The Switch's HD Rumble is pretty impressive - but as Australian programmer Chris discovered, it has added benefits.

Posting on Reddit, Chris explained that as a huge Nintendo fan, he bought a Switch early on. During one of his many heated Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sessions, he noticed a pain in his right hand:

As soon as I played Mario Kart I started getting a shooting pain from my right palm to the first joint in my index finger when the controller vibrated, especially when collecting coins.

He shrugged it off initially. Speaking to Kotaku, Chris said:

I’m a programmer, and it was a pretty busy time at work, so I just put it down to [a repetitive stress injury] or something similar. I thought maybe it’d go after a few quieter days. I would’ve definitely used it as an excuse if I had been losing races against friends, but I’m currently unbeaten, so no one really knew about it.

However, his wife - who played Mario Kart with him - picked up on his complaints of pain. What was strange was that when using other controllers with rumble, such as the Xbox One pad, Chris didn't experience any discomfort. It was only when playing Mario Kart 8 - which uses a short, sharp rumble effect when picking up coins - that he felt the issue.

Eventually, Chris sought medical help:

After a few weeks with the pain still there, and a small bruise-like mark showing on my palm. I definitely knew something was wrong, but the doctors told me to just keep an eye on it, especially when they found out that I use my hands a lot at work.

Six months later, and Chris had a small lump on his hand. He returned to the doctor and was told it was a tumour which had around a 5 percent chance of being cancerous:

According to the UltraSound and a MRI they’re thinking it might either be a vascular malformation or a giant cell tumour. They won’t know until they take it out.

He's due to have it removed next week, and credits Nintendo's console with detecting the issue:

I definitely believe that if it hadn’t been for the Switch I wouldn’t have gone to the doctors until the mark started to raise from my palm months later.

Another selling point for Switch!

Thanks to SLIGEACH_EIRE for the tip!