Video Games' Addictive Nature Unclear: AMA

(HealthDay News) -- There's not yet enough evidence to label excessive use of video games an addiction, according to Wednesday's vote on the issue by top U.S. doctors.

The American Medical Association, meeting in Chicago, backed away from the stronger language included in a recommendation from the group's Council on Science and Public Health.

That report had called for the AMA to add video game addiction to a list of "formal disorders," where it would join other problem behaviors such as pathological gambling.

But the new recommendations don't go that far. Instead, the AMA is calling for more research into the issue, as well as a review of the video game ratings system, which was first put in place in 1994.

"While more study is needed on the addictive potential of video games, the AMA remains concerned about the behavioral, health and societal effects of video game and Internet overuse," AMA president Dr. Ronald Davis said in a statement.

The physicians' group noted that there was accumulated data linking children's exposure to media violence with increases in aggression. The review of the current ratings system is an attempt to minimize that exposure, the group added.

"We would like to see a ratings system that better alerts parents to the content of the video game and recommended age of the player, so they can decide whether or not their child should be playing it," Davis said.

Dr. Martin Wasserman, executive director of MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society, helped spearhead the new proposal, which resulted in a 10-page report submitted to the AMA by the group's Council on Science and Public Health. The recommendations released Wednesday sprang from the AMA's consideration of that report
"The concern came up because one of our psychiatrists here in Maryland was seeing older people who were losing their social contacts," specifically because of their overuse of video games, Wasserman said before the vote. "It was ruining their family life. So, it was not unlike gambling addictions or alcohol, where it was having a profound impact on the lives of individuals."

According to the council's report, one soon-to-be-released British study polled 7,000 "gamers" and found that 12 percent of them met World Health Organization criteria for addictive behaviors.

Statistics released in 2005 by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), an industry group, estimated that 70 percent to 90 percent of American children play video games. The typical gamer is a 30-year-old male who spends about seven or eight hours a week gaming.

According to the authors of the AMA council report, video game overuse is most prevalent among users who play against others online in "massive multi-player online role-playing games."

The council's report defined "heavy game use" as at least two hours a day. But Wasserman, who is a pediatrician, said addictions are best defined by their impact on an individual's life and psyche.

"Basically, you're using a disproportionate amount of time on the video game, and it's what you are thinking about even when you're not on the video game," he said. "And even though it's having negative consequences for you in school or your family situation, or it's taking a disproportionate amount of your money, you still continue to do it. You spend less time with your friends or in other social things."

One theory why certain individuals spend so much time on online games is that they prefer the experience to real-world interaction.

According to the report's authors, the "current theory is that these individuals achieve more control of their social relationships and more success in social relationships in the virtual reality realm than in real relationships."

But that sense of control may come at a price, Wasserman said, especially for children and adults obsessed with games loaded with violent imagery.

"The violent aspects of this, in particular, have got to be a threat to the normal growth and development that we'd like to see in young people," he said. "People have observed more aggressive behaviors [linked to gaming], and if you do subjective testing, there are studies which have shown aggressive behaviors in young people and less supportive behaviors."

Wasserman also questioned the sedentary aspects of hours of video game use. "I can't tell you if this is associated with our current epidemic of child obesity," he said, "but too much time in front of a video tube -- and much of that time spent watching violent interactions -- can't be good for our kids."

That's a sentiment shared by a majority of the American public, according to a survey of more than 1,000 parents of children aged 2 to 17 that was released last week by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. According to the Associated Press, two-thirds of parents responding to the survey said they were "very concerned" about the amount of sex and violence their children are exposed to in various media.

The report's authors had also urged that the AMA pressure the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to include "Internet/video game addiction" in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the standard diagnostic text used by psychiatrists worldwide.

That won't happen, based on Wednesday's vote, although the APA's new recommendations will be passed on to the psychiatric group.

Dr. James Scully, medical director at the APA, had said before the vote that any decision on the matter is a long way offr.

Right now, "we don't agree or disagree" with the notion that video game overuse might be an addiction, he said. "As a diagnostic issue, it is going to be several years before we make a determination of that. It's clearly something that we want to consider."

In the meantime, he said, it's up to parents to limit their child's exposure to video games, especially the more violent ones.

Both the AMA and the APA support current recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics that limit children's exposure to all "screen time" -- TV, computers and video games -- to a total of two hours a day.

Wasserman believes this simple rule can minimize media's potentially harmful effects. Media, in itself, isn't always bad, he said, but "everything needs to be done in moderation."

