Green light therapy seems very “woo-woo” but there are biological reasons it might be helpful in diseases like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) (Image from Amazon).
Green light therapy. How much more “woo-woo” could you get? At first glance ( 🙂 ) it seems utterly implausible that being in the presence of green light could affect pain, but the few studies that have been done suggest it might help – and there are reasons, biologically, to think it could. With the generally poor performance of many pain drugs and the side effects they can cause, it’s easy to see why many people are giving such an easy and apparently side-effect therapy a try.
With a new green-light fibromyalgia trial, “Green Light-Based Analgesia – Novel Nonpharmacological Approach to Fibromyalgia Pain: A Pilot Study“, popping up, it was time to take a look at what green-light therapy is all about.
Why Green Light Therapy Might Help
Why might green light therapy help? For one, it may be able to increase energy and alertness by resetting one’s circadian rhythm (healthier bed and waking times), reduce pain, and enable better sleep by promoting melatonin production. Studies have shown that melatonin supplementation can be helpful in FM.
Green light therapy also appears to activate melanopsin, a light-sensitive neurotransmitter in the eye that interacts with a part of the brainstem that plays a role in processing pain. Perhaps most significantly, it stimulates the endogenous opioid system, causing an increase in both beta-endorphins and enkephalins – both of which appear to be reduced in FM.
Beta-endorphins are very effective at reducing pain; in fact, they’re 18 to 33 times better at that than morphine. They also play a major role in stimulating the descending pain inhibition pathways which appear to be broken in FM.
Since the endorphins kick in during exercise and may even be responsible for the “runner’s high”, it’s no surprise that an exercise study found them depleted in FM both before and after exercise. Plus, a small study found them reduced in both FM and chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and another study found them reduced in ME/CFS. (They were not reduced in depression.) (Several early studies, however, did not find reduced cerebral spinal fluid or serum b-endorphin levels in FM).
Green light therapy may also be regulating serotonin – another feel-good chemical – via the serotonin-estrogen pathway that some believe plays a role in many pain disorders.
Study Evidence
Not many studies have been done, but the results thus far are good.
A neuropathic pain animal model study found that green light therapy was able to turn down pain hypersensitivity. Digging deeper, a 2023 rodent study found that green light therapy increased endogenous opioid levels and reduced neuroinflammation. The authors recommended that “given the noninvasive nature of green light, this innovative therapy would be readily implementable in hospitals“.
A migraine study exposed patients who had not responded to migraine treatments to 1-2 hours daily of white light-emitting diodes for 10 weeks, followed by a 2-week washout period, followed by exposure for 1-2 hours daily to green light-emitting diodes for 10 weeks. It produced a dramatic reduction in episodic migraine days (7.9 to 2.4) and chronic migraine days (22.3 to 9.4). Plus, there are some indications that green light therapy may ease the sensitivity to light in migraine.
Psychotherapy conducted under green light also proved to be considerably more effective than that done under white light in a small study.
The Green-Light Fibromyalgia Studies
The green-light strip used in the study. Two of every three bulbs were covered.
Martin and Ibraham’s 2021 one-way crossover FM trial had the 21 patients use a 2-meter-long green LED light strip in a dark room for a minimum of 1 hour every day, with the option to increase the exposure time to 2 hours daily for 10 weeks. Several pain questionnaires (EQ-5D-5L survey, Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire, and Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire) were used.
Significant reductions in overall average pain intensity, frequency, and duration were found. The ability to fall asleep, remain asleep, and perform chores also improved.
The Gular Study
The 2023 fibromyalgia green light study, “Green Light-Based Analgesia – Novel Nonpharmacological Approach to Fibromyalgia Pain: A Pilot Study“, gave 45 FM patients three different colored eyeglasses (clear, green or blue; 15 patients each) to be worn at least 4 hours per day for 2 weeks. It did not specify which glasses were used and in fact, they used a variety of different green colored eyeglasses. The study asked whether using the eyeglasses reduced opioid medication use by greater than 10% and used various questionnaires to assess pain.
With 33%, 11%, and 8% of the green, blue, and clear eyeglass groups, respectively, reducing their opioid medication use by more than 10%, the green eyeglasses were the clear winner. While the decline in pain score was greater from the green eyeglass group, the difference was not statistically significant (67%, 50%, and 45% for the green, blue, and clear eyeglasses groups). The authors proposed that while the pain levels may have been similar, the green glass group may have been less bothered by pain.
That explanation may make sense given the last finding. The green eyeglasses group was the only group, however, where a majority of patients had a decline in anxiety scores. The affective or most emotionally unsettling aspect of pain can drive pain scores way up.
