Archive for the ‘health’ Category

The Benefits of Playing Video Games January 22, 2015

This is an interesting change of pace. Most articles discussing video games and how they relate to behavior or mental health in teenagers and adolescents often stress the negative aspects, i.e. playing too long, or that violent games cause violent actions.

This article by Isabela Granic, Adam Lobel, and Rutger C. M. E. Engels instead examines the benefits of “play”, something that was the focus of the most recent post, and takes a look at the cognitive, motivational, and emotional benefits of gaming. They even go as far as to separate the various video game genres and their effects on the mind.

You can check out the entire article here:
The Benefits of Playing Video Games

Category: Adolescents, Children, health, Psychology

The Importance of “Play” for Adults January 15, 2015

A short but interesting article by Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. on the benefits of adults doing activities that are for fun and how it’s beneficial to mental and psychological health. It further goes into defining what “play” means for adults and that it’s not something that needs to be cast aside for the sake of maturity.

Link: The Importance of Play for Adults

It also includes a list of further reading and other sources on the subject.

 

Category: Adults, health, Psychology

Broken Heart Syndrome June 3, 2010

We all know how powerful a broken heart can be. In fact, the break-up of a romantic relationship is the leading cause for experiencing a first major depressive episode for adolescents.

Well now the medical community seems to be finding a link between emotional distress (e.g. the loss of a loved one) and heart attack symptoms. An article in the New York Times describes Stress cardiomyopathy, or Broken Heart Syndrome as a condition in which people experience heart attack symptoms, including abnormal EKG patterns and abnormal blood work, yet they display no arterial blockages. It’s seems that a portion of these cases of Broken Heart Syndrome are be linked with having previously experienced severe emotional distress.

Category: health, relationships