Aug 18 2006
TV: The Medical Pain Killer
Now there is scientific evidence that watching TV actually makes you numb:
Researchers confirmed the distracting power of television — something parents have long known — when they found that children watching cartoons suffered less pain from a hypodermic needle than kids not watching TV.
Especially disturbing to the author of the scientific study was that the cartoons were even more comforting than Mom.
While it’s good to have a powerful distraction for children getting painful medical procedures, it is also troubling “because we have demonstrated the excessive power of television,” said chief author, Carlo Bellieni, a father of three and a neonatologist and pediatrician at the University of Siena in Italy.
Who needs pain killers when you have Spongebob? The numbing power of TV should be a lesson to us all.
