Submitted by administrator on
It's the news teenagers never thought would come. As well as people praying that one day a discovery will be made proving that chocolate and ice cream contribute to a trim physique, the age old saying of 'watching too much television will make your eyes square' is one that children world wide have hoped would be proved false. Now research suggests that playing video games can in fact be good for you, in certain respects.
It is worth noting at this point that the study presented at the AAO annual meeting was not advocating the use of video games consoles in order to improve your health or general eye sight, but that the use of such entertainment products could help in correcting amblyopia in teenagers while in conjunction with more widely recognised forms of treatment. The American Academy of Ophthalmology was presented with the research which went on to show that visual improvements were made to roughly 33% of those tested in the study. The study was conducted by Dr Somen Ghosh.
Amblyopia, more commonly known as 'lazy eye', is a visual deficiency in what is otherwise determined as a physically normal eye. The condition occurs where visual stimulation either transmits poorly or fails to transmit at all to the brain, via the optic nerve, over a period of time. More often than not, this effects just one eye. However, in rarer circumstances it can effect both. Currently, detection and effective treatment requires an early diagnosis, preferably before a child turns five years of age. Improvements after this age are generally considered to be unlikely.
This research focused on the treatment of children of an older age category to see whether treatments could be made available to them where they may have not been previously. The trial was conducted over a year long period for children between the age of 10 and 18. They were split into 4 groups, each with different treatment programmes. While two groups received no alterations to their treatment or extra micronutrients, the other two groups played video games for one hour per day using their 'lazy eye' or took citicoline. The latter two groups noticed marked improvements in their vision. All four groups were instructed to wear specially designed glasses to block their stronger eye, forcing the affected eye to work harder or exercise.
Ps3 Controller by Lucas Jeszke (Image)