thumbstick, Gamers Thumb is one nickname given to a condition called, you may have to help me with this bit. Quaravains. Dequaravains. Dequaravains, Tenocinovitis. Dequaravains? Yeah. Tenocinovitis.

Yeah. It's a condition where the tendons that move your thumb become inflamed. So you're moving your thumb around and it can be serious. It can be very painful. I'm going to tell you about this specifically. C-sid specifically, Gamers Thumb affects the tendon sheaths of the extensor, pull, list, pull, lichus, brevis, and abduct or pull, callusus, long dysmuscles, the muscles pull the thumb away from the hand and palm. And you get Gamers Thumb. your thumbs for sir because you game too hard

right now in the eighties i think this is hilarious they called it an intenditis which is very good and we should not have uh uh moved away from nintenditis so quickly i well and i feel like i probably had i mean maybe not a full blown case of nint Ditis back in the day. Yeah. But I remember those days, those nights when you would go to bed and go, and now I street fighter too hard. You fought the street too much. And this is a serious issue, not specifically, maybe not specifically, Gamers Thumb, but definitely the sort of repetitive stress injury, has ended careers of esports players

who, you know, even with like surgery and taking care of themselves are still not able to continue to compete at the same level. There's one prominent case from earlier this year, Thomas Zuma, Paparado, was a college duty player who ended his career at 25 years old. Oh my gosh. Because just the pain he was experiencing.

So there's a big push to get people to take this seriously, especially people who are pros who are doing this. I mean, for a length of time that are not necessarily advisable for the common human body. It's, well, you know what, it's interesting because what you're getting into is kind of the same conversation we have when we talk about like extreme sports or like extreme endurance sorts of activities,

things that we start to understand that the human body is not necessarily built to just do naturally, but we have developed all of these ways to try to like push the bounds of human performance. Do you think, I wonder if that will, well, that happened in this space. Well, you see, I mean,

cause there's research in this, right? Like there's tons of research in this. How do these high performing endurance athletes do these things that the human body isn't really made to do safely and continuously. I don't know. Tom Brady probably has a secret. And these break down to, I mean, there are other RSI's that are experienced amongst gamers.

Carpool Tunnel is obviously huge that some of the that I personally is not a pro, sort of an amateur gamer, have struggled with and had to have treated trigger finger tennis elbow, maybe we tennis elbow in the specific case. But I was gonna say we're gonna have to rename it. Yeah, well, we'll just stick with an intentitis. So what do you do? One, play less, take breaks, more frequent breaks

are what it advice, and stretching those against basically whatever you're doing, right, taking breaks while you're playing, treating it can be rest, it can be inseds, and in some extreme cases like steroids and surgery. So there is a big push and you know, kidding aside, like there's a big push in these communities to get these young people who are not thinking like I'm going to injure myself playing games and they get them to take this seriously because a little bit

You know, it's that old ounce of prevention You know pound of care kind of deal. Yeah, well, and I can imagine that's especially true if it has become your livelihood and Taking a break is probably the best thing you can do if you have one of these injuries, but if your income depends on regularly gaming, how do you take a break? So that puts you in a tough spot, so you're right. It's about a lot of pro athletes. I'm sure are constantly trying to run.

The same discussion, yeah, exactly. There is a, okay, so that is probably the most serious in terms of like gaming injuries. That is an actual constant problem. Others are less so. Let's talk about the Nintendo 64. Now I know that you had an Nintendo 64 with the, I think probably second worst controller I've remained right after the GameCube controller. That's debatable. I know some people love the GameCube controller, but the nidus x work at yaw was miserable and the highlight of this miserable I'm looking at a picture of it to remind myself it looks kind of like a battering

So look up that and what you're gonna see the most prominent feature is an analog stick Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, center and There in a game called Mario party if you ever enjoyed the game Mario party on the city 64 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, anybody with half a brain would instantly realize that if they were just to put the palm on their hand on top of the stick and use their entire wrist to get that movement, they could get a lot more stars. You're going to get a lot more stars that way. There's no choice about it. But that's a nice tip. That, well, no, it's not.

Oh, twist. Twist. Twist, some players got blisters, burns, and lacerations from rotating the analog stick using the palms of their hands instead of their thumb. Lacerations. Well, I mean, burns are probably the wild part. Like, you definitely need to, you need to go pro if you're like, I said my handle, it's on fire. I said my handle is on fire with my finger. They don't mean burn burns, right?

