Fewer than 3 in 10 high school students get at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But, thanks to the hit video game Pokémon Go, more kids are off the couch and on walks.
You have to move if you want to be successful at Pokémon Go. It’s called active gaming, and one Mayo Clinic doctor thinks the concept could be the nudge that gamers need to shake up what can be a sedentary lifestyle.
In this Mayo Clinic Minute, Dr. James Levine, author of Get Up!: Why Your Chair Is Killing You and What You Can Do About It, explains why he believes, for some, this move-or-lose gaming could be the health opportunity of a lifetime. Jeff Olsen reports.
Jeff Olsen: If you want to play Pokémon Go … Sound of a Pokémon Go game … you have to get up! And, the doctor who wrote the book with that title is happy to see it.
JAMES LEVINE, M.D., Ph.D. ENDOCRINOLOGY Mayo Clinic: Because, all of a sudden, we do have people who would have been sitting on their bottoms for an evening, getting up and moving around their cities.
Jeff Olsen: Dr. James Levine is an obesity solutions expert at Mayo Clinic. He acknowledges the possible pitfalls.
JAMES LEVINE, M.D., Ph.D. ENDOCRINOLOGY Mayo Clinic: People, young and old, who are wandering around, staring at their screens.
Jeff Olsen: But, he says, for some Pokémon Go players, the walking that leads to winning … Sound of a Pokémon Go win … could be a game changer.
JAMES LEVINE, M.D., Ph.D. ENDOCRINOLOGY Mayo Clinic: That actually releases, if you like – endorphin-like chemicals. The brain gets a buzz from the activity. Your brain has now clicked on to how pleasurable moving actually is. And, from that, somebody says, “Hey, do you want to meet on Sunday for a ballgame?” You wouldn’t have said yes, but now you do.
Jeff Olsen: It’s just one example of how Dr. Levine says this get-up-and-go gaming could be a step toward a more active life.
Graphic: newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org For the Mayo Clinic News Network, I’m Jeff Olsen.
