At a time when India is in the grip of the FIFA World Cup fever with millions of viewers being glued to television sets or other forms of digital screens, two top doctors from Kolkata have cautioned against people being affected by "Digital Eye Strain" syndrome.

According to them, the common symptoms of this "Digital Eye Strain" syndrome are extreme headaches, blurred vision, irritation in the eyes, redness and gritty sensation and excessive tearing.

According to them, apart from these factors, the prolonged sleep deprivation during the midnight matches disturbs the human body's normal homeostasis which directly affects eye health along with the other systems like heart and nerves. It may cause severe dry eyes, dark circles and puffiness of eyelids, the opthalmologists warned.

According to Dr Joyeeta Das, consultant opthalmologist with Disha Eye Hospitals, certain precautions like having the room well-lit while viewing such matches, keeping the digital screens in eye protection mode, taking short breaks in between matches and power naps during the breaks, can reduce these physical complexities to a great extent.

She said that one must avoid contact lenses while viewing matches and also avoid rubbing the eyes. "Most important is that one should not be deprived of sleep at any cost,' Das said.

According to Dr PS Karmakar, consultant cardiologist with Techno India Dama Hospital, this constant viewing of high- tension world cup football matches has also an immense adverse effect on the human heart. According to him, the cheering and the anxiety from the beginning to the end of the game leads to an acceleration of the normal impulse rate of a human heart, which results in secretion of adrenaline.

"Adrenaline secretion increases the pace of the heartbeat to an abnormal measure or a very strong pounding of a heartbeat which is known as heart palpitation. When a normal individual's heart undergoes through a state of heart palpitation the demand of the percentage of oxygen intake rises among the heart muscles. The situation might turn into a worse and in fact a threatening phase when a spectator is an aged person since the internal organs function at a fatigued pace," he added.

He pointed out that with aging, the heart arteries turn quite thin and there is not sufficient supply of blood inside the heart muscles. "In this case if over excitement and anxiety is imposed on the heart then it might fail to meet the demand of the required huge amount of oxygen intake as there's already a deficit in the normal amount of oxygen which needs to be available. This situation results in mild to severe to unbearable chest pain. There can also be a chance of an acute heart attack, especially among heart patients," he added. (SJ/IANS)