Everyone's done it- you plop down for a few matches of Fortnite and next thing you know,
you've been building stairs over an enemy's wall to shotgun them in the face until 3 in
the morning.
But what would happen to you if you played Fortnite for 24 hours straight?
With games like Fortnite becoming more and more popular there's been an increase in recent
years of news stories about video game addicts discovered dead after marathon gaming sessions.
But what exactly happens to your body and what risks are you taking when you play video
games non-stop for really long stretches of time?
The first risk you face from a 24 hour long Fortnite session is one familiar to many businessmen.
Known as “economy class syndrome”, deep vein thrombosis used to be a major health
issue for business travelers making frequent 12+ hour flights.
Often occurring in the legs due to long periods of inactivity, blood can pool and clot together
until arterial pressure forces the clot to move along your circulatory system.
Eventually it can reach your lungs and block blood flow, where it causes a pulmonary embolism
leading to shortness of breath, fainting, and even sudden death.
After experiencing deep vein thrombosis, an individual can also suffer from a complication
known as postphlebitic or postthrombotic syndrome, where damage to their veins results in reduced
blood flow and pain, skin discoloration, skin sores and persistent swelling.
The next risk you take from a 24-hour long Fortnite session is one familiar to many construction
workers after a lifetime of lifting and straining with heavy loads- temporary or possibly even
permanent lower back pain.
Modern chairs and couches can be extremely comfortable, but they force the human body
to sit in a very unnatural position it wasn’t designed for.
If you’ve ever seen any nature documentaries with native people you’ve probably noticed
they don’t own any chairs and squat a lot.
That’s because the squatting position is what the human body was naturally designed
to do.
Sitting the way we do in the modern world can put severe strain on the tailbone and
lower back muscles, and that strain can badly weaken those muscles.
While one single 24-hour Fortnite session probably won’t be enough to damage you for
life, too many in a row can lead to persistent back pain and lifelong injury.
Everyone’s heard about the next risk before, typically from an overly concerned mother-
sit too close to the TV and you’ll hurt your eyes!
While the reasoning isn’t exactly accurate, you can severely damage your vision from staring
at a tv or computer screen for 24 hours at a time.
Computer Vision Syndrome, or Digital Eye Strain, is caused by a variety of factors including
distance from your screen.
The biggest factor however is that while in real life ambient lighting levels don’t
often fluctuate drastically, colors remain relatively static, and your focus rarely shifts,
a computer or tv screen can display dramatic shifts in lighting, colors and even focus
in rapid succession as exciting scenes unfold in a video game or movie.
This forces the eye muscles to work overtime and can lead to stress and fatigue which causes
a loss of visual acuity.
Over time the effects can even become permanent- specially if you already suffer from vision
problems- leading to lifelong damaged vision.
.
The last effect of a 24-hour Fortnite session just might be the scariest since it’s by
far the deadliest!
While it would probably take more than one 24-hour Fortnite session to develop, extended
video game sessions have been linked directly to heart failure and death.
Because of the high demands video games place on the brain, they tax the mind much more
than exercise and can push an individual to greater depths of mental and physical exhaustion.
Addicted gamers often push themselves past these limits, and given the already poor health
of most of these marathon gamers, it can all prove to be too stressful to their hearts
which soon gives out on them.
One 24-hour Fortnite session will probably just leave you exhausted and with some short-term
eye strain- not to mention some serious B.O.!
But pack too many of them too closely together and you start taking some serious risks with
your health.
If you’re one of these marathon gamers remember to take care of yourself and follow our advice:
take short, frequent breaks, and go outside once in a while for some light exercise.
The Battle Bus will be ready to drop you into a new match in seconds as soon as you’re
back- no need to make yourself sick over it!
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