Really? Like they generated friction burns. A friction injury. Yeah. Yeah. Not they actually generated enough heat. So, can you add it up fast? You'd have to do that.

So this is, there weren't any lawsuits file, but there were about 90 complaints received by the New York Attorney General's office. Nintendo agreed to a settlement. The settlement was, they paid the legal fees of the state. It was like $27,000, or sorry, $75,000. They provided gloves for anyone who had hurt their hands while playing the game. Well, were they cool gloves?

I don't know. I don't know. These are like collectors items. How do you not they cool gloves? I don't know. I don't know. These are like collectors items. How do you not own these gloves? These feel like something that Justin McRoy we know not out. I don't know if they would want to necessarily brand them. Let me check the bay real quick. Let me check the bay real quick

and see if there's Mario Party gloves. Because I don't know if you necessarily want to brand these Mario Party gloves. Like, here, these are safe to use. Yeah, I don't see any on eBay. So I'm assuming maybe it's just like regular gloves. Regular safety gloves. Just like glove gloves.

Yeah, not like like those arthritis gloves, your dad wears. Yes. Like the fingerless gloves. Exactly. I bet they were fingerless. At the time, it could have cost Nintendo up to $80 million. So that they have backed off of analog secretation since Mario Party 2.

Wait, what year was this that they sent these gloves out? Um, hold on, you asked me to work. Sorry. Yeah, it's okay. It would have been like late 99, 2000 somewhere around there. Just trying to imagine what color scheme they would have gone with. I really don't think they're trying to make them special.

I think they're just trying to make them like, just okay. Just enough to, yeah, Nintendo issues, game gloves, is what they were called. So that was that very serious situation. They backed off of that. Now the thumbstick on the switch, I think they've used those sorts of mini games again in Mario Party, but the thumbstick are way better than they used to being that one more comfortable. So I don't think you're going to get the same sort of, and also Mario Party 2 is on a virtual

console. That was not a fun controller. I will agree with that. That was not a good controller. Now the Wii, of course, is hugely dangerous. A lot of problems. The Wii is hugely dangerous. The Wii is hugely dangerous. She laughs, but I mean, I mean, not hugely dangerous. I'm, of course, I should say I'm overstating this for impact. But there are there are problems with the

the Wii and like the Wii Fit balance board, do you ever see that? That's not a very common thing, but you remember that in the United Kingdom, a 14 year old girl suffered a fracture in her right foot when she fell off the balance board. Oh no. I know. See, now you can feel that for laughing.

There's falls while playing is a wheat associated injury that was in this, there was this big study in New England Journal of medicine basically a little bit lighter lighter study What are you looking at here? You look at a traumatic hemothorax? Traumatic hemothorax, Sydney now you shouldn't be reading a lot really. I'm the one who's supposed to Suffer to traumatic hemothorax Yeah, really that was gonna be my sort of to you. I was gonna say that to you and get your reaction. That's how those shows.

Okay, sorry. You're not supposed to read the stuff off the screen. You'll note that I very rarely do that as the co-host. So dramatic hemathorax, I don't know what that is exactly, but it sounds bad. You have the definition here. I was gonna let you read it so you could sound. It's a collection of blood in the space between the chest wall and lung

There are also head injuries from being struck accidentally by a gaming partner Basically people put these we modes around the rest and they just went to town There were TVs destroyed a kid There was a kid that lost vision in one eye because he got hit by a oh my gosh We mo it's not a joke folks. You start slaying these things around. That's why they got the wrist straps on there. And you know what? You leave those off at your own peril.

That's all, that's all I will say. Well, even with them on, I remember there was danger. Sure. Because like, you can't just let that thing spin around your wrist. Like, like it's, you know, tethered closely enough not to harm someone. There were of course, we, if you do not remember this,

if you were none around during this time period, we tennis and was a massive, I mean, it was massive. The we was massively popular and there were more. Well, because everybody did it. Yeah. It wasn't just the traditional what you think of as someone who plays video games, which I know has always been a false stereotype, but it really expanded.

She says a mere 15 minutes after it's troughing out from the game. I apologize, I apologize for it, I recognize that. No, but it really, like my parents played we tennis. This is a big, my parents playing a video game. That is a huge deal. We tennis and rock band, that's the only ones we ever got your parents on.