When a spectrometer analyzed the wavelengths the glasses allowed, they found that some people responded to much lower wavelengths, between the 490s to 510s, while others responded to the higher wavelengths (up to 570). In her YouTube video below, the leader of the study Dr. Padma Gulur, said they hope to find the best wavelengths and be able to produce the glasses “soon”.
In “Pain Management Gets the Green Light“, Dr. Gulur, who is vice chair of the anesthesiology department and the director of Pain Management and Opioid Surveillance for Duke University, said that after treating pain for decades, she was looking for a non-invasive and safe option. She was encouraged by the fact that the participants in the study didn’t want to return the glasses. The response to her preliminary findings has been huge.
“It’s been overwhelming, quite honestly. There’s been an outpouring internationally of those asking for more information. Obviously, there is a huge patient population that is very excited at the opportunity to have something they can do for themselves to help with their pain, that is not invasive and will not leave them with a lot of side effects.”
THE GIST
- Green light therapy – which involves exposing the eyes to wavelengths of green light – seems like the ultimate in “woo-woo”, but there are biological reasons it might help in FM or ME/CFS.
- It appears to stimulate the production of melatonin, the feel-good chemical serotonin, and melanopsin, a light-sensitive neurotransmitter that interacts with a part of the brainstem that plays a role in processing pain.
- Perhaps most significantly, though, it stimulates the endogenous opioid system, causing an increase in both beta-endorphins and enkephalins – both of which appear to be reduced in FM.
- Beta-endorphins are very effective at reducing pain; in fact, they’re 18 to 33 times better at that than morphine. They also play a major role in stimulating the descending pain inhibition pathways, which appear to be broken in FM, and beta-endorphins appear to be reduced in both FM and ME/CFS.
- Thus far, the study evidence is pretty sparse, but a migraine study found a dramatic reduction in migraines and suggested that green light therapy could even ease the sensitivity to light in migraine (which, of course, is also found in ME/CFS and FM at times).
- Two small fibromyalgia trials have been done. One – which used a light strip (see blog for details) – found significant reductions in overall average pain intensity, frequency, and duration, plus the ability to fall asleep, remain asleep, and perform chores also improved.
- The other found a reduction in medications used and a reduction in anxiety levels (green light therapy is being tested in anxiety).
- One used a light strip and the other used green light glasses like those available on Amazon. It’s not clear which works best.
- Dr. Gulur, who is the director of Pain Management and Opioid Surveillance for Duke Health, said that after treating pain for decades, she was looking for a non-invasive and safe option. She was encouraged by the fact that the participants in the study didn’t want to return the glasses.
- She said the response to her preliminary findings has “been overwhelming, quite honestly. There’s been an outpouring internationally of those asking for more information. Obviously, there is a huge patient population that is very excited at the opportunity to have something they can do for themselves to help with their pain, that is not invasive and will not leave them with a lot of side effects.”
- Next up for Dr. Gulur are larger studies that assess green light exposure on different chronic pain conditions, which determine the most effective wavelengths to use, and functional MRI (fMRI) studies to understand what’s happening in the brain.
- Gulur doesn’t think green light therapy will ever be the be-all and end-all for chronic pain – no one thing will probably ever do that but, “Even as an adjunct” ,she said, “this could be huge.”
- It’s not clear which products work best, but mostly inexpensive green light glasses, lamps, and light strips can all be found at Amazon. See the blog for the details of the studies, but in general, the participants used the light strips or the glasses for 1-2 hours a day.
- The study evidence thus far is sparse and we don’t know which wavelengths – which can differ between glasses – work best, what is the best duration, setting, etc. With several studies underway, we will hopefully learn more soon. In the meantime, green light therapy seems like a safe and mostly inexpensive therapy to try.
Gulur doesn’t think green light therapy will ever be the be-all and end-all for chronic pain – no one thing will probably ever do that, but “Even as an adjunct”, she said, “this could be huge.”
Different Approaches
Radically different approaches (commercially available light strips vs glasses) are being used in different studies.
The 2021 fibromyalgia and migraine studies used green LED strips from ledsupply.com (VT, USA) (#LS-AC60-6-GR, 525 nanometer wavelength (i.e., green), 8 watts, 120 Volts, 120-degree beam angle). A luxmeter (Tondaj LX1010B, Amazon.com) was used to determine the illuminance of the LED strips.
Two of every three light bulbs were covered to achieve a light intensity of between 4 and 100 lux, measured at approximately 2 and 1 meters from a lux meter, respectively.
