For episodic migraine patients, the use of green light therapy may substantially alleviate symptoms, a recent study by the University of Arizona determined.
Released in the journal Cephalalgia, the clinical study is the first of its kind examining the potential effects of green light exposure with patients suffering from episodic migraine, with up to 14 headaches occurring per month.
According to the Arizona-based team, the study involved 29 participants with a history of episodic migraine who had no luck with prior treatment.
At the beginning of the study, the participants were exposed to white light for one to two hours, over a span of 10 weeks. Following a two-week hiatus, green light exposure was administered for 10 weeks using a similar duration.
Questionnaires were given to the participants to assess the number of headaches experienced and also the severity of them. The headaches were assessed based on a numeric pain scale ranging from 0 to 10.
All in all, green light exposure was more effective at reducing the number of headaches per month in comparison to white light. The findings showed that 86 percent of episodic migraine patients and 63 percent of the patients with chronic migraines, stated they experienced a 50 percent reduction of headache days per month.
“This is the first clinical study to evaluate green light exposure as a potential preventive therapy for patients with migraine,” said Mohab Ibrahim, the study’s lead author, in a news release.
“Despite recent advances, the treatment of migraine headaches is still a challenge,” co-author Amol Patwardhan added in the news release.
“The use of a nonpharmacological therapy such as green light can be of tremendous help to a variety of patients that either do not want to be on medications or do not respond to them. The beauty of this approach is the lack of associated side effects. If at all, it appears to improve sleep and other quality of life measures.”
