Why the stereotypical gamer has acne

Posted on Oct 25th 2006
5:32pm EST
Montreal, Canada

Imagine for a moment the stereotype of a teenage gamer.

Typically, people would mentally picture a 16 year old male, medium height, glasses, pale skin, anti-social and of course, acne ridden. Why do we have this stereotype in mind when we think of a gamer? Is it a trend that our society follows or has the media forced yet another stereotype down our throats? Finally, where does the acne characteristic come from and does it have any value?

According to a recent poll in a Counter-Strike chat room, #idnm on Gamesurge.net, 28 out of 43 respondents had some sort of acne, and out of those 28, nearly all of them said their acne became worse when they played more than 6 hours a day.

How gaming affects acne.

The act of gaming itself does not promote to acne forming. Logically, touching a controller and looking at a screen has in no way any effect on our physical body. However, it is all the secondary factors that are associated with gaming that encourage acne breakouts.

Games that cause stress

It is widely agreed that the primary factor that causes acne breakouts is stress. Stress weakens our immune system and causes a huge hormonal misbalance that is also associated with acne breakouts.
A normal walk in the park would be associated with a low level of stress of 2 on a scale from 1 to 10. When you are gaming, the level of stress can rise from a 2 to an 8 in the matter of minutes. To give you an example of the level of stressed experienced on an ongoing basis by a gamer, if you were being chased by someone in the street and in a in a life or death situation, the stress level would probably be closer to 10. This is a normal fight or flight reaction that our body uses to survive. This level of stress is meant to be sustained for a period of a few minutes, in order to survive key situations during our evolution.
We are now, however, submitting ourselves voluntarily to a level of stress of 7-8 for hours and hours. Consequently, our immune system is adversely affected and this leads to an increase in acne. Most gamers put themselves through this kind of stress for 4-5 hours a day, every single day. Imagine what kind of impacts that can have on your overall health.

Diet of a gamer

Another factor which is associated with gaming is a horrible diet. If you have been to any Lan parties, you would know that the most popular drinks when gaming are Coke & Guru. In addition, people often grow into habits of eating junk food snacks while gaming. Now, if this fuel was consumed while walking, or during an activity, it would be perfectly acceptable as our body would naturally use up all the energy it has been given. Unfortunately, when you eat junk food and sit down on a chair for 6 hours straight, all the excess from the food tends to accumulate and must be excreted somehow. Sitting down for prolonged periods of time does not encourage bowel movements or healthy breathing and therefore the toxins are released thru the skin, therefore causing acne .  The necessary anaerobic activity that our body relies on to function is often replaced by sitting still for hours. This is not natural and our bodies must compensate.

Sleeping patterns of a gamer

Finally, the average gamer as has a horrible sleeping pattern. When society averages a bedtime of 10-11pm, gamers average a 1-2 am bedtime. Not only does it deprive gamers of an extra 2-3 hours of sleep per night, but it encourages improper sleeping patterns which have been recognized to be extremely important to acne sufferers. As if that wasn’t enough, most gamers will play their favorite game until they go to sleep. Meaning that they are still in that tense, ‘in the game’ mood. It is therefore nearly impossible to get a good night’s sleep when your body has been tensed up for 2-3 hours prior to sleep.

Stress by games

Lastly, the type of game seems to have an effect on how much stressed is produced and consequently, how prominent the acne breakouts are.

Ranking from most stressful to least stressful

(most stressful)

1. Quake and almost all the arcade console games
2. Unreal tournament
3. Counter-Strike
4. Prey, Battlefield, Call of Duty
5. Warcraft III, World of Warcraft
6. Sims

(least stressful)

As we can see, the shooters with high scoring games such as Quake and Unreal tournament are at the top, as they force the gamer into a constant fight and kill environment. Most console games also fall into this category as they require constant trigger happy fingers
Afterwards, the slower tactical shooters which require slightly more strategy than constant shooting are in the middle.
Finally, RPGs and single player games are found near the bottom as they produce the least amount of stress.

Steps to reduce acne breakouts for gamers

Luckily, a few simple steps could be taken to reduce the amount of acne breakouts in gamers.

• Switching to a less stressful game would be the first step in reducing breakouts
• Taking small 10-15 minute breaks during long gaming periods. During these breaks it would be encouraged to do some sort of anaerobic activity such as walking, jogging, skipping rope.
• Changing the type of snacks and beverages that are consumed while gaming. You don’t need 4000 calories when you’re sitting down on a chair.
• Set up an alarm which reminds you to go to sleep early and at a regular time.
• Avoid any gaming 1 hour before sleeping

Although the simple act of gaming itself does not encourage acne breakouts, the factors such as prolonged periods of increased stress, poor nutrition and lack of sleep do explain the stereotype that gamers tend to have more acne than the rest of society.

 

This article was written by Eric Masterson who runs the leading site for Acne Treatment