When They Said Video Games Were Unhealthy, They Probably Weren't Thinking Of This

from the meat-hooks dept

Thu, Feb 26th 2009 6:01pm — Carlo Longino

The competition in the video-game market is intense, even when it comes to console-induced injuries. You've got Wiinjuries, Guitar Hero arm strains, and now, "PlayStation palmar hidradenitis." That's the name given to some intense sores a 12-year-old Swiss girl developed on the palms of her hands after playing her Playstation for several hours a day. Ironically, hidradenitis is more commonly found on the soles of kids' feet who take part in heavy physical activity, like running. While doctors and Sony both say this is the first case of its kind they've seen, don't be surprised if politicians start railing against sore palms as another danger video games pose to kids.

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Filed Under: injuries, palmar hidradenitis, sores, video games

23 Comments

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Slackr, 26 Feb 2009 @ 6:55pm

An excuse for corny names
She's just a noob. Everyone knows it takes hours of practice to build resistance to these sorts of injuries...I think the Drs just revel in the ability to try and come up with a new condition and call it something 'snazzy'.
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 26 Feb 2009 @ 7:23pm

The Frak?
Is this essentially a pre-callus? It sounds like it.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2009 @ 7:26pm

Yeah, that 12 year old girl needs to man up!
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eleete, 26 Feb 2009 @ 7:35pm

We've got to do something to protect the children
"While doctors and Sony both say this is the first case of its kind they've seen, don't be surprised if politicians start railing against sore palms as another danger video games pose to kids."

Before I even got to that line, I had already gone there. Funny how clueless polluticians are capable of imposing a law on 330,000,000+ people in a country that has never experienced an incident. I contend that our government exists to reduce our liberty and rights.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2009 @ 7:54pm

Won't somebody think of the children!!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2009 @ 8:54pm

another DANGER for the children is when I have to stuff the controller up their arse to get them to put the game down for 2 seconds.

Controllerarseidis anyone.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2009 @ 9:05pm

Paging Captain Obvious: You're Needed
They're called blisters. They're the result of repetitive mechanical stress on the skin. This is one of the dumbest stories I've read in a long time.
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tb, 26 Feb 2009 @ 9:42pm

That explains it!
I'm so relieved! I thought the sores on my palms were from the other activity my parents warned me about!
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2009 @ 9:53pm

.....
Dude....my "Mouse hand" can deflect bullets
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Chris, 26 Feb 2009 @ 10:21pm

Pfft
Next thing they say is it's dangerous to play guitar because it builds calluses on the fingers. No, what's dangerous is swimming with anvils tied to each of your feet, muscles need a chance to build and grow muscle memory, they need to adapt to the tasks you do repeatedly.

Grow up, whoever claims this to be true is performing a hate crime (lol).
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Trevlac, 26 Feb 2009 @ 11:33pm

Re: Pfft
I laughed at "No, what's dangerous is swimming with anvils tied to each of your feet"
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Feb 2009 @ 1:20am

Re: .....
My "trackpoint finger" can drill through concrete.
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Tech Guy, 27 Feb 2009 @ 1:50am

I work in Tech support (and love it btw), my bulls*it can stop anything you can throw at me...
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Peet McKimmie (profile), 27 Feb 2009 @ 2:58am

I used to get that...
...playing "Strip Poker" on the Apple ][.

Funny, though; it only affected one hand.
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Killer_Tofu (profile), 27 Feb 2009 @ 5:57am

Likely Result
(Newspaper reporter): "Sir, we just have our first single confirmed case of people getting blisters from playing video games and the doctors giving it a special medical name instead of blisters."
(Editor): "That is great news. Call it an epidemic. Put it on the front page. Give it a nice large section on our homepage on that world web thing. And also start warning parents about how this can happen to their kids. Is it contageous?"
(Reporter): "Sir, its just blisters with a fancy name"
(Editor): "Eh, call it contageous anyways. Demand people need to take action. Now THATS a story!"
(Reporter): "Brilliant sir!"
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Evil Mike, 27 Feb 2009 @ 6:40am

Re:
"bulls*it can stop anything you can throw at me..."
That garners my respect and sympathy.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Feb 2009 @ 6:59am

so its true
you really do get hairy palms from playing with too much?
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Feb 2009 @ 9:58am

Re: Pfft
> what's dangerous is swimming with anvils tied to each of your feet

What's dangerous about swimming is sitting on the drain while the water is going out. It tends to pull things out of your butt... like this story.
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another mike, 27 Feb 2009 @ 2:33pm

lol
*snerk*
So many great new terms here. Polluticians; can I borrow that, eleete?

Tech Guy, they made me turn in my Ward of Glassy-eyed Confusion when they promoted me. It's so much more difficult to make my escapes now.

Anyway, I long for the simpler days, when txters' thumb was the worst technology-induced injury a kid would suffer. Those were the good ol' days when we walked barefoot through the snow uphill both ways. Now that was a character building activity.

Won't someone think of the children?!
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Rekrul, 27 Feb 2009 @ 3:41pm

Re: That explains it!
"I'm so relieved! I thought the sores on my palms were from the other activity my parents warned me about!"

No, that causes hairy palms and blindness ;)
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Rekrul, 27 Feb 2009 @ 3:45pm

I used to play my Atari, C64 and Amiga games for hours at a time, using various Atari compatible joysticks and I never had blisters or other problems.

Positive proof; Joysticks rule, gamepads suck. :)
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Uberto, 28 Feb 2009 @ 2:07pm

politicians
The politicians should just worry about their own sore palms, the J** O**s
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Overcast, 9 Mar 2009 @ 9:03am

I used to play my Atari, C64 and Amiga games for hours at a time, using various Atari compatible joysticks and I never had blisters or other problems.

No way - you never developed 'gamers thumb' from those old 2600 style joysticks? :) (yeah, I know - the commodores had one you could buy identical to that one)

I most certainly did!
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