Now, of course, there's a danger of DVTs. And that is a huge deal. We're tennis and rock band. That's the only ones you ever got your pants on. Now of course there's a danger of DVTs. A DVT just from playing a video game? I know. It sounds shocking, Sid. And we're going to talk about that and so much more. Oh, right. Game or Danger on the horizon.

Right after we go to the billion department. Let's go. The medicines, the medicines that I you let my God for the mouth. Hey it's John Moe and look, these are challenging times for our mental and emotional health. I get it. That's why I'm so excited for my new podcast, Depresh Mode. We're tackling depression, anxiety, trauma, stress, the kinds of things that are just super common but don't get talked about nearly enough.

Conversations that are illuminating, honest, and sometimes pretty funny, with folks like Kelsey Dera, and open Mike Eagle, and Pat and Oswald. Humpy Bokar was never in therapy, and then my dad said, yeah, but he smoked a carton of cigarettes a day, So he was in therapy. Plus psychiatrists, psychologists, and all kinds of folks. On depression mode, we're working together, learning, helping each other out. We're a team.

Join our team. Depression mode for maximum fun. Wherever you get your podcasts. Sydney, what is a DVT for people that don't know? A deep vein thrombosis. It's a blood clot. It's a collection of very cells that are in your blood that have formed a clot, so like a something that blocks it.

You probably know what a blood clot is, a little ball of blood and cells and stuff, that blocks the flow of blood through something. So in this case of AIN. It is a risk when you're doing a very long gaming session. There's a risk for DBT because it can happen when you've been immobilized for too long. This is not a theoretical thing. I have two reports here in one. There's one from a man who had been playing Games with his kids for eight hours

Goodness and blood clots formed in the patients lower legs causing a DBT and he had to be true to with Emergency blood thinners to remove the clots now. I don't know what game that is But I would love to know what got you to sit, what honestly, if I could get my kids to sit down for eight hours, the DVDs might almost be worth it. I'm kind of on the line. I don't need them to sit for eight hours. If I could get them to sit for eight minutes

so that I could like, I don't know, eat a salad or go pee, that would be cool. A young man also in New Zealand developed life threatening blood clots in his leg, according to this story on live science, after playing four days of PlayStation games, I'm assuming that's not for interrupted days because we're getting into some hygiene issues there at sleep and bathrooms. I've seen those gamer chairs that like, and I don't know if they're real.

Have the toilets built into them? I've seen, yeah. I've seen people share those on Facebook and I always assume it's a joke, but they're like, I need this. And it, like, but it also, Most gamers do have gamer chairs with potty's in them, so that is a correct area. They don't. No, most people.

They have those cool looking, I've seen the ones they have on their streams and stuff. They all look cool and, and space age the ones they have on their streams and stuff. They all look cool and space age. But these are like recliners basically. So you can just sort of like set your controller to the side, recline back, take a nap, sit right back up and go right back to gaming. And there's like little mini fridge and all that. I bet these aren't real.

Anyway, moving on. You know, the thing is, anything you do, if you hold still long enough in a seated position or in a lane down or seated, it puts you at risk for a DVT. Now, a lot of people say, well, why doesn't everybody get them while you sleep? Well, you move while you sleep. You're moving and stuff. But that's really the risk.

It's the same reason why airplanes, you're at risk for them, long car trips, you're at risk for them. Anything, after a surgery, maybe if you're a mobile for a while while you're recovering from something in the hospital, if you're sick and you can't move, because you just don't move. So that would be my concern is like, you shouldn't be playing a video game so long that you're not moving at all. You know, like that you're holding that still, because that's a degree of stillness that we usually don't hold for long periods. This happened to a friend of mine. It's happened to my friend, Kevin Kelly,

who's somebody I worked with at Joystick. That might mean you need to- I don't think it was after a long gaming session, but it was definitely not. It might mean you need more breaks. And this is true for people who work on computers in general. I think there's a risk here. So we need more breaks.

