PEA - The Antidote to Chronic Pain?

Chronic pain is a major health concern affecting the quality of life in millions of people around the globe - often with no known cause and limited effective treatments.

PEA (Palmitoylethanolamide) is a naturally occurring fatty acid amide which has repeatedly demonstrated positive outcomes in the reduction of neuropathic and inflammatory pain, with no side effects reported to date.

Many pharmaceutical products have been created to target pain conditions which have increased as a result of worsening dietary and lifestyle patterns in Western countries, however these products almost never address the root cause of the conditions, nor do they consider the impacts long term of their side effects.

In all the developing research since initial studies in 1957, PEA has consistently demonstrated an analgesic, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and immunomodulatory effects for pain.

On a biochemical level…

Pain is the effect of the signal transmitted to the brain when the body comes into contact with a frightening stimulus - this can be chemical, temperature or mechanical (eg. acid, burn or cut). When there is inflammation in the brain (‘neuroinflammation’), certain non neural cells can amplify the inflammation and increase the sensitivity of the body, whereby stimuli which was previously neutral now elicits a painful response. This is often where chronic pain stems from.

PEA acts on various cell receptors in the body to initiate an anti-nocioceptive (reduction in sensitivity) effect on cells by inhibiting their activity, resulting in reduced pain signals transmitted from the body to the brain. This is where the reduction in severity and quality of chronic pain begins.

*PEA is naturally occurring in the body, but for therapeutic doses is found in nutritional supplementation prescribed by practitioners. Enquire for more information.

References:

Clayton, P., Hill, M., Bogoda, N., Subah, S., & Venkatesh, R. (2021). Palmitoylethanolamide: A Natural Compound for Health Management. International journal of molecular sciences, 22(10), 5305. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22105305

Lang-Illievich, K., Klivinyi, C., Lasser, C., Brenna, C. T. A., Szilagyi, I. S., & Bornemann-Cimenti, H. (2023). Palmitoylethanolamide in the Treatment of Chronic Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trials. Nutrients, 15(6), 1350. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15061350