Games may improve health in ways you’ve not considered.

We’ve always known that they’re excellent forms of relaxation, but of late, video and computer games are being tapped by the medical community as ways to improve general health, treat certain disorders, and even provide therapy and rehabilitation. We’ve seen how doctors are using gaming techniques to help patients who’ve suffered from strokes to recover faster, and we’ve heard of the physical workouts that the Wii Fit and other similar gaming machines provide. There are other areas too where gaming is considered beneficial to health, such as in:

• Treating symptoms of ADHD: Video games, when played for an hour or so a day, help children with ADHD channel their excess energy and achieve a relatively peaceful state of mind by giving them a sense of achievement, a condition that is quite rare in children who have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. While there is no practical (read inexpensive) way to measure the daily returns that gaming provides or see how it helps kids with ADHD, researchers have proved that neurofeedback has positive effects on IQ and attention span, and is also effective as medication.
• Boosting vision: Researchers have found that video games are effective in boosting contrast sensitivity, the ability of the human eyes to distinguish between minute changes in shades of grey against a uniform background. Simply put, contrast sensitivity helps us drive more safely at night and when the external light is poor. This quality decreases with age and was previously thought to be untreatable, except through surgical means. But the Nature Neuroscience study at the University of Rochester has shown that people who play video games that involve aiming and shooting at virtual targets have enhanced contrast sensitivity.
• Improving mental health: We know that video games that involve strategyboost our cognition and memory power, but of late, researchers have found that video games also allow people to beat depression and feel better about themselves. It gives them a sense of achievement as they go from one level to the other and it forms a natural high, the kind associated with exercise and endorphins.

Improving health behaviors and outcomes.

With gaming proving to be a useful health enhancer, it’s no wonder that there are various grants being awarded to study the effect of computerized games on improving health behaviors and outcomes – the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded 12 grants worth $2 million to hospitals and universities, the Princeton Foundation has set up a program called Games for Health as part of its $8.25 million Health Games Research Initiative, the Maine Medical Center in Portland is conducting a study to see if the Dance Dance Revolution dance pad video game can help overweight children lose weight, and the University of Washington School of Medicine is checking to see if mobile games can help people with Type II diabetes improve their eating habits. To put it in a nutshell, the future of health gaming looks bright and healthy.

About the Guest Contributor

This article was contributed by Susan White who regularly writes on the subject of Radiology Technician Schools in Texas. She invites your questions and comments below and at her email address: susan[dot]white33[at]gmail.com.