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(Ongoing Australian study) Active video gaming to increase physical activity in adults with CFS/ME

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NL93

Senior Member
Messages
155
Location
The Netherlands
Finally, in 2016, the long-awaited cure for ME was found: playing video games. In 2017, The Nintendo Wii became the first FDA approved treatment for ME. Nintendo quickly opened 24 new Wii-factories in 7 different countries to meet the demands. Millions of ME patients were cured instantly thanks to the group of brilliant Australian researchers.
 
Woolie

Woolie

Senior Member
Messages
3,263
Richard7 said:
@Woolie @A.B.
from the trial registration:
"allostatic load measured using a composite index score with measures taken from venous blood (insulin, glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, C - reactive protein, cortisol and Interleukin-6)"
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Haha, how circular. Like psychological stress is "raising" all these indices. I suppose Lupus and Rheumatoid arthritis are just manifestations of psychological stress too.

In all seriousness, if they're expecting any of these indices to go down, they'll be in for a shock I think. For those of us who have severe PEM, many of them will go up .

What is super worrying about this trend is the apparent movement towards discounting even biomarkers as evidence of a biological disease process. They're essentially saying even if any of these markers are raised, its all because of our thoughts and emotions... and we just need a bit of fun exercise to sort it all out.

So even if we find the perfect biomarker, we're not out of the woods yet...
 
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panckage

panckage

Senior Member
Messages
777
Location
Vancouver, BC
BurnA said:
One side effect of this could be that people who have light sensitivities could suffer if having to watch a screen for long periods is a requirement. I wonder how the trial investigators would document that one, eh participants eyes were too lazy to watch the screen.
Did you have any problem with that @panckage ?
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I don't think I experience light sensitivty. You actually bring up a good point with the eyes though. When I feel better I can focus my eyes and I do well in the game. But when I'm not well I have trouble focusing the eyes and do worse. It would be interesting if they investigated that... even though it probably wouldn't show anything useful :p
 
A.B.

A.B.

Senior Member
Messages
3,780
NL93 said:
Finally, in 2016, the long-awaited cure for ME was found: playing video games. In 2017, The Nintendo Wii became the first FDA approved treatment for ME. Nintendo quickly opened 24 new Wii-factories in 7 different countries to meet the demands. Millions of ME patients were cured instantly thanks to the group of brilliant Australian researchers.
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We knew they were just lazy all along, but now we have found a way to persuade them to do more, commented a researcher.
 
T

taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
panckage said:
I started to really play video games a few months ago. My results: It was fun :rofl: but I found it just used up energy from my 'energy bank.' I had to pace my gaming because it was taking energy that I would have otherwise used to to do other things. The one benefit though, is that it was good for my posture. I found I sat with good posture while playing and so it had some strengthening effect. Although some times I couldn't sit up properly due to lack of energy. This was good evidence that I should stop playing... usually :lol:

So end result
*minor positive strengthening effect
*improved my mood :rofl:
*no help for energy (I need real exercise for that!)
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nods and that is bound to be the end result of this study .. possibly happier patients who are still just is sick and still just as disabled. (I do not think they are as corrupt here as in England that they will go to the point of twisting the results).

As this study appears self paced... patients are less likely to make themselves sick over this to the point of relapse (well at least I hope).
 
V

Valentijn

Senior Member
Messages
15,786
Woolie said:
So even if we find the perfect biomarker, we're not out of the woods yet...
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Yes, some people will continue believing that a disease is psychosomatic even in the face of obvious biomedical pathology.

Fortunately everyone else in the world realizes that those people are bat-shit crazy, and won't pay any attention to them. Similar claims can be (and recently have been) carefully made about MS patients, etc, by those same people, but no one is listening to them.
taniaaust1 said:
As this study appears self paced... patients are less likely to make themselves sick over this to the point of relapse (well at least I hope).
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Not really self-paced. Patients are supposed to exercise at a "negotiated" (researcher-determined) amount, and "planned" increase will also be determined. But patients are allowed to choose intensity, and allowed to fail to meet their goals of course:
Dr Katia Ferrar said:
The intensity of the gaming will be at the discretion of the participant. The duration of the gaming will be negotiated with the participant and the trained research assistant (accredited exercise physiologist) and a planned increase in volume to not exceed more than a 20% increase from week to week with a maximum of 5 minutes/day increase each week.
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So there is a planned consistent increase every week. This is classic GET. They are simply clarifying that they will start at varying levels depending on the fitness of each patient, and that they will pretend to let the patient make decisions while manipulating the patient to go along with the exercise physiologist's goals. And they explicitly state they will be monitoring actual time spent exercising and whether those goals are reached or not, which is adding pressure for those who want to please the researchers.

Even with the statement that patients can fail to meet their goals if they need to manage symptoms, there is still that pressure to perform, especially with the exercise being tracked. On the plus side, they'll be able to see how spectacularly ME patients are unable to increase their activity levels (if they actually recruit ME patients). On the downside, the 2-day CPET, and the setting of unrealistic goals is probably going to harm every ME patient in the study.
 
adreno

adreno

PR activist
Messages
4,841
How would video game exercise differ from ordinary exercise, other than perhaps being more motivating for lazy people?
 
Woolie

Woolie

Senior Member
Messages
3,263
Valentijn said:
boring exercise sucks your energy into a Vortex of Despair.
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Like this?
Elemental_Vortex_1.jpg
 
CFS_for_19_years

CFS_for_19_years

Hoarder of biscuits
Messages
2,396
Location
USA
adreno said:
How would video game exercise differ from ordinary exercise, other than perhaps being more motivating for lazy people?
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It puts money in the bank for video game developers, as opposed to self-generated exercise, which only wears out a bit of shoe leather.

The distraction of watching a screen image may also distract one from acknowledging painful signals from the body that it is time to stop this nonsense.
 
J

Justin30

Senior Member
Messages
1,065
CFS_for_19_years said:
It puts money in the bank for video game developers, as opposed to self-generated exercise, which only wears out a bit of shoe leather.

The distraction of watching a screen image may also distract one from acknowledging painful signals from the body that it is time to stop this nonsense.
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I think this is a very good point....throw the study in the trash bin...
 
D

Dolphin

Senior Member
Messages
17,567
South Australian Xbox ‘increasing activity’ trial
Date: June 2, 2016Author: ME news Australia 0 Comments
by Sasha Nimmo

The University of South Australia’s Dr Katia Ferrar (physiotherapist), Dr Ashleigh Smith and Dr Kade Davison have ethical approval to begin the trial Active video gaming to increase physical activity in adults with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis. They have no set research criteria, despite research which shows 2 out of 5 patients are misdiagnosed with CFS/ME in Australia.

Dr Ferrar says that state organisations will be recruiting patients for them, however this isn’t how South Australia’s ME/CFS Australia (SA) and Bridges and Pathways describe their involvement. Bridges and Pathways say it isn’t part of their research collaborations and ME/CFS SA haven’t decided on whether to endorse the study.

Here are the questions I put to the researchers and the South Australian organisations about the study:

https://meaustralia.net/2016/06/02/south-australian-xbox-increasing-activity-trial-to/
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