Warning: Watch for 'Wiiitis'
Innovative video game system threatens acute form of tennis elbow, doctor says.
Everything has a downside. Even the popular Nintendo Wii, the innovative motion-controlled video game system.
Early on, there were stories about people letting go of the game's hand-held controllers, or their straps breaking, sending the plastic devices sailing into television sets and walls. Then there were the people who let go of their Wii controllers and got smacked in the face when the wrist strap held.
Now, a Spanish doctor has diagnosed acute "Wiiitis," a condition he encountered after an extended session of Wii Sports tennis left him with a sore elbow.
Dr. Julio Bonis of the Research Group in Biomedical Informatics in Barcelona said it wasn't just a case of tennis elbow. This was something totally different.
"The variant in this patient can be labeled more specifically as Wiiitis,'" wrote Bonis in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine.
Unlike actual tennis or other sports, he said, playing a Wii encourages extended play because strength and endurance are not major factors. The Wii allows you to swing a virtual bat or a tennis racket by just waving a lightweight controller.
"If a player gets too engrossed, he may play tennis' for many hours," wrote Bonis, a family physician. "With the growing use of this new video game system, the risk of the Wiiitis variant may be higher than that of Nintendinitis," a term referring to pain brought on by button mashing on a traditional Nintendo controller.
Wiiitis, if it's true, would be the latest in a long line of video game maladies. Before there was Nintendinitis, there was Space Invader Wrist. For a full recovery, Bonis said he took some ibuprofen and abstained from playing the Wii. After that, moderation is the key, he said.
Nintendo representatives were unavailable for comment last week.
Even with the perceived medical risks involved, the Wii still provides a lot more good than bad for most users. The International Sports Sciences Association, a teaching institution and certification agency for fitness trainers, conducted a study of video games in January and found that systems like the Wii and "exergames" like Dance Dance Revolution can improve people's fitness and encourage them to exercise.
"I think youth is the obvious target, because they are the greatest consumers of video games," said Dr. Thomas Fahey, a professor of kinesiology at CSU Chico, at the time. "However, deconditioned and obese people could benefit because they are usually embarrassed to exercise in health clubs."
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An article in my county news paper about the Wii (MUST READ)
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