Do you suffer from chronic pain? Did you know that 38% of the world’s population is affected by this type of pain? So, you are not alone.
Chronic pain can be a result of inflammation due to injury where pain becomes constant and steady, throbbing and pulsating, stabbing or pinching.
Once tissue becomes injured or damaged, the pain is your body’s way of telling you that there is inflammation present, and it is a protective mechanism designed to remove causative factors and initiate the healing process.
Once the tissue is repaired, an orchestra of cells and compounds work to slowly and eventually turn off the pain responses, returning the body to normal. Unfortunately, when the body cannot resolve the tissue damage, the pain responses do not turn off, and chronic pain can develop.
Chronic pain results when the build-up of fluid that leads to swelling and the swollen tissue pushes against sensitive nerve endings. Fibromyalgia, arthritis, neuropathy, musculoskeletal disorders are just a few conditions that can develop into neuropathic pain. Patients describe the neuropathic pain as a shooting pain, burning sensation, or pins and needles. The nervous system can amplify pain sensations leading to a vicious pain cycle.
Did You Know?
1 in 20 Australians suffer from nerve pain
Chronic pain can be debilitating, by reducing your quality of life and affecting your physical and emotional health. There are ways in which you can reduce the inflammation naturally, but natural relief from chronic pain can be difficult to find.
Chronic Pain Solutions
Over the last few years, there have been more naturopathic supplements available that have helped many pain sufferers. The most recent one has been Palmitoylethanolamide (known as PEA), which is a powerful compound that works to reduce inflammation and pain. PEA is a natural, fat soluble molecule produced by humans, animals and plants and can be found in foods such as meat, eggs, soy and peanuts. It is produced on demand when or inflammation are created within your body, acting to reduce their levels and helps to bring body back into balance.
If pain or inflammation becomes chronic, naturally produced PEA levels can be depleted, restricting the benefits it can produce. As the body struggles to produce PEA, many pain sufferers have chosen to supplement their production of PEA, with this latest supplement.
PEA is considered very safe to take, as PEA can already be made by your body, and it has been shown in numerous clinical trials to assist chronic pain sufferers.
Below some examples of results from clinical trials[1] of some pain conditions:
-
Fibromyalgia (FM): 35 patients with FM, already taking pain medications, took 600 mg/d of PEA for 12 weeks. Results showed PEA reduced their overall pain. The average number of painful body points also decreased from eight to one.
-
Osteoarthritis (OA): 111 people with mild or moderate knee OA received 600 mg/d of PEA for 8 weeks, and at the end of the trial, their knee pain and stiffness reduced by 53.7%, compared to 25% in the placebo group.
-
Diabetic neuropathy: A 600 mg/d dose of PEA across 8 weeks reduced the intensity and presence of pain, pins and needles, burning and numbness in 30 people with diabetic neuropathy.
-
Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS): 50 patients took 1,200 mg/d of PEA for 8 weeks, experiencing a decrease in the pain intensity of their CTS, compared to people who didn’t take PEA, whose pain actually increased.
-
Sciatica: 636 sciatica participants who were prescribed 600 mg/d of PEA for 21 days reported their pain reduced and quality of life improved.
Seek Professional Help
If you are suffering from chronic pain, PEA could be the solution to chronic pain relief. I would highly recommend that you contact your health professional, or alternatively contact Terrie to find out how PEA and other supplements, can help you to manage your chronic pain, and have a better quality of life.
[1] Clinical trial results provided by Metagenics
