I often joke that I am the very first millennial, and one of the very real hallmarks of the so-called millennial generation is being the first generation to grow up playing video games. Indeed, one of my ex-boyfriends who was only five years older than me constantly shamed me for playing video games, mostly because he was terrible at them, but this generational novelty is a very real and unique subset of childhood experiences which has forever altered the course of human history and development. The Legend of Zelda holds a special place in my heart—those were the very first fantasy games I played as a kid, and being able to literally explore the vast lands of Hyrule was one of the highlights of my childhood, albeit opportunistically through friends since my conservative parents were dictatorially opposed to us owning any more cartridges than Super Mario Bros., who used game rental as a leverage to manipulate, shame, and control us even though we were extremely well-behaved. When I was almost a teenager and my brother and I saved enough money to buy the new Super Nintendo Entertainment System we woke up early one Saturday morning to get as much playing time from our rented Super Mario World game (frog suit!) when suddenly my Dad burst into the living room and angrily ripped the Nintendo out of the wall and hauled it off, never to be seen again. Of course, that did not stop our playing of video games, and as we grew we graduated to PC games (Dragonlance, King’s Quest, and Sim City).

Eventually the N64 would come out, and Ocarina of Time was nothing less than a revelation, and over the years a game console or computer has become not a luxury, but a necessity, especially when games like Warcraft started coming out. When I was much older the realism of Skyrim (at the time) blew my mind and video games reached a period of near life-like quality we had long hoped for in games like Red Dead Redemption 2, which had so much content I stopped playing after two weeks just to take a break, only to find myself sobbing at the end when I played Arthur 100% good and completely fell in love with him. The Bioshock games, The Witcher, Hollow Knight, Minecraft, the Civilization franchise, Uncharted, Tomb Raider—human creativity has reached an incredible height, and it’s only going to get better.

But there is a downside to gaming, which is that the environment and behaviors which accompany it can often have negative effects on our physical and mental health. As a graphic artist who spent an average of ten hours a day indoors working on a computer for most of my adult life these health problems at first seemed unrelated to working indoors on a computer, and for years I dealt with significant metabolic illness like debilitating depression, malaise, insomnia, and back pain so awful I would often have to call in sick to work just to give my back a break. When I got cancer and nearly died I finally learned there are several things that can help prevent some of the problems that come from sitting in front of a computer for long periods of time and how to have great health even if your occupation is gaming or other computer desk job.

The first and most important thing our body needs is light. Yes—just like your parents told you to “go outside to play,” the human body needs exposure to natural sunlight to be healthy because exposure to natural light actually regulates our endocrine system and decreases stress hormones like adrenaline and upregulates healthful hormones like dopamine, and getting natural sun exposure every single day should be a priority for everyone.

But natural light also actually provides us free energy just like it does plants, and yes our biology does perform a type of photosynthesis as there is an enzyme in our mitochondria called cytochrome oxidase which reacts to the photons of red wavelengths of light which results in free production of our primary energy molecule called ATP (adenosine triphosphate) which all cells in our body need to run cellular functions and sustain life. Without light our body actually begins to think we are in a state of hibernation and begins to release hormones which actively downregulate the metabolism, which is why why many young men and women who spend most of their time indoors at the computer start to become overweight and unhealthy, which has almost nothing to do with being sedentary or caloric intake but is literally our biological regulatory response to light deficiency.

As many of us have occupations which keep us indoors and at a computer there is thankfully a simple solution to help supplement more light and reduce the consequences of constant sequestration indoors. Although it can never replace natural light exposure, the supplementation of artificial light with lamps and bulbs can help reduce the stress of light deficiency. But this is also not a function of quantity but instead the composition of the light quality, and most lights like those which are fluorescent (such as CFL) are composed mostly of the blue spectrum of light, and blue light stimulates the consumption of ATP, not its synthesis, so constant exposure to fluorescent light can actually deplete you of energy rather than supplementing it. This is why eye fatigue can often occur from using devices like tablets and computer screens as the greater quantity of blue spectrum light literally stimulates cells to excessively consume their ATP content without helping to produce more ATP. If light fixtures in lamps or overhead lighting are CFL or LED they absolutely MUST have a color temperature of 3000k or less (this is the measurement of color spectrum in light, not its heat temperature), and the greater composition of red wavelength will instead help stimulate cellular ATP production which helps fuel cells to help prevent fatigue.

Workplaces often use fluorescent lights not because they are energy efficient, although they are, but because when studies showed that blue light stimulated cells the designers of workplaces thought this would help force workers to be more awake and productive in a kind of Brave New World dystopia that is already upon us. But in reality this is wrong and cooler spectrums of light only cause cells to consume ATP so workers or anyone exposed consistently to those colder spectrum of light become easily fatigued as their cells use up all their energy stores. Using a supplement light or lights in the warm spectrum (3000k or less) will oppositely help stimulate ATP production which will then prevent cells from being fatigued. Many high-profile gamers are actually inadvertently doing this because bright light is required to produce a good video and because cool lights produce a poor image and ghostly colors they are surrounded by warm spectrum lights which compliment skin tone and are not only helping them produce content but also supply ATP. You can even target your back or the back or sides of your head to prevent interference with seeing the monitor and still get the same benefits so long as the light hits exposed skin and there is sufficient light to compliment that coming from a computer screen (and many screens have settings now which can shift the monitor to a warmer tint which needn’t be extreme, just enough to switch off the cold spectrum).

