New Research: Green Light Therapy for Migraine Relief
By Brooklyn A. Bradley, BS; Medically edited by Dr. Deena E. Kuruvilla, MD
Mainstream medical therapy and pharmacological interventions may not be efficacious for some patients (1). As a result, emerging research regarding alternative interventions for migraine patients has increased over time. While there are many new integrative therapies being researched for migraine patients, today’s post will focus on green light therapy, specifically for migraine relief.
Green light therapy is commonly used to alleviate pain in conditions such as migraine, fibromyalgia, and chronic pain of various origins. It involves exposing the patient to a narrow band of green light (2). The purpose of the green light is to reduce photophobia and headache severity. Photophobia is a common symptom of people with migraine that causes the patient to be sensitive to light. There is little known about the underlying mechanism of green light-emitting diodes (GLED) in the setting of migraine patients, thus future research should be conducted to understand green light therapy from both a biological and clinical perspective.
In a clinical trial evaluating the impact of green light exposure on headache frequency and quality of life in migraine patients, green light emitting diodes resulted in a significant decrease in headache days in episodic migraine (7.9 ± 1.6 to 2.4 ± 1.1) and chronic migraine (22.3 ± 1.2 to 9.4 ± 1.6) patients (1). Green light emitting diodes were also able to improve quality of life measures, in addition to intensity and duration of the headaches. There were no adverse events or side effects reported, suggesting that green light therapy may be a safe and effective non-pharmacological intervention for migraine patients (1). In a study investigating color-selective photophobia in migraine patients, the researchers used psychophysical assessments in episodic migraine patients (3). They reported that white, blue, amber, and red lights significantly intensified migraine headache symptoms in more patients and to a greater extent when compared to green light. The researchers also found that color preference may be unique to each person with migraine, and may originate in cone-driven retinal pathways, which are pathways involving the travel of colored light through the eye to the retina. Each patient has thalamic neurons, which are cells of the nervous system that are found in the thalamus, a brain structure responsible for relaying sensory and motor information (4). These retinal pathways may work together with the thalamic neurons to coordinate specific responses to light (3). These findings warrant future research about the experience of migraine patients with color, and how this relates to photophobia.
Green light is simple to purchase for your home, and you can even purchase green LED light strips online. However, green light therapy research is preliminary, so the dosage and timing of light exposure has not yet been determined. Thus, for patients interested in green light therapy, it is best to discuss this with your provider who may review the benefits of therapy and recommend a specific dosage or intensity.
Overall, green light therapy has been shown to decrease the number of headache days per month in people with episodic and chronic migraine1. Green light therapy is safe, affordable, and efficacious; thus, larger studies should be conducted in the future to highlight the benefits of exposure to green light in pain conditions.
References:
- Martin LF, Patwardhan AM, Jain SV, et al (2021) Evaluation of green light exposure on headache frequency and quality of life in migraine patients: A preliminary one-way cross-over clinical trial. Cephalalgia 41:135–147. https://doi.org/10.1177/0333102420956711
- Green Light for Migraine Relief. https://hms.harvard.edu/news/green-light-migraine-relief. Accessed 11 Jul 2022
- Noseda R, Bernstein CA, Nir R-R, et al (2016) Migraine photophobia originating in cone-driven retinal pathways. Brain 139:1971–1986. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/aww119
- Torrico TJ, Munakomi S (2022) Neuroanatomy, Thalamus. In: StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing, Treasure Island (FL)