Could looking at the world through rose-tinted specs help your migraine?

For some sufferers of migraines with aura, their pain is triggered by looking at certain patterns. A study published in the journal Cephalalgia found that precision-tinted eyeglasses helped normalise brain activity for chronic migraine sufferers. The patients (some who had headaches and some who didn’t) were asked to look at high-contrast striped patterns through three different pairs of glasses. Those who regularly battled migraines reported feeling less discomfort when they viewed the patterns using the tinted pair. It’s thought that the visual cortex in the brain becomes over stimulated during a migraine attack, leading some patients to suffer perceptual illusions according to study leader Jie Huang, PhD. Tinted lenses help suppress that visual stress and consequently reduce migraine frequency.

A line of glasses for migraine sufferers does already exist. With frames using FL-41 therapeutic lenses, they have a rose-colour filter to block the annoying blue-green light you’ll usually find in fluorescent lamps, so people overwhelmed by bright spaces can get a little relief too.