2024-02-29 13:53:59
After Faker’s domestic team won the ‘League of Legends’ World Championship, the world’s largest e-sports tournament, last year, enthusiasm for e-sports heated up once once more as he appeared on various broadcasts. According to the Korea Creative Content Agency’s ‘2022 Game User Survey’ report, approximately 74% of people between the ages of 10 and 65 enjoy playing games. This is a 3.1% increase compared to the 2021 survey, and respondents’ average daily gaming time was 132 minutes on weekdays and 209 minutes on weekends. Gaming culture has become a popular leisure culture, but if you immerse yourself in it for a long time, you may feel pain in your wrists, elbows, and neck. Although these pains are a sign of a disease, you should be careful because they can easily be overlooked as you can easily feel stiffness in everyday life.
Kim Tae-seop, director of orthopedic surgery at Bupyeong Himchan Hospital, said, “Not only professional gamers but also ordinary people who play games on PCs and smartphones as a hobby often experience musculoskeletal pain.” He added, “Relieve tension in joints and muscles with light stretching during games. “You need to be careful regarding repeating and maintaining certain postures for a long time, such as setting a time limit and not overdoing it,” he said.
If you feel pain when bending your wrists and elbows, you may have tunnel syndrome.
When you focus on improving your skills or leveling up, the area that hurts the most is your wrist. In particular, moving your fingers quickly and clicking the mouse repeatedly or holding a smartphone for a long time and playing games can put strain on your wrist, causing carpal tunnel syndrome. Repetitive wrist movements cause the problem, namely overuse of the wrist tendons. The tendon swells or an inflammatory reaction occurs, taking up more space, which causes pressure on the nerve, causing numbness in the hand. The fingers and palm of the hand, mainly the thumb, index finger, and long finger, become numb and numb, and the hand may swell or feel stiff. If you feel pain when you bend your wrist in the direction of the pain for regarding a minute, you may have carpal tunnel syndrome.
Also, if you experience pain on the inside of your elbow or if numbness in your fingers gets worse while playing a game, you may suspect cubital tunnel syndrome, which is pressure on the elbow nerve. This disease occurs when the ulnar nerve that passes through the elbow joint is compressed when the player repeatedly plays games with the elbow bent excessively. When cubital tunnel syndrome occurs, the 4th and 5th fingers (ring and little) fingers become numb and cannot be straightened, along with pain. This is because the ulnar nerve is involved in the movement of half of the ring finger and little finger, which is different from the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, which is pain in the 1st to 3rd fingers.
If the pain in the wrist and elbow is in the early stages, improvement can be achieved with conservative treatment such as physical therapy, extracorporeal shock wave treatment, and injection therapy along with rest. In order to prevent musculoskeletal disorders that occur in the wrists and elbows while playing games, it is important to limit the game time to 1 to 2 hours. It is also a good idea to lightly shake your wrist or rotate your elbow between games to relieve tension in your muscles and joints.
Beware of pain syndrome caused by neck, shoulder, and incorrect posture
Everyone has probably experienced neck and shoulder pain while using a computer or smartphone in a slouched posture. In particular, when playing a game, if you crane your neck forward and assume a posture that makes you feel like you’re being sucked into the monitor, or if you wear a headset for a long time to enjoy a virtual reality (VR) game, your center of gravity may shift forward, causing turtle neck syndrome.
If you maintain a posture with your neck forward and your back bent for a long time, the muscles and ligaments at the back of the neck that support the cervical vertebrae receive excessive force and are stretched tight, causing the muscles and ligaments to stretch abnormally. Turtle neck syndrome is a deformation of the neck that occurs due to incorrect posture or habits, and the original C-shaped curve is transformed into a straight or inverted C-shape. Turtle neck syndrome causes pain and stiffness that starts from the back of the neck and extends to the shoulders, and can even cause headaches due to excessive muscle tension. Also, if the condition worsens if left untreated, it can progress to serious diseases such as cervical disc herniation, so caution is needed. Prevention is possible if you consciously make an effort to maintain correct posture.
Gamers who are immersed in the game with their heads down feel severe stiffness from the neck down to the shoulders and feel as hard as a rock. It is a myofascial pain syndrome that starts off as stiffness in the nape of the neck or shoulders, but gradually develops into a pinprick or burning pain. It occurs when the muscles around the shoulders or nape of the neck are unable to rest and become tense for a long time, resulting in a lack of nutrients and oxygen in the muscles. In most cases, symptoms improve with sufficient rest, but if pain persists for a long period of time, it is a sign that something is wrong with the muscle tissue and should be treated. If you self-diagnose and neglect it, it will continue to recur and continue to bother your shoulder for a long time, so it is best to receive treatment through an accurate examination by a specialist.
In order to prevent musculoskeletal syndrome that occurs in the neck and shoulders, correct posture to avoid stiffness is important. It is best to set the screen to eye level, and sit deeply in a chair with your neck slightly pulled in and your back straight. It is also a good idea to do stretching to strengthen your neck muscles from time to time and to relieve stiff muscles and ligaments, such as by rotating your shoulders. It is also effective to relax muscles through half-body bathing and massage.
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