Green light for migraine sufferers

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Boring pain, nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light - when you have a migraine attack, you usually have to leave everything behind. Only resting in a darkened room will help. But a certain type of light should even have a beneficial effect.

Along with tension headaches, migraines are the most common types of headache. Around eight million people in Germany suffer from regular attacks. "Almost all patients are sensitive to light during a migraine attack," says Professor Rodrigo Noseda from Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. “That's why they withdraw into the dark, isolated from work, their everyday activities and their family.” But not every light makes the pain worse, shows a new study by the US scientists.

Soft green tones soothe the pain

Noseda and his team tested how sensitive migraineurs are to 41 different wavelengths of visible light. To do this, they placed 41 test persons in front of a light machine with blue, green, yellow and red light of different intensities during a migraine attack. The participants then assessed how their symptoms had changed as a result of the different rays of light.

Around 80 percent found bright light of almost all colors uncomfortable - with one exception: green light did not increase the pain. In a gentle way, it even alleviated him by an average of 20 percent.

In addition to the pain, the scientists also measured the signal activity of the nerve cells in the patients' eyes and brains. The result: green light triggered weaker impulses compared to blue or red light.

Special sunglasses

If the results are confirmed by larger studies, the researchers want to develop green light bulbs and special sunglasses that only let green light through. It is important to the researchers that consumers can afford the aids. At the moment, these are still far too expensive, according to the experts.

If, in the future, the small aids not only make quiet and darkness the way to prevent migraine attacks, patients could participate more actively in life despite migraines. do something for their wellbeing. (vv)

Sources:

Noseda, R. et al. Migraine photophobia originating in cone-driven retinal pathways. Brain. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/brain/aww119 aww119 First published online: 17 May 2016

Press release: Harvard Medical School. Green Light for Migraine Relief. Access: May 23, 2016

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