Sometimes, humor may help improve our state of mind. But other times, our pain is too severe to feel anything except agony. For people who get migraine headaches, this may be especially true. The topic of today’s is the use of green lights and migraine headaches.
New Research on Green Lights and Migraine Headaches
A clinic study was performed. Although the results reported below are encouraging, only 29 patients were analyzed. More must be learned about best practices when using green light to reduce the effects of migraine headaches.
As Stacey Pigott of the University of Arizona observes for Futurity:
A migraine headache is the third most prevalent illness in the world. It affects 39 million people in the United States and 1 billion worldwide, according to the Migraine Research Foundation. “This is the first clinical study to evaluate green light exposure as a potential preventive therapy for patients with migraine,” says lead study author Mohab Ibrahim, an associate professor in the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson. “As a physician, this is really exciting. Now, I have another tool in my toolbox to treat one of the most difficult neurological conditions—migraine.”
In this study, overall, green light exposure reduced the number of headache days per month by an average of about 60%. A majority of study participants reported a more than 50% reduction in headache days. Episodic migraines occur up to 14 headache days per month. While chronic migraine means 15 or more headache days per month. “The overall average benefit was statistically significant. Most of the people were extremely happy,” Ibrahim says of the participants.
Furthermore, none of the study participants reported any side effects of green light exposure.
To read more from Pigott, click the image. To access the article describing the study, click here.
“It’s not any green light. It has to be the right intensity, the right frequency, the right exposure time, and the right exposure methods,” says Mohab Ibrahim. “Just like with medications, there is a sweet spot with light.” (Credit: Christine/Flickr)