Nintendo Wii Fit

OK, I guess that I need to put this disclaimer out front and center: I am not a paid spokesperson for Nintendo. I haven’t gotten one lousy nickel to tout their product, but here I go.

I have to start by saying that I am as allergic to video games as one can be. Besides their other objectionable qualities, their contribution to our Pediatric Obesity problem cannot be minimized. As I have written elsewhere in this blog, as much as 1/5 of our kids aged 11-19 are now obese, about a 4 four fold increase from two decades ago. Video games can’t be blamed for all of this, but it is no secret that as these games have become increasingly popular, more kids (and now adults) sit on their rear ends and exercise only their thumbs.

For a while, I have been hearing people talk about the Nintendo Wii. I had heard that it was more interactive than the competitors (namely Sony Playstation and Microsoft XBox). What really made me notice was a radio segment that I heard on NPR about how popular the Wii and Wii Fit have gotten with seniors, particularly in assisted living type arrangements. Shortly after hearing this story, this point was graphically reinforced in my practice.

I have a senior citizen in my general internal medicine practice, an 85-year-old gentleman who has congestive heart failure and COPD (Emphysema) living in an assisted living facility. This patient has to use oxygen continiously but remains quite active despite all of these limitations.

One day I received a call from the head nurse at the facility. It seems that my patient had gotten into an argument with another resident in their activities area. Apparently there was a dispute over whose turn it was to use the bowling console on the Wii, and my patient reinforced his claim by punching the other resident in the kisser. According to the rules of the facility, we had to have the patient sent for an evaluation at the Geriatric Behaviorial Unit at Gottlieb Hospital (a Pysch Unit), where the psychiatrist in charge of the unit concluded he wasn’t crazy, just angry that someone was stealing his turn.

I then became aware that several of my weight loss patients were resisting my entreaties to join a formal exercise program and stating that the Wii Fit was their only form of exercise. I had to resist sniggering at these patients and told them that they needed a formal program.

As it turned out, they are the ones entitled to snicker. I now have had several patients lose up to 30 pounds each with the Wii as their only form of exercise. They are all woman in their 40s with families. They can’t find time in their lives to join a fitness center but their kids have helped them use the Wii and the Wii Fit. They enjoy it, wind up spending more time with their families, and are losing weight. What the heck can I complain about?

I became curious enough to buy a Wii and a Wii Fit. Actually I wasn’t able to at first, because the stores were completely sold out, and had to wait a few months until stocks were replenished.

At the time of the purchase I had a 23-year-old son living with me while he was recuperating from surgery for a workman compensation injury. He is a very active young adult, always into hiking, mountain climbing, and other activities. After his surgery it was a struggle for him to walk across the room, which was depressing him and us greatly.

Pretty soon my wife and I were fighting him for access to the Wii. I came home one day and found him running in place while the screen showed an image of him jogging through a park. There was a female image (or, in Wiispeak, a “Mii”) running ahead of him. Periodically she turns and beckons him on, and damned if he didn’t start running faster every time.

My wife loves the hoola hoop and the ski program. I love sitting on the couch behind her and watching her shake her bootie while she does these, but that is probably more information than I should be letting out.

My wife in general does not like to exercise, but with the Wii she has passed many an hour, highly entertained the whole while, and while I am not allowed to know the results on the scale, she is clearly having a good outcome. I am a home theater buff and an audiophile, and I wasn’t a bit surprised to read in one my magazines recently that Nintendo has kicked both Sony and Microsoft’s corporate butts with their sales. If I had younger kids I would definitely get the Wii instead of letting them play Grand Theft Auto for hours. And as my stories relate, it isn’t just for kids.