How Video Games Are Beneficial For Your Health

Kevin Jones
Jul 25, 2017 · 3 min read

Your parents might have kicked your Super Nintendo Entertainment System off just about every time you sit in front of it as they are more concerned about how it affects your long-term health. A lot of studies have proved that games that don’t require physical movement will leave an adverse effect on children with growing age. But, on the other hand, there are plenty of studies touting the health benefit of gaming.

Treat Chronic Illnesses

A study conducted by the University of Utah last year observed the effects of regular gaming on kids diagnosed with illnesses such as depression, autism, and Parkinson’s disease. Children who played the pinball machine or any other video game demonstrated the signs of improvement in empowerment, resilience and fighting spirit. The child’s ability to act on stimulates neuronal mechanisms that trigger positive emotions and the reward system helped in improving the kids’ behaviors since they face their daily illnesses challenges.

Improves Motor Skills Of Preschoolers

If you let a 5-year old sit in front of the TV with a game controller, it may not seem the productive use of his time. However, Deakin University Australia researchers wouldn’t agree to this statement. They observed the development of 54 preschool children and revealed that those who played video games had improved object control motor skills as compared to those who didn’t. Although, it’s not obvious that kids with above average motor skills tend to attract toward gaming at first.

Reduces Stress & Depression

A study published in the Annual Review of Cybertherapy & Telemedicine 2009 revealed that people suffered from mental health problems like depression and stress can vent their frustration by playing video games and it’s quite beneficial. As per the study’s hypothesis, video games provide time to relax to certain ‘Type A’ personalities that prevent them from reaching a particular stressful arousal level since they were in a state of relative mindlessness.

Provides Pain Relief

Gaming doesn’t just provides emotional pain relief, but also helps in dealing with physical pain. University of Washington psychologists developed a game that helps patients with immense physical pain by ancient mental trick named as ‘distraction’. Snow World, a virtual reality game that puts patients in an arctic wonderland to throw arsenal snowballs at targets like snowmen and penguins. Military hospitals utilize such games to help soldiers recover from their battlefield wounds. Soldiers who use to play ‘Snow World’ requires less pain medicine during their recovery process.

Improves Your Vision

Your mother might have warned you watching TV for long isn’t good for your eyes. However, Dr. Daphne, who is a developmental psychologist at McMaster University, Ontario said, ‘it’s actually beneficial for your vision.’ Moreover, he also found that cataract patients will improve their vision by playing first-person shooter games such as Call of Duty and Medal of Honor. These fast-paced games require an intense attention to train the visually impaired to view things sharply. It produces high levels of adrenaline and dopamine that might make the brain more like plastic, she added.

Kevin Jones

Written by

My name is Kevin Jones and I have a great passion for small business. I love to share my knowledge and experience about small businesses with people.

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