Do you want to improve your appearance? Then play Second Life as soon as possible!

Nowadays, looking good  has become almost a necessity for human beings, and there are several ways to achieve it, but can a videogame help in this pursue?
A study conducted by a team of scientists from University of Missouri suggested that the more a person feels indentified with a virtual alter-ego, the more it could influence his or her personal image.  For instance, people who want to lose weight could create a slim online avatar in order to envisage themselves as thinner.

279 users of the virtual game Second Life (similar to The Sims), were asked to respond a survey regarding their engagement with their virtual alter-ego and relationships they developed online, in addition to their offline health, appearance and emotional well-being.  

The results showed that “A strong sense of self-presence in the social virtual world positively promoted health and well-being of study participants. People with high degrees of self-presence in the cyber world reported that their experience with their avatar improved how they felt about themselves offline. Self-presence also correlated to greater satisfaction with online relationships.” (Retrieved from http://munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2012/1105-virtual-reality-could-help-people-lose-weight-fight-prejudice-says-mu-researcher/)

However, it is well known that spending several hours in front of the computer can be harmful for health. Sedentariness is associated with obesity, heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.

Exercise and good alimentation are the basis for a healthy life, according to the American College of Nutrition and most of doctors around the world. 

To read the abstract of the study, click here. 

Is it possible that a computer game such as Second Life can promote a healthy life?

"If this does not blow your mind, then you have no emotion"

A lot of people, specially us teachers and people who feel identified with Humanities more than with hard Sciences, have struggled at least once with mathematical problems. As we were still in school, educational institutions and teachers were unable to do much for the students who needed longer time to understand a given task and were forced to continue with the next one, leaving a bunch of their students frustrated for not understanding and at disadvantage among their peers who managed to reach the objectives in time.

In 2004, Salman Khan made a huge discovery. He started posting math tutorials in YouTube for his nephews, as he was tutoring them from a long distance. Shortly after, other users of the popular video site started posting him comments and thanking him, because his videos helped their children understand mathematics. At that point he realized that he had found a great teaching tool still not fully exploited.

Now in 2012, there are more than 3,400 videos that can be found in Khanacademy.org along with math exercises generators displayed in a game-like fashion to make them more engaging. Teachers can tell their students to do all the exercising they need at home at at their own pace and use the time at school for experimentation, humanizing the classroom.

This system is already being applied in different schools in USA, and, hopefully, we can expect to find it in a school near us soon. As Bill Gates said, this is the future of education. Wouldn’t you agree?

The problem when water is not enough

Since a while sports drinks have been gaining popularity. These products promise to help you to exercise better and increase energy levels. It is true that water is the best choice for hydration, but when we exercise, we lose electrolytes (medical term for salts, specifically ions) from perspiration and it is necessary for the body to recover them. Also, we can get a carbohydrate boost from sports drink, which is very useful when doing exercise.

Till this point, sports drinks are nothing but a helpful beverage. However, there is a huge problem that can be associated with this product. All the benefits can turn into damages when the drinkers are not athletes. People who work in offices, teachers and others that seek to get an “energetic blow” drink sports drinks. And what is worst, kids also prefer these beverages because of their taste and colors. Sports drinks are supposed to serve a specific function: to enhance exercise performance.

When sports drinks are used for others purposes, the body can suffered the consequences. High amounts of sugar and proteins are contributing to increase obesity levels in kids and adolescents. Caffeine is another component present on sports drinks. It can produce headaches and if consumed after initiated the exercise can even provoke gastrointestinal problems.

These problems could be solved if both, companies and us, worked together. The questions are: Are companies disposed to tell all the truth about their products? Are we going to start drinking water or other beverages?