Green light headache research moves out of the lab
Summary
At-home, non-pharmaceutical treatments for migraine are desperately needed, given the dangers, side effects, and unreliability of drugs.
In the lab, green light phototherapy relieves migraine pain.
When the lab protocols were modified for home treatment, study participants at University of Arizona reported a reduction in both the severity and frequency of migraines, even though the modified protocols still presented barriers to treatment.
Now, MyGreen overcomes those obstacles by providing the most advanced green light phototherapy technology to date. In addition to being portable and useful in any room, the MyGreen Lantern offers multiple wavelengths & variable intensity controls so sufferers can discover individually optimal settings.
MyGreen Lantern is the first green phototherapy light in the world powerful enough to accommodate the photophobia typical of migraine and act through closed eyes.
Green light migraine therapy breakthrough
When researchers at Harvard University identified narrowband, low-intensity LED green light as effective for reducing the pain and acute photosensitivity of migraine headaches, they could only treat migraine pain in a research laboratory setting (Noseda et al. 2016). Although the potential implications of this discovery were enormous, their findings have been slow to translate into practice. Consequently, migraineurs remain impatient for non-pharmacological relief.
Migraine affects more than 14% of the global population. It is one of the few disabling afflictions that is more prevalent among young adults than old. For example, in a 2018 US Health Interview survey (CDC MMWR QuickStats 2020), more than 25% of 18 to 44-year-olds reported experiencing migraine or severe headache during the previous three months – about three times the rate reported by those older than 75. Young women are particularly affected, reporting twice the frequency of migraines as young men.
Migraineurs endure:
An array of disabling symptoms, including intense pain, vision loss & distortion, and nausea & vomiting,
decreased quality of life,
impaired productivity,
work & school absences,
increased incidence of both over-the-counter & prescription medication overuse, and
increased likelihood of emergency medical treatment.
Limited Treatment Options for Migraine Pain
The most frequently prescribed pharmaceutical treatments for migraines include powerful triptans and ergot alkaloids. Both work by causing the blood vessels to constrict and result in their own disconcerting neurological side effects (Dodick, 2004). The chest pain, dizziness, drowsiness, muscle aches, numbness, sweating, and nausea common to these drugs often result in patients having to trade one set of uncomfortable symptoms for another, all with no guarantee of relief. For that reason, when they do turn to medication to treat their symptoms, many migraineurs gravitate toward comparatively mild over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like Excedrin (Befus 2019).
Still, migraineurs prefer to eschew pharmaceuticals altogether – and it’s no wonder. Over-the-counter NSAIDs do not cure the underlying conditions and instead carry their own perhaps less acutely uncomfortable and ultimately serious side effects, including stomach pain and distress, gastrointestinal ulcers, and, in extreme cases, internal bleeding requiring hospitalization and additional treatments (Davis 2016).
The extent of the suffering and the shortcomings of available treatment options are what make the Harvard breakthrough so important. Still, bringing practical treatment options to patients remains a challenge. For example, Harvard study subjects were instructed to stare directly at the experimental green light – a direction that goes against the instinct of photophobic migraineurs who seek to limit painful sensory input by closing their eyes.
Moving from the lab into the home
A more recent study at the University of Arizona addressed key drawbacks with lab-based green light treatment protocol that allowed patients to self-administer the treatment at home (Martin 2021). Without having study participants modify any pre-existing medications, the Arizona scientists equipped 29 migraine patients with a customized green LED party light strip to use at home. They asked the participants to sit in an otherwise completely dark room for 1-2 hours, illuminated only by the green LED strip. The participants were free to occupy themselves by listening to music or reading a book (hardcopy – not on a screen) while undergoing the green light migraine therapy, although they were not permitted any other light sources and were not to stare directly at the green light.
They achieved remarkable results.
Participants reported a 60% reduction in the frequency of headaches during the study period, dropping from more than 22 headache days per month to fewer than 10 among chronic suffers, and from eight headache days per month to less than three among episodic suffers. More importantly, patients reported significant improvements in quality of life and reductions in pain without adverse side effects.
At-home green light therapy achieved significant reductions in the frequency and severity of migraine headaches.
At the conclusion of the study, all but one of the study participants asked the research team if they could keep the green light device so that they could continue self-administering the migraine therapy at home. It’s hard to imagine a more compelling endorsement for green light headache therapy.
