People who suffer from migraines may be helped by a new treatment proposed by a team of American scientists. Clinical trials conducted at the University of Arizona Medical School have shown that regular exposure to green light can reduce the frequency and intensity of chronic headaches in patients.
The results of the experiment were published in the journal Cephalalgia, which is published by the International Headache Society – a nonprofit organization based in London that brings together several thousand scientists from thirty countries, including Russia.
In just two and a half months of such therapy (2 hours of radiation daily), the frequency of headaches was reduced by at least half in the majority of subjects. According to the study’s lead author, Professor of Neurosurgery at Mohab Ibrahim Medical College, this is the first time in history that phototherapy (i.e., light treatment) has been evaluated in clinical trials as a means of combating chronic headaches. And the results of the trial exceeded his expectations.
“As a practicing clinical physician, these results are very encouraging to me,” he said. “In fact, I have now discovered another way to treat migraine – one of the most complex neurological disorders.”
According to the WHO, migraine is a “painful and disabling condition” and is one of the most common disorders of the nervous system, affecting up to 1 billion people worldwide. Approximately 1.7-4% of the world’s adult population experiences headaches at least 15 days per month. According to existing research in Russia, chronic headaches affect about one in five adults.
Migraine does not always respond to medication, and strong painkillers cause serious side effects in many patients. Therefore, medical hypnosis techniques, cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, Botox injections, and other methods are used to treat chronic headaches.
Phototherapy has not been used for migraine, although the therapeutic properties of light have long been known in medicine. In particular, a number of clinical studies have shown that targeted light radiation of a certain wavelength can accelerate wound healing, reduce pain in facial joint disorders, and so on.
After conducting preliminary tests on rats, scientists at the University of Arizona confirmed that blue and green light had an analgesic effect on the test animals, relieving chronic pain caused by various disorders of the nervous system. Since this therapeutic effect completely disappeared when the rats’ eyes were covered, the scientists were forced to conclude that the healing properties of light are specifically due to its visual perception.
After selecting 60 volunteers, the researchers randomly divided them into two equal groups and assigned one LED strip to each group. Volunteers in the experimental group received green emitters, while the other participants in the control group received regular emitters that provided familiar daytime light. All participants were instructed to spend two hours a day for 10 weeks in a room lit only by the device they were given. After this period, the results of the two groups were compared.
The WHO estimates that about one billion people suffer from migraine. The difference was impressive. Daily exposure to green light reduced both the frequency (by 60%) and intensity (from 8 to 3.2 on a ten-point scale) of headaches. In addition, the vast majority of participants saw their migraine symptoms reduced by at least half. The subjects who received the green LED lights felt so much better that almost all of them (except one volunteer) happily agreed to use the healing light bulbs.
It was then decided to test the therapeutic effect on volunteers from the control group. They were given a few weeks’ rest from the daylight lamps and then asked to repeat the experiment – for the same 10 weeks, but now with green light. The result was the same.
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“The use of non-drug therapies such as green light irradiation can be of significant help to many patients who either do not want to take or do not respond to drugs,” writes another developer of the experiment, Professor Amol Patwardhan of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pharmacology at the Medical College. “An additional advantage of our approach is the complete absence of side effects. Moreover, this therapy even seems to improve sleep and other indicators of quality of life. According to the University of Arizona’s website, doctors from Europe, Asia and Africa have already contacted Professor Ibrahim asking for the exact parameters of the lighting used in the experiment.
“Everyone knows that LEDs are very affordable, so this treatment option is definitely worth trying,” the professor asserts. “Especially for those who live in places where resources are limited and people have to think twice before spending money on medication.”