{"id":544,"date":"2023-12-08T03:08:04","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T03:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/annualreports.healthsciences.arizona.edu\/?post_type=story&p=544"},"modified":"2023-12-15T01:09:36","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T01:09:36","slug":"cpac-green-light-therapy","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/annualreports.healthsciences.arizona.edu\/2023\/story\/cpac-green-light-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Shining a green light on pain relief"},"content":{"rendered":"

Migraine can also be difficult for physicians to treat. Traditional therapies range from oral medications, which may have side effects, to Botox injections, nerve blocks or implantable nerve stimulators \u2013 each with varying degrees of success. But a new potential treatment that uses green light exposure is offering people who suffer from migraine new hope thanks to researchers at the University of Arizona Health Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Real migraine headaches, real data<\/h3>\n

Mohab Ibrahim, MD, PhD<\/strong>, medical director at the Comprehensive Center for Pain and Addiction<\/a>, a strategic initiative of UArizona Health Sciences, has been studying the effects of green light exposure in rodents for several years. He led a research team that completed the first clinical study to evaluate green light exposure as a potential preventive therapy for patients with migraine.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Mohab Ibrahim, MD, PhD, is medical director of the UArizona Health Sciences Comprehensive Center for Pain and Addiction.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMigraine is one of the most common neurological conditions in the world, and it’s debilitating,\u201d said Ibrahim, lead author of the study, professor in the UArizona College of Medicine \u2013 Tucson<\/a>\u2019s Department of Anesthesiology<\/a> and director of the Chronic Pain Management Clinic.<\/p>\n

Twenty-nine participants, all of whom had failed multiple traditional therapies for migraine, were prescribed green light exposure as part of the study.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this trial, we treated green light as a drug,\u201d Ibrahim said. \u201cIt’s not any green light; it has to be the right intensity, the right frequency, the right exposure time and the right exposure methods. Just like with medications, there is a sweet spot with light.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, green light exposure reduced the number of headache days per month by an average of about 60%. A majority of participants in the study reported a more than 50% reduction in headache days per month.<\/p>\n

Using a numeric pain scale of 0 to 10, participants noted that green light exposure resulted in a 60% reduction in pain, from 8 to 3.2. Green light therapy also shortened the duration of headaches, and improved participants\u2019 ability to fall and stay asleep, perform chores, exercise, and work.<\/p>\n

None of the study participants reported any side effects of green light exposure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overall average benefit was statistically significant. Most of the people were extremely happy,\u201d Ibrahim said of the participants, who were given light strips and instructions to follow while completing the study at home. \u201cOne of the ways we measured participant satisfaction was, when we enrolled people, we told them they would have to return the light at the end of the study. But when it came to the end of the study, we offered them the option to keep the light, and 28 out of the 29 decided to keep the light.\u201d<\/p>\n

The noninvasive nature of green light exposure makes it an ideal therapeutic candidate for other neurological conditions, such as fibromyalgia or HIV-related pain.<\/p>\n

Searching for the how<\/h3>\n

Chronic widespread body pain. Moderate to extreme fatigue. Sleep disturbances. In the late 1800s, patients with those symptoms were diagnosed with muscular rheumatitis or neurasthenia, conditions physicians struggled to treat. Today, those same symptoms \u2013 plus cognitive difficulties, or \u201cbrain fog,\u201d and sensitivity to touch, light, and sound \u2013 may result in a diagnosis of fibromyalgia, the treatment of which still challenges doctors today.<\/p>\n

Fibromyalgia is one of several invisible diseases \u2013 chronic conditions with debilitating pain and fatigue symptoms that can\u2019t be easily recognized just by looking at someone. It affects an estimated 10 million people in the U.S., according to the National Fibromyalgia Association, the majority of which are women.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really do not understand the pathophysiology of fibromyalgia,\u201d Ibrahim said. \u201cThere are some theories and hypotheses, and we are getting closer, but we are not there yet. So, because we don\u2019t really understand why some people develop fibromyalgia and why others don\u2019t, we try to manage the symptoms associated with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Laurent Martin, PhD, and Mohab Ibrahim, MD, PhD, study the effects of green light therapy on chronic and acute pain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From 2016 to 2019, 21 people with fibromyalgia who were out of traditional treatment options completed a pilot clinical study to test the effectiveness of green light therapy. Each study participant was given two LED light strips \u2013 one white, one green \u2013 and instructed how to use the lights: white for 10 weeks, followed by green for 10 weeks.<\/p>\n

Participants were asked to use the lights in a dark room with no other light source for a minimum of one hour every day, with the option to increase to two hours daily. They were encouraged to stay awake \u2013 no sleeping! \u2013 and engage in activities such as writing, reading or listening to music, that did not require an additional light source. Activities that introduced other light sources, such as watching television or using a smartphone, were discouraged.<\/p>\n

Each participant filled out surveys throughout the study to document how they were feeling. The results were astounding.
\n\u201cTheir pain improved; their quality of life improved,\u201d said Ibrahim, who was assisted in the research by Laurent Martin, PhD<\/strong>, who started in Ibrahim\u2019s laboratory as a postdoctoral researcher and is now an assistant professor of anesthesiology in the College of Medicine \u2013 Tucson.<\/p>\n

Specifically, participants reported an average reduction in average pain intensity from 8.4 to 4.9 on the 10-point numeric pain scale when using green light compared with white light. Participants also reported improvements in pain frequency, duration of pain episodes; ability to fall asleep and stay asleep, ability to work, exercise, and do household chores; and overall quality of life.<\/p>\n

Ibrahim also is using a $1.78 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for a preclinical study on the effects of green light exposure on HIV-related neuropathy and the hypersensitivity associated with antiretroviral therapy.
\nBeyond that, Ibrahim wants to figure out how green light therapy works to reduce migraine headaches and pain intensity.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we know, based on this preliminary study, that green light therapy is good. This is a great finding, but this is where the story begins,\u201d Ibrahim said. \u201cAs a scientist, I am really interested in how this works because if I understand the mechanism, then I can utilize it for other conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, he works with other physicians to treat patients with green light therapy when appropriate. He has received requests for green light therapy consultations from doctors as far away as Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as at home in Tucson, where he is delighted to have an economical, safe and potentially beneficial option to offer his own patients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":553,"parent":0,"template":"","college":[],"uahs_theme":[13],"class_list":["post-544","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","uahs_theme-precision-health-care-for-all"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nShining a green light on pain relief - University of Arizona Health Sciences Annual Impact Report 2024<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/annualreports.healthsciences.arizona.edu\/2023\/story\/cpac-green-light-therapy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shining a green light on pain relief - University of Arizona Health Sciences Annual Impact Report 2024\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Migraine can also be difficult for physicians to treat. 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