By Jeanine

Yes, life is full of dilemmas. Should I wear the red shirt or the green shirt? We’ve all faced numerous decisions that ultimately have no bearing on our every day lives, but some decisions can be more important than we realize. Many choices that we make every day affect our health. For example…

Dilemma # 1: To Play or Not Play Video Games; That is the Question

Video games have become a part of many people’s every day lives. In fact, we live in a society where entertainment is intertwined with technology. Many say that video games cause all kinds of problems because youth spend so much of their free time playing video games that they neglect physical exercise, they forget to study for school, and they spend less time with friends, leading to a lack of social skills. Even worse, many video games are graphic and very violent, putting the game-player into a position where he or she must kill as many people as possible. What do you think….do violent video games cause children to become aggressive later on in life? So here is the dilemma; new studies show that video games can actually improve eyesight. I read an article the other day from MSNBC which reports that a study published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that certain kinds of video games can indeed improve eyesight.

Alright, I know what you're thinking because it was my first thought too..... Is this a joke? Video games actually improve eyesight? The video games have to be spatial in nature, such as a first-person action game and it appears that playing video games actually changes the way our brains process visual information. According to the article, it even seems that 30 hours of training, using first-person video games allowed people to accurately see objects in a cluttered space, compared to those who had not been trained with video games. So what do you think? Are video games worth the time?

Dilemma #2: Drink Tea or Don’t Drink Tea

We’ve all heard about the amazing benefits of drinking green and black tea. The antioxidants in tea have truly amazing powers to protect you from cancer, heart disease, and numerous other health problems. When I learned about the benefits of drinking green tea I jumped on the bandwagon and started to drink tea whenever I could. But recently, a new study was published which said that drinking hot tea can lead to throat cancer. You can watch an interesting video about this in my post, “Can Drinking Hot Tea Cause Cancer?” It seems that it isn’t the tea that actually causes the cancer but drinking the tea really hot causes damage to the lining of the throat. Sometimes I wonder if anything DOESN’T cause cancer. Is it worth our time to invest in tea? I say yes. I still think drinking tea has numerous health benefits and I plan to continue to drink it…but I might just let it cool down a little.

Dilemma #3: Should You take Vitamins?

I never thought this would even be a debate until I found out some disturbing news about vitamins. It looks as if several studies have shown that taking high dose vitamins can lead to cancer and even a higher risk of death. Researchers in Finland reported that according to their study, lung cancer was 16% higher among participants who took supplements of beta-carotene and vitamin E compared to those who took a placebo. John Hopkins team analyzed data from 19 different clinical trials and found that those taking vitamin E had an increased risk of death. Many people think that it is much better to get vitamins from natural foods. So should we throw away our vitamins? I haven’t thrown out my vitamins just yet. Vitamins give me energy and make me feel better over all. I think the lesson that can be learned here is to not go overboard on vitamins. Have you ever seen people who take 30 different vitamins a day? I have and I think I will abstain from that practice. One multivitamin a day seems to be a good idea. What is your opinion?
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Yes, life is full of many health dilemmas, but it is up to us to make the wisest choices that we can. For more articles on health, check out Jeanine’s blog, Health Outlook. Who is Jeanine? She enjoys writing about health but more importantly she is a fan of Aswani’s blog, Future Perfect.