They took the LED strip home and placed it between 1 and 2 meters from their eyes in a dark room for a minimum of 1 hour/day, with the option to increase the exposure time to 2 hours/day for 10 weeks. They were to keep the LED strips in their fields of vision, not fall asleep during that time, and asked to do things like reading and listening to music. They were also asked not to stare at the diodes.
The other fibromyalgia study used green glasses but did not specify which type of glasses.
Green Lighting Green-Light Therapy?
The scientific study of green light’s effectiveness in reducing pain and anxiety is promising but still in its very early stages. With a few small studies done, we are still a long way from saying the green light therapy is definitively helpful for FM. How effective and safe it is, which bands of green light work best, which methods do, and the optimal time exposures to green light all wait to be determined.
That said, green light therapy appears to be safe and is relatively inexpensive, and may be able to relieve pain and anxiety and perhaps even the light hypersensitivity that some suffer from.
Right now, you can find green light lamps for migraines (@$70-90), green light bulbs (in the teens), green light glasses on Amazon (from $12 to $189), and many green light strips ($7 to $20). (I could not find the green light strips used in the FM and migraine studies on the LED site. Maybe someone else can.)
While it’s not clear what works best, these do not appear to be specialized items – at least not yet. It appears that if it glows green or adds green wavelengths, it might work. Gular’s study used a variety of glasses to produce pretty good results. With around ten green-light clinical trials underway, or about to get underway, in everything from fibromyalgia to hypermobility to arthritis, It may not take too long before we get more specific data.
In the meantime, green light therapy seems like a safe and mostly inexpensive therapy to try.
Wow! No wonder I’m a plantaholic and passionate gardener, it makes perfect sense. I can’t wait to add green-light-therapy to my personal health arsenal! I already do far- and near-infrared light therapy, and wear blue light blocking clip-ons which make a HUGE difference in my pain level, circadian rhythm and sleep quality. Will check Amazon as I’m willing to experiment with whatever’s currently available.
Would love to hear feedback if you purchase something and either DON’T like it, or have found the product helpful.
Very interesting. How about just sitting out in green nature an hour a day? Then you get both the green to the eyes plus the infrared which are also promising.
While I imagine that would be a good idea the object of the therapy is to have a more concentrated green light experience. The green light glasses, for instance, filter out other wavelengths and the green light strip has someone sit in the dark seeing only green light waves.
This sounds almost too good to be true. Here’s hoping!
Makes sense. They already use blue light for premium babies to stimulate growth in underdeveloped lungs etc. Been doing it for years
Why not? Woo-Woo works sometimes. We’ve tried everything else.
Ironic really but I love my green indoor plants since I’m too weak to
go outside. They are my friends since I can’t socialize and remember
they are alive too. I’ve had ME/CFS/FM for 36 years and am now 87yrs.
Love you all, and thanks Cort for never giving up hope.
I carefully replicated the rodent (very impressive study) then human study with the exact led lights, fluxmeter , etc. and was so crushed to find no effect that I replicated it again a year later. Still zero effect for me. I also purchased an LED color wheel, migraine light marketed by a university researcher, and other reputedly green therapy items. Alas, like a recent IV Ozone therapy trial and IV ketamine trial (horrific bad trip), they have had no therapeutic effect. The led light strip is cheap and others might also try them; the success rates reported were impressive.
Nothing has worked for me since 1990 when I was diagnosed with fibro. I’m currently trying neurofeedback, not cheap, and a variation of Howard Schubiner’s work from his book Unlearn Your Pain, tough work. I think you should interview Schubiner, Cort, he has a great success record.
The only approach left for me is hyperbaric but I’m hopeful that one of these approaches, with opposing theoretical views about fibro causality, will work.
Good luck for you, I hope something will help soon. Please also make sure you have all the works done on you, a friend with fibro also walked around with 3 major disc prolapses for years which got overlooked for years because of the fibro.
Did you try the Guaifenesin Protocol? It worked for me and several other people I know with Fibromyalgia.
Yes, long time ago. Guifenesinis is tough for guys with prostate problems and old folks in general, highly anti cholinergic, bad for brain but if it worked for me I’d use it anyway. Later this week I’m flying down to my son’s and trying a few days of hyperbaric oxygen, very powerful positive studies in Israel, no where close to try.
33% of people reduced their opioid medication by more than 10%. So for 67% of people it didn’t help. Let’s not get carried away.
Interesting studies, cort. What i do not really geen is the study with the green eye glasses being most effective. We namely see these glasses bring green, because the green light is reflected by the glass, meaning the green light does not reach the retina of the eye. Nevertheless, it were the most effective eye glasses. How does this fit in the thought that green light helps?
