Anyone here try Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA)?

noodleann · ‎06-10-2015

It's a non-prescription pain reducer that was recommended to me by my doctor today.

D Kay · ‎04-20-2010

I am not familiar with this but checked to see if is sold on Amazon. There are 5 or six brands with reviews.

Nightowlz · ‎03-11-2010

I have never heard of it either. Had to go read about it on Wikipedia & WebMD.

I could have tried this when I had Shingles to see if it would help.

Mindy D · ‎05-23-2010

@noodleann wrote:
It's a non-prescription pain reducer that was recommended to me by my doctor today.

@noodleann @This is a review of PEA use in pain. So far, it doesn't look promising for neuropathic pain in the largest study to date but does appear to help in the smaller studies identified in TABLE 1. TABLE 1 also lists other types of pain and the outcome of the studies using PEA. It shows some promise for lumbar pain. Overall, it does seem to hold promise for pain reduction, although this promise is not well supported by research yet.

@noodleann I'm indebted to you for asking about this because if you had not done so I would not have looked into PEA. My husband lives with an excruciatingly painful condition that has the hypothalamus involved in its etiology. I discovered that PEA has a connection to the hypothalamus in its use. I'll be researching this because we have tried everything to stop his unrelentless pain. The authors of the review stated:

"Our analysis of the pharmacokinetic properties of PEA suggests that the compound has a high volume of distribution. Perhaps the most intriguing finding was the concentration of label in the hypothalamus after oral dosing of PEA tritiated in the acyl side chain 31. It would clearly be of interest to confirm this finding and to identify potential novel PEA targets that are preferentially expressed in the hypothalamus."

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjC1ufWperrAhVOM6wKHYveDm0Q...

noodleann · ‎06-10-2015

@Mindy D , I'd never heard of this until my doctor gave me a sheet on it. He said a colleague, an oncologist, recommended it and pulled together details. My doc said he took it himself and showed me a bottle of it he had in a cupboard. I found the same brand on iHerb at a much better price than Amazon. The brand starts with "Lake."

This is verbatim from the handout:

"The research was done with the following dosage guidelines:

600 mg x 2 pills = 1200 mg AM and PM for 2 weeks,

then 600 mg twice daily thereafter."

A lot of the other brands I saw offer only 400 mg, making the Lake brand appealing. It's also offered in bottles of 365 capsules. I will probably get one of those, which is a gamble in case it doesn't work, but pain meds work well in me (except acetaminophen), and I have a friend in chronic pain to whom I could send the bottle if it was a bust for me.

If you follow the tested protocol, you really need at least 90 600-mg capsules to try it out, since you'll use 56 in the first two weeks (4 per day x 14 days) and will use the remaining 44 over the next 22 days.

FYI, my doctor suggested it in part because I'd like to get my BP down and he said the ibuprofen I take for chronic headache and other pain can raise BP.

Good luck, hope it helps your husband.

ETA that when I asked my doctor how long it took to take effect, he said, "Immediately, or within a couple of days." Not like weeks, so you should know quickly whether it's of any use to your husband.

GenXmuse · ‎05-15-2016

My husband is a partially disabled vet that lives with chronic pain and I ordered some to try out.

Pearlee · ‎06-11-2011

@noodleann. Have you searched in the wellness forum? That's where posts like this usually go.

suzyQ3 · ‎03-09-2010

@GenXmuse wrote:
My husband is a partially disabled vet that lives with chronic pain and I ordered some to try out.

I'm so sorry about your husband's condition, @GenXmuse. I hope he gets some relief.

~Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

noodleann · ‎06-10-2015

@Pearlee wrote:
@noodleann. Have you searched in the wellness forum? That's where posts like this usually go.

I searched all the forums for Palmitoylethanolamide and came up blank. If someone misspelled it, I'd miss it, of course. I thought posting it in Community would net more eyeballs, since some here may not visit Wellness but still know about PEA. I'm a little leery because it seems like a "too good to be true" nostrum, but with a white coat endorsement, I'm game.

GenXmuse · ‎05-15-2016

@suzyQ3 wrote:
@GenXmuse wrote:
My husband is a partially disabled vet that lives with chronic pain and I ordered some to try out.
I'm so sorry about your husband's condition, @GenXmuse. I hope he gets some relief.