Daily HealthBeat Tip

Beating the games.

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I�m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Let�s face it. Many kids are only too happy to sit in front of the video game. And the only exercise they get is with their thumbs twitching on the controls. Not good enough is the consensus of health experts, who watch the kids get fat and out of shape.

And maybe bored. Some people in the industry think the button-pushing business needs a breakout. They�ve developed video games kids play by moving.

Dance games have you stomp to different light patterns. Other games use videocams that detect your body motion and literally draw you into the action -- your movements become what the game character does.

At a conference sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, professor Barry Popkin of the University of North Carolina finds value in video games that get kids off the couch.

"If you can�t get the video game people to move toward creating active games, we�re going to have more and more time spent doing nothing." (eight seconds)

HHS HealthBeat Radio is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I�m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: July 8, 2005

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