Now, I love a good positive PR for gaming as much as the next gamer. And I hate a stupidly blown-out-of-proportion PR story where video games are blamed for all sorts of random acts of violence that frankly are just the results of bad people being bad people. However, this story has a moral, even though it does put a slightly negative connotation on gaming. The moral? That all life needs balance, and anything in excess, taken to an extreme, is not healthy.
Over in Britain they’re seeing a rather shocking rise in the number of cases of Rickets. Rickets being the disease generally caused by a deficiency in Vitamin D, that results in bone malformation like bowed legs. It was common in old times because of poor diet, especially amongst the impoverished, of which there were many in the Victorian Era and earlier.
Now days however, it is rather surprising to see such a simply avoided malady on the rise.
It is suggested, and as a result young gamers are being focused upon, that the cause is not necessarily bad diet, but in the gaming youth not leaving their homes, causing a lack of sunlight which is necessary for the body’s absorption of Vitamin D. So if you are a gamer with pasty skin that recoils like a vampire from the dreaded light of our sun, it may be suggested then that you perhaps put down the Xbox controller for a moment and get out a little more. Or at least get a lamp which more accurately mimics sunlight. And try taking some extra Vitamin D. If you don’t, your bones may suffer and you may never walk right again.
Now, another interesting factor in this particular case however is not just a lack of sunlight, but in one factor different in Britain than, well, a lot of other countries like the United States of America. Britain doesn’t add Vitamin D to their milk. Over in the US where all manner of vitamins are added to foodstuffs like they were pellets for Pac Man, Vitamin D is plentiful so even with poor absorption rates due from a lack of sunlight, you’re still more likely than not to be absorbing enough to avoid having Rickets. But in Blighty, where vitamin additives are strongly frowned upon, it’s becoming a problem.
But, as noted, it is a problem very easily remedied. Get some damn sun. Or if you refuse to do that much for yourself, take some freaking vitamins. Problem solved.
All that said, I’d like to address one misconception. It is suggested that it is video gaming itself causing the lack of ultra violet exposure. However, I propose that this is in fact not specifically the case. The rise in domicile extremis is more likely the result of the rise of social networking. With more and more activities of friendship partaken in virtual and/or remote environments instead of literal physical ones, there’s less “going out” and more “staying in” to do things together. And “together” is even itself becoming more a virtual reality than actuality. While it is true that a lot of gaming is used as a social networking environment, it is by no means the only such source.
So, regardless of your antisolar proclivities, the point remains strikingly the same. If you don’t get enough sun, and you don’t take your Vitamin D, for whatever reason, Rickets may be in your future. It’s incredibly easy to avoid. Forewarned is forearmed.
Go forth and be healthy.
