Health Issues Following Spring Festival: Aching Joints from Playing Mahjong

During the Chinese New Year, parties and get-togethers where people often play mahjong or video games for regular leisure are commonplace. However, sometimes overuse of muscles can lead to various degrees of muscle damage and particular aches and pains, such as "mahjong shoulders" and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). You may not notice any troubles for a few days, but the condition will get worse over time.

It is good to play mahjong with relatives and friends to bond with them, but as each mahjong game can last for several hours, the prolonged shoulder and hand movements can cause symptoms similar to those of a frozen shoulder, which is often jokingly referred to as "mahjong shoulder". The recent emergence of teenagers with aches and pains, who spend their time at home surfing the Internet day and night during the new year and sitting in the wrong position, has resulted in muscle pains in the neck and back. This, coupled with prolonged use of the fingers to push the mouse, causes excessive friction between the joints, resulting in localized inflammation and pain in the joints, which is called CTS.

When a person's muscles are used improperly or excessively, they tend to become sore. Therefore, in addition to proper sitting, standing and bending posture, it is important to avoid the overuse of muscles, i.e. allow sufficient time to rest during the game.

For example, after a half hour or an hour of playing mahjong, rest for 5-10 minutes before continuing. It is also important not to play on the computer or mobile phone day and night, but to take appropriate breaks or surf the Internet intermittently, and to maintain good posture so that your muscles do not become overworked and sore.

If these pains occur after the Spring Festival, it is advisable to rest to avoid re-injury and deterioration of the muscles. At the same time, simple rehabilitation can be done, such as applying soreness ointment or peppermint oil (white flower oil, green oil essence...) to massage the affected muscles and apply heat.

If the results are not satisfactory, a proper diagnosis should be made by a doctor to find out the cause and provide appropriate treatment according to the condition. Although each type of muscle pain has a different scientific name, most of them are in fact "myofascial syndrome". With proper management of the pressure points and oral pain relief, anti-inflammatory, sedative and muscle relaxant medication, most of them can be recovered quickly.