Get up and walk around some more. I know what you're thinking. The reality of these gaming entries is just too much. Maybe it would be nice to be whisked away into a virtual reality. Well, no, the danger lurks there too. No, I could actually, I totally see this. So what's the most common? Obviously, the most common is, you know, you put on a VR helmet and you're ambulating around a space and you're not following the safety guidelines

and maybe you didn't set up your barrier where it's supposed to be or you left a toy train out in the middle of your office or whatever and you walk into things, you punch a wall, you fall directly onto your face and that is a danger. People have, these are resulted in strains, broken bones and concussions from people just falling and stuff. It does surprise me. It's very disorienting. The few times I've done it, although I can't engage with virtual reality very much for, I don't know if you're going to mention one of the other. Nausea is a more transient problem, but it's definitely there. There's also sort of tying into the RSI,

as we talked about earlier, there's an issue of neck strain with a burden on the cervical spine, because you're supporting the weight of this helmet, and I've already got some heft up there, you know, on top of the neck, then I'm going to pop on with your big head. With the VR helmet, thank you, dear. But that is a concern. There are also, it's also worth noting that, and this is like, I don't wanna sow seeds of fear uncertainty and doubt, but there is also some early discussion

that maybe as we transition more into people spending more time in VR, that there might be some longer term dangers that we're not necessarily aware of yet. One would be we're not used to processing the source of like intense stimuli that you get from this and that may not be good for your like nervous system, your circulatory system, like the fear of the anxiety, like being directly pumped in, the effect of that sort of like fight or flight mode and putting

yourself in that constantly could be damaging over the long term. I can see that. I can, I mean, to start to think of corollaries to that, yes, there definitely is a concern there. It's interesting, it would be interesting to see how that plays out in a simulated situation where on some level you know you aren't in danger at all times. If that would protect you, I don't know

because it is very realistic. Although the only one that I could engage with was that one where we were in Disney World and I was sitting on a bench not moving so that I could just look around because as soon as I move, I'm gonna vomit. I'm gonna hurl right away. I can't, I'll never have that problem.

Makes me so nauseated so quickly to do any of that. There's also some anecdotal evidence that forcing your brain to process like three dimensional images in that way and the eye strain that it caused may be create longer term issues for you. Although again, none of this is not scientifically proven right now because a lot of the technology is early and we don't wanna have people who have spent the kind of time in VR, but it's something to be aware of. I mean, I think with a lot of this stuff, right?

Balance, it's just about balance. I'm finding a balance between getting your game on, getting your points, as they say. Now, Sidney, I am not just here to bury video games in danger. I wanted to briefly talk about the good stuff that video games do in terms of health. All right.

There, obviously the Nintendo products, when especially the WIMO became such a big thing, a lot of people saw the opportunity for encouraging people to become more active, but also to use it in some sorts of physical therapy like the balance board. It has been used to train balance in older people like the balance board has been used or there's a Parkinson's disease. The we remote controller can be used to improve basic laparoscopic skills. I don't know what that means, but like camera assisted surgeries where they do like a minimally invasive procedure

Meaning that they only make a few small incisions and just insert a camera and some other Instruments into tiny incisions as opposed to a big open procedure where they have to make a much larger incision The healing is faster their recovery is faster from laparoscopic procedures So a lot of surgeries have been transitioned to that when possible. There's been a good amount of research into using VR for physical therapy because where your motions are being tracked, it can help you to make sure

that you're performing the physical therapy properly and monitor the kinematics it says here of your limb movements. So that kind of research was done actually using the connect which was Microsoft's failed camera. I remember that though because it sent all those little spots, those little dots all over your room. But yeah, that makes a lot of sense because that is a big problem in various kinds of therapy

where if you do the exercises correctly, they can really help, but you have to make sure you're doing them correctly every time or else you might get no benefit or even worse. Maybe you're doing something that would actually make it worse. Now, I don't know if you know about this, but there was a warning when the Nintendo 3DS was first released, which was a 3D platform that kids under six probably shouldn't play it because it would just like demolish their vision. This is what everyone was told.

I remember this. Right. They're apparently not a lot of evidence for that. They have backed away from that. It is not a, they don't seem to have found any sort of evidence that that is an issue. But actually in the story from 2011, the American Optometric, Optometric?

It's an American Optometric Association, the AOA, says that 3D may actually help uncover settled disorders that can result in learning difficulties for kids. So if they have trouble processing the 3D images from these things, that that might actually be indicated, it can help them detect vision problems that will continue to be a problem for them. That's really cool. Isn't that cool? That would have been cool when I was younger,

because my utter lack of spatial reasoning maybe somebody would have picked up on that and helped me with it, because now I'm an adult who has no spatial reasoning skills. And it's the vision continues to develop from birth, so the earlier we find this stuff out, better. Video games are used a lot in therapy. There is, for example, a game called Sparks with an X that is used to just treat depression. It is a game where you, you know, like, do specific goals and it can help you monitor your own emotional state. There are also a lot of use of video games in, and you can find all kinds of cases of this. How have they validated that? Like have they done studies to compare it to other treatments

for depression, do you know? Like to compare it to therapy or a medication or something like that? I don't, I mean, let me see here. Hold on. They tested sparks in a, according to this, a large study in New Zealand. The results were published in the British Medical Journal in 2012. They found that it was as effective as standard care for use 12 to 19 years old, seeking help for depression, reduced depression, anxiety, feelings of hopelessness and improved quality of life, and many other effects. That's fascinating.

