Don't let your kids spend hours playing video games, or
they may develop severe joint pain! Nintendo photo
Parents, take heed: If you've got a video-game addict on your hands, then you have a child who may develop severe pain in his or her hands and wrist. And just one hour a day spent gaming can start to cause these problems.
These findings are the result of study of 171 students ages 7-12 in St. Louis, Mo., reports HealthScience.
About 80 percent of them play with game consoles (Xbox, PlayStation, Wii) or hand-held devices (iTouch, iPhone, PlayStation Portable). Roughly half of them said they used them less than an hour a day, about a third said they played one to two hours daily, with the rest playing two hours or more daily.
And here are the key findings: Each additional hour of use increased the likelihood of feeling pain by 50 percent. Plus, younger children were more likely to have wrist pain than older children.
Researcher do not know the long-term ramifications of such kinds of repetitive stress and nerve compression. But these findings indicate a particular vulnerability in young, developing muscles, tendons and bones.
Said expert Eric Ruderman, M.D.:
"Parents need to monitor what their children are doing. Two or three hours a day, irrespective of pain in their hands, is too much time for a 7- or 8-year-old to be playing video games."
Bottom line: Gaming is OK, but only in moderation! For tips on controlling your children's time on video games, hand-helds and computers, go here.
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