"That's what we taught our kids -- if they didn't do it in moderation in our home, we moderated it for them," he said. "It didn't hurt them."

And the AMA's Davis believes a fresh look at the video game ratings system might also help.
"Parents need to more closely monitor and restrict the types of video games their children are playing and buying, and a clear rating system would help them do that," he said.

More information
There are tips on healthy video game use for kids at the Nemours Foundation.

(HealthDay News) -- Cancer drugs may be able to switch on a gene that tumor cells have switched off, potentially offering a new target for treatment,

(HealthDay News) -- Decades after residents of a region in northern Chile were exposed to high levels of arsenic in their drinking water, they still suffer from high lung and bladder cancer death rates, concludes a study by U.S. and Chilean researchers.

The finding indicates a pattern of long-term arsenic-related health effects that hasn't been documented before, said the authors of a study in the June 12 Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

"The results show that the risks of concentrated arsenic exposure are extraordinarily high, and that they last a very long time, both after initial exposure, and after the exposure ends," principal investigator Allan Smith, professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, said in a prepared statement.

From 1958 to 1970, arsenic levels in drinking water in the northern Chilean cities of Antofagasta and Mejillones averaged 870 micrograms per liter, nearly 90 times higher than current World Health Organization and U.S. standards of 10 micrograms per liter. The communities got their water from arsenic-contaminated rivers.

Improvements to the water treatment system that began in 1971, along with other measures, have reduced arsenic levels to about 10 micrograms per liter.

For this study, researchers analyzed data on lung and bladder cancer deaths in this area (Region II) from 1950 to 2000.

They found that those kinds of cancer deaths started to increase in 1968, which was 10 years after the major jump in arsenic levels in drinking water.

Death rates from these two kinds of cancer continued to increase and peaked between 1986 and 1997. Between 1992 and 1994 (more than 20 years after arsenic levels started to decline), the combined death rates for bladder and lung cancer in Region II were 153 per 100,000 men and 50 per 100,000 women -- 2.5 to three times higher than in another region in northern Chile that did not have high levels of arsenic in the drinking water.

"The impact of this environmental health risk on cancer mortality in a human population is without precedent. This study adds to the overall body of evidence of the harmful effects of arsenic," Smith said.

More information
The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has more about arsenic.

Lack of Sleep Hinders Airport Security Checks

(HealthDay News) -- A lack of sleep may affect airport baggage screeners' diligence and compromise passenger safety, suggests a study by a researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Dr. Nayantara Santhi studied 31 healthy people who were kept awake for 36 hours. During that time, the participants conducted a visual search task every two hours. The results showed that the longer the participants went without sleep, the more quickly they completed the searches, but they also made more mistakes.

"These results suggest that safety and performance in socially critical low target prevalence search tasks may be especially vulnerable to the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation," Santhi said in a prepared statement.

The study was to be presented Monday in Minneapolis at SLEEP 2007, the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

Experts say that the amount of sleep a person gets affects physical health, emotional well-being, mental abilities, productivity and performance. Studies have shown that a lack of sleep is associated with an increased risk of serious health problems such as depression, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

More information
The National Sleep Foundation outlines how much sleep people need.

Boost Your Energy with Ayurveda Power Foods

Grains for Power Athletes have long relied on carbohydrates in grains for long-term endurance and energy. Yet not all carbohydrates are created alike. A croissant, for instance, is high in fat and low in nutrition. The most nutritious carbohydrates are whole grains, which have been found to lower cholesterol, inhibit cancer-causing activity and harmful bacteria in the intestines, and lower blood glucose level.

And of these whole grains, Maharishi Ayurveda considers rye, quinoa, amaranth and millet as the most nutritious, because they are especially high in protein and minerals. They are also high in fiber, and thus have a detoxifying value. These are the same auspicious grains that are described in the Vedic texts and are used for Vedic ceremonies.

One-half cup of amaranth (measured dry), for instance, contains 14 g. protein, 8 mg. iron, and also magnesium and zinc. The same amount of quinoa contains 13 g. of protein, 9 mg. of iron and 3 mg. of zinc. Rye is also high in protein, with one-half cup yielding 15 grams of protein and 4 mg. of zinc Millet is a good source of B vitamins.

All of these grains contain copper, which is an essential trace mineral that improves energy and immunity, and their zinc content also boosts ojas, the finest product of digestion that creates lightness, inner energy, immunity and bliss.

To prepare power grains, place 2 cups of water in a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Add a teaspoon of Ghee and 1/2 cup of the grain. Boil for ten minutes and then lower to a simmer. Cook until the grain is tender.