Green Light, Red Light, Real Science

What if the right light could turn down pain without turning your life upside down? We put red and green light therapy under a bright lens—no fluff, no fearmongering—to figure out what truly helps migraines, fibromyalgia, skin health, and recovery, and what’s just expensive mood lighting. With Avisha from Distilled Science, we dig into the physiology, the real-world dosing, and the mistakes that make promising tools look like magic or, just as often, like scams.

We start by demystifying red light therapy: mitochondrial targets, why the U-shaped dose curve matters, and how full-body beds can overshoot while a modest home panel, calibrated for distance and time, can get you better results. We contrast infrared saunas and red LEDs—different mechanisms, different outcomes—and explain penetration depth limits that make “joint healing” claims tricky. Then we pivot to green light’s surprising evidence for migraine and fibromyalgia. Low-intensity, diffuse green light—in the range of 4 to 100 lux for one to two hours—may both reduce sensory spikes in the visual pathway and trigger endogenous opioids, easing pain without meds. The catch: flicker and brightness can ruin the effect, so low-flicker LEDs, gentle ambient setup, and smart placement matter.

Beyond the lab talk, we call out healthy user bias and headline traps using the latest vitamin D–Alzheimer’s buzz as a cautionary tale. You’ll leave with practical, budget-friendly steps: how to read panel specs, how to choose distance and time for red light, how to build a migraine‑friendly green environment with commodity LEDs, and how to avoid the “more is better” myth that drives both costs and side effects. There’s humor, a few DeLorean asides, and a clear throughline: curiosity plus calibration beats hype.

If this helped you separate signal from noise, follow and subscribe, share it with a friend who gets migraines, and drop a review with your biggest light therapy question—we might test it next.

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