Credit To: Health Care Recruiters International via hcrnetwork.com
Credit to: Bumm13 [2] (Originally uploaded to en.wikipedia.org [1]) [Public domain]via Wikimedia CommonsSince Pong’s In the 1970s, decades of gamers were inundated with stereotypical messages like video games that would make you fat, rot your brain, and make you nothing to do with your life. The good news about these stereotypes is that they are scientifically wrong. If Pong is the parent of traditional consoles and PC games, VR is the grandchild. A world without them means that virtual worlds and their unique benefits to physical and mental health would never exist.
VR for the body
Stereotype # 1: Video games make you fat
Credit to: https://www.flickr.com/photos/taedc/
In the article by VR Fitness Insider “VR is officially an exercise: the attitude of a personal trainer to technology and training” Raphael Konforti explained how an Australian study linked playing VR games with physical exercise. Sure, there are seated VR games where you sit in a chair and point your controller at movement and as a weapon while playing. But similar to a two-sided coin, there are also VR games that require you to get up and get your whole body moving.
With Standalone headsets In development, VR manufacturers are improving how their external and internal sensors process your head and body positioning. These advances in tracking while playing and exercising really help keep users motivated to push themselves physically. That means there is no cheating in VR.
You can get your trainer to make it easy for you, but you can’t fake it with a computer and algorithm, it’s cut and dry. Either fully complete those deep squats and lunges to get to the next corner, goal and skill level, or you just stay where you are. Staying static isn’t fun or exciting. Hence, of course, people keep moving to play the game, take steps, burn calories and lose track of time.
VR games to challenge your body
VR for the mind
Stereotype # 2: Video games are going to rot your brain
Credit to: pixabay.com
It’s easy to see how parents would help keep their child’s shrinking social circle, growing waistline, or lack of energy in front of a TV screen for hours after school. However, this assumption is not entirely correct. A 2009 Nielsen report reported that children watch TV up to 24 hours a week and teenagers up to 22 hours a week, with an additional hour to two sitting video games. It seems like they found a root cause of children’s health concerns – television and video games. However, mental and physical health professionals argue the opposite.
Peter Gray, a research professor at Boston College, wrote an article “Cognitive Benefits Of Playing Video Games”This shows how playing video games actually improves brain function. Gray stated that research has shown that video games can improve “basic mental processes such as cognition, attention, memory and decision-making”. This raises the dusty idea that video games somehow interfere with your thoughts or make you stupid.
Credit to: pixabay.com
The Boston College researcher explained that playing action games that “move fast, keep an eye on many things, keep a lot of information in mind, and make split-second decisions” is actually indicative of “the building blocks.” Of intelligence. ” VR games are known to involve and activate a gamer’s entire body by using a controller or two to move around and interact with objects in a virtual world. That body awareness and quick mental processing of actions carried out in VR games probably won’t make you feel like a genius, but you will feel like one after a round or two.
As with any hobby that turns into motion (or vice versa), using VR isn’t limited to shooting, sword fighting, dancing, or adventure games. There are also games that are good for your brain’s overall health as well. Help yourself, a friend or family member improve memory, encourage flexible thinking, and reduce anxiety and stress with VR games. Heidi Godman, the editor-in-chief of Harvard health blogsays that daily exercise keeps brain cells and blood vessels healthy and regenerative. She notes that both aerobics and muscle training reduce stress and anxiety due to the release of brain-friendly and memory-enhancing chemicals.
VR advances are growing so fast that even doctors are helping paralyzed patients develop muscle control in their limbs with long-term use. There is also a brain-controlled and hands-free VR game called Neurable That has patients, neurologists, doctors and the public on the edge of their seats. Harnessing the attraction of virtual worlds as a viable mental and physical activity has done so much for so many that the military is using VR and therapy together to bring peace of mind to soldiers suffering from PTSD.
Credit To: Arlington, VA, U.S. Marines (Battling PTSD) [Public domain]via Wikimedia CommonsPTSD and others 30% of the soldiers are affected by mental health problems within the first 3 to 4 months of returning home. Those who serve in the military deserve the best treatment because they fought to protect our lives at their own risk. Doctors like James Lake, a doctor and the author of the article “Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for PTSD in the Military” Highlight the benefits of therapists using virtual reality with a combination of exposure therapy, yoga, mindfulness, and EEG biofeedback to alleviate PTSD in soldiers. Lake stated that therapist-led VRGET (VR Graded Exposure Therapy) studies showed that “multi-sensory exposure and VRGET reported a significant reduction in the severity of PTSD symptoms in active fighters who had not responded to other forms of exposure therapy.”
Virtual games to challenge your brain
Mind and body possibilities
Stereotype # 3: If you play video games, you won’t do anything with your life
Obviously, none of the cutting edge designers, developers, doctors, scientists, and therapists who use VR has ever heard of these three unfair stereotypes. There is no doubt that VR platforms and games will help millions of people around the world find a playful physical activity to turn to when they’re having a tough day or just enjoying some sport want. VR is an ever-evolving technology that has applications in healthcare, mental health, and our own government. Now it’s time to apply it to our own lives and brains, one VR game at a time.
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