These changes lasted for at least three months. But that also you see video games that are not specifically designed for this, but being used in play therapy with younger kids, which obviously that's something that's been going on for a long time. You see toys being used in therapy with younger kids to help to get them to open up. But there's a lot of people who are using video games as a way to get kids to start talking, like interacting with them in these play spaces

where they feel a bit more comfortable, like doing their therapy session in like fortnight or whatever, where not only like, or maybe probably less violent video games than that, but still using video games as a way to start a discussion going to using video games to as part of like dramatic play that could be useful in development things like that Also, and this is real. I think this is this is these last two are fasting although a little bit more ephemeral and

video games have been used in As a form of pain relief there are studies where people will like put their hands into cold water or something and then have the distraction of a video game there to help them tolerate that. They've also been used to kids who are undergoing, you know, chemotherapy stuff like that to, as a form of distraction. I love from this one study I found.

I love hearing medical people talk about video games because it's the most clinical possible thing. Those interested in taking part were offered the possibility of playing video games on PlayStation Fida on demand with a range of different alternatives available, depending on the patient's preference and age as follows, age rated puzzles, sports, platforms, and strategy games. Yes. Those are the genres of video games that there are. Platforms.

What are platform? Platforming games like Mario, but no one calls it they're not platforms. That is not what they're a birthday rest. Somebody had to look that up. You know somebody just was researching that as opposed to just like asking, so hey, do you play video games?

Yeah. Platforms, is that anything? Is this a thing? This last one, especially cool. VR headsets have been adapted to help improve eyesight. There's a startup called Give Vision that made a device called the Site Plus that helps to restore vision in people whose eyesight has deteriorated beyond repair.

It projects a video, so you wear the helmet, right, projects a video of the real world into the working part of the retina. There was a clinical trial at Morefield's eye hospital that suggested and proved eyesight in 59 of the 60 participants with nearly half saying they would wear the device for watching TV, reading, or going to the theater. The firm is partnering with Sony to develop its next device. That's kind of amazing. Yeah, that's very cool.

Anyway, video games are terrible and dangerous, except sometimes they're good. That's the scoop from Sobbing. Was this was the whole idea here that at the end, I would say, well, I guess I should let you play video games more. No, I'm 40. I play video games whenever I darn well please, which usually just happens to align with and the kids are asleep and you're busy doing other things, or I've woken up before everyone because of my ongoing struggles with anxiety.

But video games are here to stay and they are dangerous unless you use to have been moderation in which case they're probably fine, maybe even helpful. I've been sitting here thinking what the perfect use for this gamer danger in all caps is, like, where can we use this? I thought we should write a book. No, don't write a book. This looks like a pamphlet that you find when you go to the school nurse, where they have all the pamphlets about all the stuff that can go wrong for teenagers, and then they have one that's titled, Gamer Danger.

And they have like, some kids out on the playground and ones like, laying there, like holding their legs screaming and it's like Gamer Danger and you're like, what is happening? As much as I'd love for my to listen, sit here and listen to my wife continue to rag on me, we do have to end the show here. Thank you so much for listening. Thanks to the taxpayers for the use of their song Medicines as the intro and outro of our program. And thank you to Justin for doing the research

for this episode so that I could take a break this week. That was a great birthday present. You're welcome, Squid. If you want to get said something, head on over to the Harmony House website and you can help people who are experiencing homelessness in Huntington, West Virginia. It is a wonderful organization

and I think they would be happy for any house. Any support you could offer, harmanyhousewv.com. And let Sidney know you donated. I'm sure I would brighten her day. That would, that would, thank you. That is gonna do for us. So until next time, my name is Justin McRoy.

I'm Sidney McRoy. And as always, don't, Jilla Hole in your head! Maximumfun.org Comedy and culture Artist Oat Audience supported