I don’t think you’re right about this, but I’m not a physicist (if there’s a physicist out there, please enlighten us! 🙂 ). My understanding is that green glasses (as opposed to a non-transparent green object) filter out the other colours, and just let the green rays pass through. The effect you are talking about would occur if you were to paint your eyes green (if that were possible), and then the green wavelengths would bounce off your eyes and only other wavelengths would go through. But anyway if anyone out there is more knowledgeable please correct us!
As in general with all acquired diseases, getting back to nature, in which we evolved to what we are, leads to a halt in the disease progress and in several cases even reversal (e.g. keto lifestyle with diabetes, migraine, RA, ibd). In the ‘old days’, we lived in and with nature, meaning huge amounts of green.
Being that it affects circadian rhythm and melatonin, I wonder if time of day matters? Maybe that has some bearing on the varied effects. If it’s increasing melatonin, my guess would be green exposure later in the day..but thats just a wild guess.
It is known that blue light from your computer screen can have an inhibitory effect on melatonin, which means that you can fall asleep less well. That’s why I always put my screen on night mode in the evening, which filters out the blue light. Light therapy is also known for depression. So the effect of light and colors is interesting to examine.
I gave colored light therapy a fair chance to help ANY of my symptoms some years ago but no luck. There must be something to it though as they have used blue light therapy for jaundiced babies for years.
I wonder if putting a green filter on your computer screen would have any effect?
You could go into your customization app and choose different tones of green until you hit on a good one — might take a long time though!
I’ve tried green glasses for migraine but I believe they may have actually worsened my headache frequency — that’s why studies on particular wavelengths would be good.
I’m wearing them right now, and they’re giving me a headache!
I forget where I purchased them, but they are the flip-up kind that attach to your regular glasses.
Adding to say: the brand name I tried is MigraLens
Maybe include some CRPS patients to see if it would have any effect.
Is this method approved by the CDC? Or maybe I should Ask if this Green Light therapy – Approved by the Food And Drug Administration Yet 🤔.!?
Has this method been approved by the CDC? Or By the Food And Drug Administration Yet?
As someone with migraines 8 to 15 days a month, I read the green light migraine study and was very excited about trying it. I bought 2 green lightbulbs, the exact brand used in the study, and exposed myself to the light as described, with no other light source for a certain amount of time every day. After three months saw no change in my migraine pattern or intensity. Threw out the bulbs. I do hope it works for others.
Maui Jim do a green sunglasses lens, polarised too.
As I often do, here is an off topic find I want to share; https://www.medscape.com/s/viewarticle/989424?ecd=mkm_ret_230828_mscpmrk_covidtx_meddel_etid5784593&uac=139183PJ&impID=5784593
Apparently taking Metformin, usually used for diabetes, after learning one has contracted Covid can significantly prevent Long-Covid.
I know Metformin has been mentioned a number of times in your blog as potentially being helpful for ME/CFS and now somebody has actually studied it for our sister disease, Long-Covid.
I myself have become pre-diabetic and take Metformin, yet I can’t understand why, as I don’t have any of the lifestyle contributors. I guess I should look at it as kind of a back handed blessing as throughout the pandemic, I have never, to my knowledge, contracted Covid even though I’m not overly careful with preventative measures (excluding vaccines).
Who knows? Long term ME/CFS, but apparently no Long-Covid…
what colored glasses are you suppose to get to wear at night if you are watching a tv screen? Thanks!
Hi Cort. Thanks for the article.
It looks like people in Europe have been buying for quite a while clear green self-adhesive foil and created lamps and eyeglasses.
Thank you Cort (and others who shared your experiences). Good ideas on spending more time in nature. Each human body can respond differently to different things but I just bought green light bulbs and am curious of the effects it may have on my post CFS. Also my doctor prescribed Naltrexone months ago (1.5mg every other day – low dose because of my frame and sensitivity to meds). It seems to have helped with body aches and to a certain degree the fatigue though the latter is still WIP. Someone mentioned Metformin – it has done wonders for many but did not react well at all to my body. What may have also helped are hypnotherapy audios (I listen to Marisa Peer’s Heal Your Body Now Hypnosis on YouTube almost every night) and something I recently learned more indepth about is eating according to our dosha type (the Natural Law Film by Amish Shah was informative ). I have zero affiliations with either sources but in case it may be of help to others. Good luck everyone looking to try different approaches to heal our selves / improve our health.
I just ordered a pair of green glasses to fit over my prescription glasses. I can’t wait to give it a good try! Thanks Cort for all that you share with all of us!