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The Surprising Power of Green Light for Migraines

Jan 8, 2024 · 922K views · 96K likes · 2K comments · 20K shares

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AI Search Summary

This video explains research on green light exposure as a low-drug or non-drug migraine intervention. It describes an at-home LED study where participants spent one to two hours per day in green light, reports large reductions in episodic and chronic migraine frequency, and adds later updates about human trials, fibromyalgia, and a possible vLGN/glutamate pain-sensitivity mechanism.

  • Main question: Can green light therapy effectively reduce migraine frequency?
  • Short answer / core takeaway: The video says green light exposure showed promising migraine reductions in small and newer studies, but also notes that some later human evidence was less rigorous.
  • Evidence type: Migraine treatment explainer with multiple DOI-linked studies on green light, pain, fibromyalgia, and neural mechanisms.
  • Search topics: green light therapy migraine, migraine frequency, chronic migraine, episodic migraine, fibromyalgia green light, vLGN, glutamate, antinociception.

Common Search Questions

What did the green light migraine study ask participants to do?

Participants used LED light strips at home and spent a consistent one to two hours per day in a room lit only by the assigned LEDs, with no screens.

How much did migraine frequency change?

The transcript says episodic migraine participants went from roughly eight migraines per month to 2.5, and chronic migraine participants went from 22 per month to nine after the green-light period.

Is the mechanism known?

The update says later work suggests green light may reduce pain sensitivity by acting on glutamatergic neurons in the ventral lateral geniculate body, though the transcript frames the science as still developing.

Key Takeaways

  • Green light was presented as a non-drug migraine intervention.
  • The study compared 10 weeks of white LED exposure with 10 weeks of green LED exposure and a two-week washout period.
  • Green light, but not white light, was associated with large migraine-frequency reductions in the transcript.
  • The creator later updated that additional studies also reported benefits for headaches, migraines, and fibromyalgia.
  • The caption says normal online LED strips can be used if set to pure green.
  • The caption notes that a newer human trial was less rigorous but involved 698 participants and 3,232 attacks.
  • The caption’s DOI list has been moved to References.

Transcript

Green light as a migraine treatment

Do you get migraines? Researchers from the University of Arizona just discovered a really cool treatment, and it doesn’t involve any painkillers, injectables, or drugs of any sort. All they used was light, green light, to be specific. Here’s what happened.

The at-home LED protocol

They enrolled seven participants with episodic migraines and 22 with chronic migraines. They were each given LED light strips to take home and instructed to set aside a consistent one to two hours per day where they were in a room lit only by those LEDs. They could read, listen to music, exercise, but no screens. Tough, I know. But to make sure that it was the color that mattered and not just the time off, they all spent 10 weeks using white LEDs and 10 weeks using green LEDs with a two-week washout in the middle.

Reported migraine reductions

The results were amazing. By the end of the 10-week green light period, the episodic migraine sufferers went from suffering roughly eight per month to 2.5. And the chronic migraine sufferers? They went from 22 down to nine. That’s a similar effect size to the best drugs on the market. But the white light had almost no effect. And what’s crazy is that we have almost no clue why this works. The human body is amazing. But so is science.

Update on later studies

Quick update: I first posted this video over a year ago, at which point we really didn’t know how the green light might help with migraines. Since that point, there have been several more studies released, first showing that, yeah, in humans, green light still does help with migraines and headaches, and also helps with fibromyalgia patients.

Possible vLGN and glutamate mechanism

But there was another study that showed that the mechanism by which it does it, or at least one of them, is by acting on neurons in the brain that produce an excitatory neurotransmitter called glutamate, which is involved in a whole bunch of stuff. Basically, the light acts on these neurons in a way that helps to mitigate pain sensitivity, which is super cool. And actually the opposite of how red light works on the brain, or at least pretty differently, which we’re going to be getting into more in the upcoming series on red light. So stay tuned.

Additional Notes

The caption says green light produces antinociception by activating glutamatergic neurons in the ventral lateral geniculate body, or vLGN, while red light promotes nociception by activating GABAergic neurons in the vLGN. It also says this can work with normal LED strips available online if set to pure green. The caption notes that a newer human trial was less rigorous, but involved 698 participants classified as responders or non-responders. Headache improved in 55% of all 3,232 attacks, in 82% of the 1,803 attacks treated by responders, and in 21% of the 1,429 attacks treated by non-responders. Hashtags: #science #headaches #migraines

References