Category: 
Ever work up a sweat playing a video game? How about having your heart racing while a mob of zombies is chasing you when you are out of ammo and low on health? An experienced gamer knows how much a video game can effect your body. It’s that immersiveness factor that stimulates your endorphins and rewards your brain for game play. Despite all the hate directed at games by politicians that just don’t get it, there have been many many studies that show the benefits of gaming in reducing stress and increasing brain power.
The latest is a study done by a Canadian Simon Fraser University professor who is trying to understand why experiments consistently show people who suffer serious pain often find more relief in virtual reality environments than drug-based treatments.
“There is a real demand for this kind of therapy,” said Diane Gromala, founding director of SFU’s BioMedia lab. “As Canada’s baby-boomers enter old age, pain management looms as a huge public-health issue.”
Gromala, who suffers from chronic pain herself, is working with doctors to learn how virtual reality therapies can give people ways to express and keep track of their pain. The therapies also can give them a way to gain some control over their suffering while waiting for treatment by specialists, she said.
Controlled experiments consistently show subjects who are distracted in a fully-immersive virtual reality world, such as a three-dimensional skiing adventure computer game, report less pain than their counterparts using drug-based pain therapy.
One of Gromala’s goals is to find new ways to use computer technology to help people improve their health through education, experience, and physical expressiveness. About one in five Canadians experiences chronic pain. Some must wait an average of two to five years to see a specialist.
“Controlling pain through computerized VR and biofeedback meditation therapies has the promise of providing successful, cost-effective alternatives to pain medications,” she said.
The pain vs distraction factor does work. Gaming helps keep my hands flexible. Action games give me an aerobic workout and I think that playing fighting games keeps me in shape.
Recently:
- Tomb Raider Underworld : Underwhelmed PS3 Review
- Geek Woman’s Best Video Games of ‘08
- Girl Geek Shopping Guide
- Lord of the Rings Online : The Mines of Moria PC Review
- Good Girl Power : Nancy Drew
- A Glimpse Inside Moria
- Not Much to Write Home About
- Bleach: Dark Souls DS Review
- Adam Sessler : Home is on the Way?
- Myvu on Ellen
