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Wii Boosts Parkinson's Treatments
mmmscience writes "Scientists are investigating the use of Wii Sports as a form of treatment for Parkinson's sufferers. After a four-week study, researchers found that rounds of tennis, bowling, and boxing improved rigidity, movement, fine motor skills, and energy levels as well as decreasing the occurrence of depression. It is thought that combining exercise with video games helps to increase levels of dopamine, a chemical that is deficient in Parkinson's. The therapy is gaining notoriety under the name Wii-hab."
In other news: Exercise is good for you. No matter how flimsy the method you use.
So basically, -1 troll/offtopic is really slashdots way of saying "I hate that you thought of something before me."
There have been a startling number of stories directly or peripherally about the Wii.
Finaly video games prove they can have some good too (nothing to prove to me or any geek, just my grand-parents :P)
I am very interested to see whether or not use of the Wii could result in either preventing Parkinson's or delaying it significantly. Obviously there isn't any data available at this point on such theory, but I think 20 to 30 years down the road it would be interesting to see what happens to people who regularly used Wii and future Wii-like consoles.
Of course, since IIANDoctor, I have no idea on the science behind that. Anyone know whether or not that's feasible?
This is bunk, as many people have said before... exercise is good medicine. Who wants to wager that the new "updated" version of Wii Sports, with the Motion Plus controls, will be put on a similar test and researchers will waste another couple of million dollars figuring out that moving around is good for Parkinsons.
I made a cartoon of his two remaining brain cells talking back and forth inside his hollow skull. The conversation went something like this:
Brain Cell 1: "Coke..."
Brain Cell 2: "...CAINE!
Brain Cell 1: "Coke..."
Brain Cell 2: "...CAINE!
etc.
That eye/body/hand/whatever coordination excercise is good for your general health and actually develops your brain.
Nothing new here.
- Arwen, I'm your father, Agent Smith.
- Well, you're just Smith, but my father is Aerosmith!
It sounds like it is used to treat the effects of the symptoms of parkison's. It doesn't do anything to treat Parkisons itself.
So, does that mean if Obama's health care package get's passed, the government will pay for video games for Parkinson's sufferers?
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
So what this article is saying, is that the Wii provides a "watered down" Parkinson's experience.
Dr. Ben Hertz, a director of Occupational Therapy at MCG, explained that "participants showed significant improvements in rigidity, movement, fine motor skills and energy levels. Perhaps most impressively, most participants' depression levels decreased to zero." [MCG] Depression is a major impact factor in Parkinson's, with at least half of the patients reporting the mental illness.
No neurological studies have been done to solidify the reasons behind the improvement. However, Hertz believes that the combination of exercise and video games helps boost dopamine levels, a neurotransmitter that is severely deficient in Parkinson's disease. That is the motivation behind using the Wii over another video game system; Wii requires whole-body movement instead of the simple isolated finger movements on a traditional controller.
While we only have a correlation here and no direct link, I actually think the researchers may be onto something. The reason why this is more than old news is not the physical activity, but the emotional and mental components.
Playing sports for real requires lifting the appropriate equipment, and learning the skill. Wii Sports is simpler, and simply requires basic motions. The remote is also much lighter and easier to handle.
The time invested learning vs the return in enjoyment ramps up faster and if you are a depressed parkinson's patient, being able to easily do a little exercise with a simple little console can emotionally be a big deal. I do not have parkinson's, but I've tried learning tennis and it's a pain in the ass to me, but I enjoy a little wii tennis from time to time with my niece.
And finally, playing a computer game is still novel. Most patients are going to look at something like this and it will be enjoyable. It's not some uber FPS or strategy game where they have to learn 20 combos. They swing a remote and have a little fun with their friends.
The physical activity has always been important, but other consoles don't give you physical interaction, you mash buttons. If you are a parkinson's patient and you can feel like you are doing something, you are not only getting a physical component, but a much needed mental and emotional component.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Is there nothing the Wii can't do.
...smoke some dope? Of course, patients selection should be stressed, but I think this is one of the few disease where prescibed cannabis really would help. Maybe not smoke, but ingestion or something like that. And I'm sure the side-effects will be very welcome B-) Seriously though, there's some decent evidence out there for the use of cannabis for Parkinson's.
I have an (off topic) question for you.
Hmmm. If you could purchase a discrete device that would release endorphins whenever you were doing exercise. Would you buy it?
Would you voluntarily rewire yourself?
i begin to fantasize about it
i'm an addict
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
than seeing a hot chick, taking in her attractiveness
and then she brings a cigarette to her mouth
instant killjoy
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
the patients are challenging anyone to beat them at Wario Land: Shake it.
I can attest to this fact. As someone who hadn't intentionally exercised for more than about 5 days out of the last 5 years, I just started exercising after buying a Wii Fit recently. Laugh all you want, but I've already shed a few pounds, and I figure that there's no point in arguing with results, regardless of how embarrassing it is.
There's nothing about Wii that makes it any better than any other similar exercise. We used the Apple //GS "tour" program for the same thing, back when it was brand new. We also used a computerized version of the old psych-test "trail making test" on a Mac 128, back when it was new too.
Fact is, it's not really the exercise that does the trick, it's giving the brain a task where it can plan a trajectory of movement. You can get the same effect almost instantly by giving a Parky a cane. They don;t need it to walk, they place it out in front of themselves and walk towards it. Planning that trajectory makes execution much easier. Once the trick is learned, games and canes are not longer needed. For a while.
Using these doesn't increase dopamine levels. What they do is give the brain reason to make more use of what little there is. It grows more receptors in response. It has the same effect of increasing dopamine. It's preferable to dopaminerigic drugs which have nasty side effects much like antipsychotics (extrapyramidal symptoms, like tardive dyskenesia). Newer drugs like pramipexole (Mirapex) don't have those side effects, but are fairly expensive. A cane is much cheaper.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
I am still waiting for a golf game with the same simple gameplay as WII Sports Golf but lets you play of all the major courses in the world.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
Seeing a hot chick, taking in her attractiveness
and then "she" walks into the mens room
The enemies of Democracy are
We can safely attribute this to The Obama Effect.
"They tried to make me go to Wiihab but I said no no no..."