{"id":631,"date":"2016-11-13T21:23:57","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T03:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/?p=631"},"modified":"2016-11-29T02:39:38","modified_gmt":"2016-11-29T08:39:38","slug":"catch-some-pokemon-and-forget-your-diabetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/catch-some-pokemon-and-forget-your-diabetes\/","title":{"rendered":"Catch Some Pok\u00e9mon and Forget your Diabetes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ImageTechnology is such a great tool. So many people are using for health reasons, by tracking their food consumption, their physical activity and daily steps, or even their sleep quality. It is truly the way of the future. So, when Pok\u00e9mon Go, a gaming app, was released and the craze began getting people off their couches to \u201ccatch\u201d Pok\u00e9mon, many people wondered how this could be helpful for the obesity epidemic.<\/p>\n

Lo and behold, Nature World News<\/em> came to our rescue, releasing an article titled \u201cPok\u00e9mon Go Could Help Prevent Type 2 Diabetes, Study Finds.\u201d Well, wowzers. We went from tracking step count, to completely preventing chronic diseases. My grandmother was right; technology is <\/em>advancing fast. However, in all seriousness, this article was intriguing and caught my attention immediately.<\/p>\n

The Nature World News<\/em><\/a> article stated that \u201cAccording to the study, users are leaving their homes to walk for miles by just playing the game, engaging in intense physical activity without them noticing.\u201d That\u2019s all well and good but where is this study they were talking about<\/em>? I was thinking the same thing. Spoiler alert: there is no study. It appears that researchers from the University of Leicester in the UK, released a press release<\/a> that stated that Pok\u00e9mon Go, as a smartphone app, could be an innovative solution to the rising obesity levels and chronic disease, and that is what this particular article was based off of. The researchers at the University of Leicester cited previous studies that have shown that breaking up prolonged periods of sitting regularly with five minute bouts of light movement every 30 minutes could significantly reduce blood sugar and insulin levels, which is vastly different from Pok\u00e9mon Go preventing Type 2 Diabetes.<\/p>\n

As future health professionals, we all understand the importance of physical activity. Therefore, it is important to not discourage Pok\u00e9mon Go players. Utilizing technology to get people to move and be active can be innovative, however, the real struggle is getting people to stay <\/em>active for longer than a few days or few months. Right now, Pok\u00e9mon Go is too new to make any conclusions about how sustainable it is. In addition, health professionals really need be careful about popular media articles like this one. \u201cStudy\u201d was mentioned several times in the article, yet, there was no study to be found. Even if there was a study that was conducted, we need to be careful because this a very new app, and we cannot draw conclusions from just one study.<\/p>\n

Overall, Pokemon Go can be a great way to get people of all ages to start moving, and we as health professionals need to be there to help them continue to move. Even if it is not the cure to Type 2 Diabetes, it is a great way to get some steps in!<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. A. Jaime. “Pokemon Go Can Prevent Type 2 Diabetes, Study Finds”.\u00a0Nature World News.\u00a0<\/em>26 July 2016.<\/li>\n
  2. “Pokemon Go can ease Type 2 Diabetes burden.”\u00a0University of Leicester.\u00a0<\/em>25 July 2016.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Technology is such a great tool. So many people are using for health reasons, by tracking their food consumption, their physical activity and daily steps, or even their sleep quality. It is truly the way of the future. So, when Pok\u00e9mon Go, a gaming app, was released and the craze began getting people off their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2027,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2027"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}