MyGreen Lamp: Next-stage at-home green light technology
The Arizona study proves that migraine patients are able to self-administer the safe, remarkably effective, non-pharmacological green light therapy treatment at home. It worked even though the device tested by the research team was a low-tech, simple, green light strip purchased from an online retailer and modified by blacking out two out of three LEDs with electrical tape to achieve the designed low light intensity.
Migraine sufferers eager to adopt a home-based practice could potentially order similar lights and experiment to see what works best for them. However, the wavelength and intensity of such devices are simply not calibrated for this kind of use and could require extensive (and expensive) trial-and-error of multiple products to find something that does provide relief. In addition, the Arizona protocol still has significant barriers. For example:
The dark room, 1-2 hours/day requirement is a significant investment of time that will necessarily interfere with other important life experiences, including employment, family activities, household chores, and travel – the same kind of interference migraine sufferers are seeking to avoid.
The commitment also could interfere with the regularity of use practiced in the trial, which resulted in reduced frequency of attacks,
The fixed wavelengths and intensity of the lamps tested to date leave unanswered questions about which wavelengths within the green spectrum are most effective, under what conditions, for which headaches, and at what intensities.
To overcome these barriers, MyGreen Lamp has designed the most advanced green therapy lights in the world. The MyGreen Lantern is the first green therapy device to offer two wavelengths (530nm & 550nm). Moreover, users can vary the intensity of the wavelengths individually to achieve optimal comfort.
The MyGreen Lantern can be used in two different ways. The first use case is as an indirect light source (stand provided) that provides soothing, ambient, green lighting in bedrooms, offices, or other areas of the home that are typically darkened during a migraine episode. This allows some light by which a migraineur can perform chores or other tasks that would otherwise be impossible due to the photophobia typical of migraines.
The second use case – the one that has proven to be incredibly effective in our own research – is holding the MyGreen Lantern close to the face and allowing the light to act through closed eyelids. Migraineurs engaged directly in the testing and development of the device report immediate and lasting relief from headache pain as a result of this approach. The principal advantage of the eyes-closed option is that it no longer requires darkening a room of all other light because all other wavelengths will be blocked by the eyelids. In addition, the closed-eyes approach works with the natural impulse of migraine sufferers to shut their eyes in response to the pain of visual stimuli. The eyes-closed use case also allows the migraineur to use the lantern in practically any indoor room, and in the company of others, with maximum comfort.
Our testing so far indicates that the use of the lamp is convenient, promotes easy and frequent use, and the action of the lamp is immediate and lasting. Test subjects typically report rapid improvement in headache scores after just a few minutes of MyGreen Lamp exposure.
About the Author
Thomas P Seager, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University. He is the founder of MyGreen Lamp and principal inventor of MyGreen products. He previously co-founded the Morozko Forge ice bath company.
References
Befus DR, Hull S, Strand de Oliveira J, Schmidler GS, Weinberger M, Coeytaux RR. Nonpharmacological self-management of migraine across social locations: an equity-oriented, qualitative analysis. Global Advances in Health and Medicine. 2019 Jun;8:2164956119858034.
Davis A, Robson J. The dangers of NSAIDs: look both ways. British Journal of General Practice. 2016 Apr 1;66(645):172-3.
Dodick DW, Martin V. Triptans and CNS side-effects: pharmacokinetic and metabolic mechanisms. Cephalalgia. 2004 Jun;24(6):417-24.
Martin LF, Patwardhan AM, Jain SV, Salloum MM, Freeman J, Khanna R, Gannala P, Goel V, Jones-MacFarland FN, Killgore WD, Porreca F, Ibrahim MM. Evaluation of green light exposure on headache frequency and quality of life in migraine patients: A preliminary one-way cross-over clinical trial. Cephalalgia. 2021 Feb;41(2):135-147.
Noseda R, Bernstein CA, Nir RR, Lee AJ, Fulton AB, Bertisch SM, Hovaguimian A, Cestari DM, Saavedra-Walker R, Borsook D, Doran BL, Buettner C, Burstein R. Migraine photophobia originating in cone-driven retinal pathways. Brain. 2016 Jul;139(Pt 7):1971-86.
QuickStats: Percentage of Adults Who Had a Severe Headache or Migraine in the Past 3 Months, by Sex and Age Group — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2018. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:359.
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