Do Tinted Glasses Provide Migraine Relief? May 27, 2011 -- Precision tinted lenses can help reduce the discomfort experienced by some migraine sufferers by normalizing activity in the brain, a study suggests.

Some people who suffer migraines ''are highly susceptible to stressful visual stimuli," says study researcher Jie Huang, PhD, associate professor of radiology at Michigan State University.

"The stimuli produce discomfort and perceptual illusions, illusions of color, shape, and motion," he tells WebMD.

His earlier studies found that this susceptibility to visual stimuli is linked with excess activation in the brain's visual cortex.

The excessive brain activity, in turn, can sometimes induce a migraine. The specially tinted glasses, he found, may normalize the brain activity.

Slideshow: A Visual Guide to Migraine Headaches