Here's an amazing fact. Video or computer games, as a form of entertainment, can greatly improve the health of those who play them. Nintendo's fifth video game console, Wii, is getting high praise for helping people get moving again.

The Wii quickly became popular in the most unlikely of places. It can be found in gyms, in retirement homes - and most recently, in hospitals and medical centers as a tool to assist in physical therapy.

Unlike regular video games, the Wii requires players to swing a wireless controller and move their whole bodies to compete. It can be used as a handheld pointing device and detect movement in three dimensions.

That makes it a much more effective physical therapy tool. It could create wonders for you too. Now consider what happens when real people use this wireless controller to play.

a)Billy Perry, 64, a retired Raleigh police officer received Wii therapy at WakeMed after suffering a stroke on Christmas Eve. He said Wii tennis and boxing helped him regain strength and feeling in his left arm.

b) 77-year-old Jerry Pope was a semi-pro tennis player who suffered a stroke. He initially tried the traditional exercises recommended by physical therapists, but found them repetitive and boring.

He says the Wii is fun and it is helping him make progress. "His arm movements, reaction and timing have improved significantly," his therapy said.

c) Mickey DeLorenzo, a 25-year-old living in Philadelphia, spends 30 minutes a day over six weeks playing Wii sports. "I lost 9lbs! (four kilograms)." His waist measurement fell from 87.6 centimetres to 78.7 centimetres.

According to BBC News, researchers Shawn Green and Daphne Bavelier , pitted ardent players of computer games against people who never play in a series of psychological tests that measure basic visual skills.

The tests demanded that subjects match shapes appearing in a series of circles with ones displayed at the side of the screen.  Ardent players were greatly better at this task, and completed it much faster, especially when the test was made more difficult by the circles being filled with distracting shapes.

The researches stated that although video game playing may seem to be pretty mindless, it is capable of radically changing visual attentional processing.

Professor Mark Griffiths, from Nottingham Trent University, UK said that video game is considered safe for most players and can be useful in healthcare. Researchers made a conclusion that this popular leisure activity can be used to reduce stress, and heal people with phobias, diabetes, asthma, and cardiac diseases.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Saiful Azim is a Public Administration university student from Malaysia. He likes to share informative articles with anyone he knows. And now he wants to do the same thing online.

His website at http://www.wiiwantmore.com proves he is willing to go ‘the extra mile’ for his web site visitors. For pleasure reading, it is highly recommended for viewers to use Internet Explorer.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/wellness-articles/doctors-using-nintendo-wii-for-rehab-therapy-832220.html