ATP is mostly made from food, so eating well, especially enough carbohydrates (such as the kind of diet discussed in my book) helps supply enough ATP which cannot occur during behaviors like dieting or waiting until you’re hungry to eat, and many gamers fail to plan ahead and keep food and snacks handy and then wait until they are hungry to eat which, by that point, means you’re already deficient in ATP. Planning ahead and keeping snacks and meals handy to prevent drops in blood sugar can and does promote adequate ATP repletion in part stimulated by warm spectrum light exposure.

Because light exposure (or lack of it) also affect our levels of dopamine and other hormones which affect depression it is widespread among gamers, though depression is not only reliant on light exposure and can even involve pathogenic microbes which colonize the gut and produce harmful metabolites like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide (the odor of bad breath and malodorous gas and feces) which negatively affects health and digestion. Being well fed, contrary to belief of making us fat, provides sufficient nutrition to prevent the kinds of stress responses which set the stage for depression, especially when it is healthy food like fruits and vegetables. Adrenaline is made directly from dopamine, and since gaming itself can raise dopamine and adrenaline simply due to excitement gaming can be rewarding, but the combination of insufficient light exposure with the elevation of adrenaline from gameplay and poor diet with insufficient nutrition will always cause depression as dopamine and even adrenaline become depleted over time, which then makes gaming less fun and enjoyable and more stressful and dissatisfying and contributes to the development of excess weight, early hair loss, and even conditions such as severe acne. Making sure to eat well, including sufficient calories, and carbohydrate and preventing light deficiency and addressing pathogenic colonization as discussed in my book can prevent or reverse these problems.

Another health effect that occurs from sitting for long periods is the body loses its ability over time to resist postural, tension stress caused by chronic activation of muscles such as are required for sitting in a chair for long periods of time. Neckaches, backaches, butthurt (that one might need attitude therapy), and other aches and pains are a consequence of poor ATP production because when cells are depleted of energy they are highly prone to injury and are less able to health themselves. This also results in poor posture as muscles lose the energy required to maintain posture, and is the same problem underlying fatigue and malaise in the first place, which is a deficit of energy production. An easy solution to stiff necks and sore backs in addition to keeping a consistent diet and light exposure is to stretch! Stretching, like light exposure, actually uses free energy inherent in gravity to synthesize ATP, and studies show the elongation of cells such as occurs in stretching actually stimulates ATP production which is why stretching feels so good, which is actually the feeling of ATP being made and released into muscles and other tissues. But you cannot use stretching after injury has already occurred because injury means cells were already depleted of ATP and thus damaged. For stretching to be beneficial it is preventative and must occur in advance of sitting for long periods, especially those tissues which are prone to injury. The larger the muscle groups like glutes and deltoids produce far more ATP than smaller muscles, so stretches like toe touches or cross legged bends or stretching the arms can indirectly benefit areas like the neck, and the feeling of relaxation which results from stretching IS the ATP which energizes cells.

Similarly to light and stretching, aspirin can boost ATP production if we are well fed, but other NSAIDs like ibuprofen or acetaminophen actually inhibit mitochondrial respiration, and constant use of pain medications other than aspirin can actually promote fatigue and injury and delay healing and should be entirely avoided. If required, a little bit of aspirin can instead help promote long term healing.

Serious low back pain is nearly always caused by pathogenic proteolytic bacteria which have colonized the gut. The back pain I suffered with for more than a decade was resolved within a few days by simply using several low doses of iodine as described in my book, because iodine acts in the immune system and helps eradicate such pathogens and you can read more about back pain in my article Chronic Back Pain. My book also details other therapies and approaches to reverse the kinds of metabolic diseases which are growing in frequency among gamers, such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, weight gain, and even hair loss and erectile dysfunction. You can get a copy for yourself if you are interested in exploring solutions to those other problems.

Many gamers also use coffee and caffeine incorrectly, and while these can be great for energy, taking them on an empty stomach or low blood sugar or low protein can actually also deplete ATP and cause problems, and if you drink coffee you should read my article on coffee, and there is more information in my book on the complexities of coffee and how to use it to promote health while avoiding its problem side. Many people who play games also suffer from substance abuse problems, because drugs and alcohol are effective treatments for depression, and if you’re one of those or even if you just have mild depression you can read about the underlying causes and how to address it in my six-step guide to recovery (it’s all free) and watch my video on the underlying mechanics of depression.