Transcript
How did scientists even think to study green light for treating migraines? Seems pretty random, but it's a great story. And it's a great question for a good science distiller to ask, because so many hoaxes can be uncovered just by asking, how did you even think to test that weird pattern or frequency in the first place? Welcome back to what the science. Colors of pain. If you suffer from migraines, then you know that light can be your worst enemy. And for years, scientists thought that they had the the main culprit figured out. Blue light. It made sense. Our eyes have these special internal sensors called IPRGCs that run our internal clocks, and they're super sensitive to blue. This 2010 study found that even blind people without any rods or cones could still get worse headaches from light. That's rough. But science is all about trying to poke holes in what you think you know. So a team of Harvard researchers asked the question, if blue light is actually the culprit, we took a bunch of people in the middle of suffering a migraine and exposed them to different colors of light at different intensities. For science. Yes, science! The results shocked them. White, blue, amber, red, all made the headaches worse, more so with brighter light. But green light made the headaches worse for far fewer people. And for about 20% of them, it actually reduced their pain, especially when very dim. to measure their brain activity under the different lights. And they found that green light produced the smallest brain electrical spikes of a certain type, which could be why it's less bad for an oversensitized migraine brain. And that's how a questioning attitude changed the paradigm from which light is least bad to how can we use light to heal, which I'll cover in more detail soon.
Additional notes
Replying to @misfit0118 Do you get migraines? Have you ever tried green light for treating them? Would you? I want to hear your experiences! I'm in the middle of testing large numbers of RGB LEDs, lamps, and dedicated green light devices for migraines. And I'll be adding the ranking to my Buying Guide soon (it'll go out in an email this week-sign up on my website!) DOI: 10.1093/brain/aww119 #science #headaches #migraines #greenlight #greenlighttherapy
References
- Study title not listed in workbook. DOI: 10.1093/brain/aww119. Source: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/aww119