Palmitoylethanolamide is a chemical made from fat. It is found naturally in foods for example egg yolks and peanuts, as well as in the human body. It is moreover used as a medicine.
Palmitoylethanolamide is used for pain, fibromyalgia, neuropathic pain, multiple sclerosis (MS), infections of the airway, carpal tunnel syndrome, and many other conditions.
How does it work?
Palmitoylethanolamide is a chemical that could bind to cells in the body as well as reduce pain plus swelling.
Dosing of PEA
palmitoylethanolamide dosage is usually advised to be between 300-600 mg two times a day, or up to 1200 mg/day. Period of treatment has not been studied, even though most study has looked at up to 3-6 months of treatment. While no safety concerns are recognized for longer term use, it might be advisable to take treatment breaks after 3- 6 months treatment duration.
Nerve pain.
There are several reports of people having less nerve pain while they take palmitoylethanolamide. Though, high-quality research is mixed. Some researches in large groups of people show that taking palmitoylethanolamide might decrease pain in people with backache. But it might be less effective in persons with nerve pain because of injury to the spine
Muscular Cramps
Although the pathophysiology of muscular cramps remains weakly understood, PEA might play a role in stabilize overactive muscles that give increase to night cramps. While PEA has not been studied widely, a recent article published in 2016 reports three cases of patients through severe, persistent muscle cramps that reacted with complete resolution of the cramps inside 2-4 weeks, with palmitoylethanolamide dosage at 400mg 2-3x/day.
Post-Operative Pain
Recent studies have specified that nearly half of all surgical patients still have insufficient pain relief. Multiple mechanisms are involved in postoperative pain counting neuroinflammation plus mast cell activation. Previous studies have shown that incisions could cause mast cell degranulation resulting in the release of several chemicals that promote the growth of acute plus chronic pain. Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) binds to mast cells as well as regulates pro-inflammatory factors discharge, without unfavorable events. The investigators presume that perioperative administration of PEA can decrease chronic postsurgical pain occurrence of patients undergoing to urologic plus gynecologic elective surgery.
PEA’s anti-inflammatory actions engage both neuronal and nonneuronal cells, counting microglia and peripheral plus central mast cells providing neuroprotective effects counting a role in maintaining cellular homeostasis in the face of neuroinflammation, one of the mechanism involved with the development of CTE.
