video games

Wii Balance Boards Could Help Manage Multiple Sclerosis

Sure, “gamified” health apps are a big question mark at this point, overall. But the fact that so many video-game consoles now have hardware that allows for movement-based gaming opens up a lot of doors to health-promoting activities in the home. One intriguing example, reported in a new study in the journal Radiology, involved multiple sclerosis patients and the Nintendo Wii balance board, which, as the name implies, allows users to engage in a bunch of balance-based strength and fitness activities.

One of the (many) difficult things about M.S. is the way it robs patients of their balance, which of course opens up a whole host of other difficulties and dangers. The researchers used a Wii balance board to have subjects engage in visual feedback training — basically, adjusting their position based on what they were seeing on the screen — and got some intriguing results.

To the press release:



It appears a lot of homes now have some pretty potent, relatively low-cost health-promoting gadgets. It’s up to the folks designing the software to figure out how to best put them to use.

Wii Balance Boards Could Help Manage M.S.