Mahjong game 'can cause epilepsy'

[prcscct]

If only people worked so hard at their jobs and earning a living, then relaxed in a more suitable way Pete
________________________________________
By Vaudine England
BBC News, Hong Kong

A study by doctors in Hong Kong has concluded that epilepsy can be induced by the Chinese tile game of mahjong.

The findings, published in the Hong Kong Medical Journal, were based on 23 cases of people who had suffered mahjong-induced seizures.

The report's four authors, from Hong Kong's Queen Mary Hospital, said the best prevention - and cure - was to avoid playing mahjong.

The study led the doctors to define mahjong epilepsy as a unique syndrome.

Epileptic seizures can be provoked by a wide variety of triggers, but one cause increasingly evident to researchers is the playing - or even watching - of mahjong.

This Chinese tile game, played by four people round a table, can involve gambling and quickly becomes compulsive.

Demanding

The game, which is intensely social and sometimes played in crowded mahjong parlours, involves the rapid movement of tiles in marathon sessions.

The doctors conclude that the syndrome affects far more men than women; that their average age is 54; and that it can hit sufferers anywhere between one to 11 hours into a mahjong game.

They say the attacks were not just caused by sleep deprivation or gambling stress.

Mahjong is cognitively demanding, drawing on memory, fast calculations, concentration, reasoning and sequencing.

The distinctive design of mahjong tiles, and the sound of the tiles crashing onto the table, may contribute to the syndrome.

The propensity of Chinese people to play mahjong also deserves further study, the doctors say.

What is certain though, is that the only sure way to avoid mahjong epilepsy, is to avoid mahjong, which for many people is easier said than done.
_________________
"What America needs is a huge hypodermic needle of morality." Alice Cooper 21 Sept. 2007

[buksida]

I'm gonna sue the next Vegas casino that I end up losing a bunch of cash in because the sound of the cards being shuffled distracted me from the really crap hand I had.
_________________
Luctor et Emergo

[Bamboo Grove]

Mahjong is actually quite an interesting game. Anyone for a game? I have the set.
_________________
知彼知己, 胜乃不殆; 知天知地, 胜乃可全
www.bamboogrove.fi