If you want to play Pokémon Go, you have to move. 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.
If you want to play Pokémon Go you have to get up! And, the doctor who wrote the book with that title is happy to see it.
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.
Dr. James Levine is an obesity solutions expert at Mayo Clinic. He acknowledges the possible pitfalls. People, young and old, who are wandering around, staring at their screens.
But, he says, for some Pokémon Go players, the walking that leads to winning could be a game changer. 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.
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.
For the Mayo Clinic News Network, I’m Jeff Olsen.
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