A Spanish doctor claims to have found a new ailment associated with the Nintendo Wii. While others have proclaimed the Wii to be better than other gaming systems because it encourages kids to fight their couch potato status, Dr. Julio Bonis is coining the term Wiiitis.
Dr. Bonis' "findings" are published in the latest issue of The New England Journal of Medicine in which he says he has first documented case of acute Wiiitis. The self-diagnosis came after waking up one morning with intense pain in his right shoulder, and then he remembered that he'd been playing hours of tennis on the Wii the night before.
"If a player gets too engrossed, he may 'play tennis' for many hours," wrote Bonis, a physician with Spain's Biomedical Informatics Research Group. "Unlike in the real sport, physical strength and endurance are not limiting factors. With the growing use of this new video game system, the risk of the Wiiitis variant may be higher than that of Nintendinitis," a phrase coined in 1990 to describe cramping, usually on the right hand in the area between the thumb and the index finger, primarily caused by prolonged exposure to video game controllers (also known as "Nintendo thumb").
"Future games could involve different and unexpected groups of muscles," he continued. "Physicians should be aware that there may be multiple, possibly puzzling presentations of Wiiitis."
The good doctor has only come across one other case of the infliction - his friend.
Maybe if Dr. Bonis got off the couch for more than the Wii, he wouldn't suffer such intense pain from moving his arm back and forth. Or maybe stop playing video games for hours on end. Moderation is key, Dr. Bonis, moderation is key.
Source: MTV News