Bingo Proves to be Life Enhancing

by Hollie Sanders

Although this is not a UK story it certainly bears some mention, we have long been told of the life enhancing benefits that a game of bingo can have on an elderly or ill person and this little story is no exception to the rule. Bingo is a gentle game that is exciting and stimulates the mind as well as hand eye coordination which is really good exercise for the brain.

So now for the story! Every day from a Monday to Friday, seventy eight year old Robert Hsu, a former Taiwanese Marine and up until three years ago, ice cream salesman, is collected by a bus and taken to the Florida, Miami Beach Wellness Centre. Once there he is given breakfast, participates in some carefully designed exercise, completes puzzles, has lunch and plays bingo with the other Silver Sneakers health club members. And he feels so much better!

After he retired he became a real couch potato, he was always short of breath and sweating and his wife was driving him crazy, telling him he was lazy and a “do nothing”. But he was depressed and he felt really ill. Since he has been a member of the Silver Sneakers, the regular activities and playing bingo, he no longer takes anti-depressants, he is ill less often and his weight and blood pressure are both down.

Apparently studies are showing that these kind of programmes are paying for themselves and 4 000 miles away, in the UK, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, nurses are conducting a similar programme. But they are providing daily telephone support and are finding similar progress in the patients they contact. I think they should include lessons in online bingo too, I am sure they would achieve even greater success.