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Wii Fit doesn’t only keep players slender, it also diagnoses their genetic disorders.
Thanks to Wii Fit, a UK woman is now aware that she has Parkinson’s disease. While playing with her friends, she noticed a few abnormalities, which turned out to be symptoms of the disorder.
54-year-old Julie Wilks says she was pretty good at most of Wii Fit‘s balance board games, but one in particular stuck out. When she moved to a section of Wii Fit that required even balance, the game told her she was leaning more heavily on her left foot.
“There was a huge footprint on the screen and everyone was joking saying I was doing it on purpose,” she told the Sun. What was a joke on that day stuck in Wilks’ mind, and she gradually began to notice other subtle symptoms. Typical left-handed behaviors started to become more comfortable as right-handed behaviors.
Six months after being made fun of for her giant Wii Fit foot, and noticing these changes in herself along the way, Wilks went to the doctor to see if there was a cause. Sadly, the cause was serious, as a neurologist diagnosed her with Parkinson’s disease.
If it wasn’t for Wii Fit, Wilks may not have discovered she had the degenerative nervous system disorder until later in life. “I’m so grateful that I was playing the game that day and that it ended up in my diagnosis,” she said. “What an amazing piece of technology.”
New gaming devices like Wii Fit might bug the hardcore gamer, but they seem to be doing wonders for humanity. Wii Fit has seen widespread use in physical therapy and other medical applications. Can Nintendo’s Wii Doctor be far behind?
Source: Sun, via GoNintendo
Published: Jan 13, 2011 05:16 pm