Health News, Health Features

Neuro-technology professor gives his take on the vapourware heart monitor

The Wii Vitality Sensor was announced in 2009 but has never seen the light of day — and Professor Roger Quy thinks he knows why. Speaking at the recent NeuroGaming Conference in San Francisco, Quy passed his own opinions on why the strange peripheral never made its way to...

Brian Provinciano is keen to work with Nintendo again, though

Vblank's Brian Provinciano has been speaking about the development of Retro City Rampage, and has revealed that getting the game finished came with a terrible price for him personally — it impacted his health. Talking to Wii's World, Provinciano explained the events surrounding the...

Video games are good for you after all

It's not just surgeons who benefit from a spot of video gaming - old people do, too. A newly published academic study has concluded that older people are happier and gained a higher level of well-being through frequently playing computer games — even if only for short spells at a time. Researchers at the...

"Now I realize how important it is to have your health"

Kirby and Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai has revealed in the latest issue of Famitsu magazine that he's picked up a painful injury which is hindering his work — although it's worth pointing out that he stopped short of saying his situation will result in any kind of delay for the...

Some positive press attention for gaming, for a change

A UK-based pilot study has uncovered evidence that using Wii Fit could aid the development of children with movement difficulties. The study is a collaboration between Sussex Community NHS Trust, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust and academics at Goldsmiths, University of London and Oxford...

Excuse us while we smoke a Wii Remote

Despite the best efforts of Nintendo to turn gaming into a healthy pastime, the potential link between poor health and video games will be mined for countless years to come, with one such study claiming the negative effect of video games are more widespread than first thought. Craig A. Anderson, PhD's article...

Responds to refunds, too

Lynchpin of tabloid sensationalism The Sun has recently kicked up a fuss over the Nintendo 3DS, claiming thousands of users have suffered headaches and dizziness as a result of using the machine, but have been refused refunds at retailers. Now Nintendo UK has stepped in to respond, a spokesperson stating: Recent reports are incorrect. The number of calls and emails with..

Could help with diagnoses

Nintendo's no doubt covering itself with its recommendation that kids under 6 don't play 3DS, but the American Optometric Association has issued a press release stating the machine could actually have benefits. In fact, optometrists, professional health care providers committed to children's vision and eye health, say 3D viewing may actually help uncover subtle disorders..

Kids under 6, stick to 2D

We've heard plenty of times over recent months that 3DS could cause eye problems in later life, and now Nintendo is taking no chances by issuing a formal statement aimed at parents of young children, advising them to play with the 3D effect turned off. Nintendo quotes vision researchers who claim: There is a possibility that 3D images which send different images to the..

£35,000 grant to fund research

Can playing Wii games help to combat Parkinson's? That's the question being asked by Queen's University Belfast's Dr Cathy Craig, who's just received a grant of nearly £35,000 to investigate the console's possible benefits to sufferers of Parkinson's. In a recent survey of Parkinson's sufferers, 68% of respondents claimed they felt the console helped them manage..

Stacking blocks good for you

Anyone who's played Tetris – i.e. everyone ever – can attest to its soothing qualities as they stack block after block aiming to create those lovely lines. Now a new study suggests that playing the game isn't just good for fun, it may help to reduce the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Scientific journal PLoS ONE suggests that playing Tetris can reduce..

Won't somebody please think of the children?

When the Wii was first launched there was practically a media frenzy regarding the supposed flood of waggle-related mishaps. People reported cut hands, broken TV sets and black eyes, among other issues. Nintendo duly issued rubber jackets for the Wii Remote and took measures to strengthen the fabric wrist strap, and all was seemingly well with the world..

Former Nintendo president opens new centre in Kyoto

Under the fifty-year reign of Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo went from a tiny company to the multi-billion pound giant we know today, so it's no surprise to hear Mr Yamauchi is still pretty well-off when it comes to cash. He's not buying solid gold race cars and diamond-encrusted TVs though: he's helped build a cancer hospital in Kyoto, Japan..

University study finds balance board works out

It may not be quite the exercise package some had come to expect, but it appears Wii Fit may have benefits in other applications. A recent study by Kansas State University found that use of the game in the recovery programme of an injured soldier helped to improve his balance after a serious brain injury. Shawna Jordan and Laurie Hildebrand researched..

"Wii-hab" proving useful for sufferers

A hope of improving the lives of people with Parkinson’s disease could very well lie in an unlikely source! Over the course of summer, the Medical College of Georgia researched the effects of “Wii-hab” on people with the disease. 18 people were asked to play Wii Sports for an hour a day, three times a week for four weeks. The results have shown that all..

The health benefits of games like Wii Fit have been the topic for debate, but use in physical therapy looks more and more viable.

A researcher at the Medical College of Georgia in the United States has recently released initial results of trials using Wii Sports in physical therapy sessions with sufferers of Parkinson's disease (a degenerative disease that affects motor skills) with some extremely..

The Big N responds to internet scare-stories

Nintendo has responded to negative comments regarding the implications of playing too much Wii by insisting that the machine is perfectly safe, so long as players don’t “overdo it”. The advice came from the lips of Nintendo PR-guru Anka Dolecki and was intended to counter the flood of complaints from Wii owners claiming to suffer from problems such..

We didn’t realize that Trauma Center was that realistic!

If you happen to be unfortunate enough to find yourself needed brain surgery in the near future, you might want to check that your surgeon is a keen gamer. According to reports from a group of science-type boffins, playing Wii helps these skilled individuals to ‘warm up’ for the arduous task of poking around inside people’s skulls..

Who are these idiots and what are they doing with their Wiimotes?

Everyone loves a good scare story, don’t they? I’m sure we all recall the tales of SNES games making kids have fits in the early ‘90s and the relatively flimsy evidence supplied to support this theory. Well, it seems that history is repeating itself. The Wii has been so popular and successful a backlash was almost inevitable..