I know, what a name! I can’t pronounce it or type it quickly, so I’m just going to call it PEA.

It is a compound that our bodies produce when it is needed to help regulate pain and inflammation. It is found in both the central nervous system and in immune cells. And many foods, like mild, beans, peas, tomato, alfalfa, corn, soy and peanuts also contain it but not in enough quantities to be able to provide any therapeutic benefits.

The main therapeutic benefit of PEA in managing Endometriosis is pain reduction (chronic pelvic pain, migraines, period pain, ovulation pain). So how does it do that?

When the immune system is activated, certain cells are stimulated to start the inflammatory process. This process involves both swelling and pain. The purpose of the pain is to avoid further danger to the injured area. The pain stops us doing what we’re doing and do something about it. At this point, the body releases PEA to regulate the activity of those cells that initiated the pain and swelling. Over time, the inflammation disappears with the pain when the initial cause has been removed (e.g. the wound has healed).

Endometriosis inflammation is not acute, it is chronic. Which means that there is no resolution, it doesn’t disappear. Even the smallest immune incident can cause a major immune response and the cells responsible for clearing it up are confused, creating constant pain to warn you to do something about it.

PEA is able to calm down these cells.

Another cause of your chronic pain comes from damaged nerve cells because of inflammation. Damaged nerve cells still have a ‘pain memory’ creating a lower pain-threshold in the pain receptors.

PEA regulates the firing of these nerve cells. It also helps to produce more anti-inflammatory compounds and compounds that protect nerve cells.

So which symptoms has it shown to improve?

• Chronic pelvic pain: 56 women took PEA for 9 months. After 6 months pain had improved significantly. In another study pain was reduced after 90 days, many women had stopped taking pain medication, and there were some reductions in the size of endometrial lesions.
• Leaky gut: in a lab study, PEA reduced the permeability of the gut.
• Migraines: a group of 50 patients took PEA (they were able to continue their normal medication as well) for 3 months. They reduced the number of days per month with migraines from an average of 10.7 to 5.8, and the intensity of the migraine reduced by 71.4%. A control group who took just their normal medication saw no improvement. Other studies showed improvements in migraines with aura, chronic migraines.
• Depression: in one study of 58 patients with severe depression, improvement was seen after just 2 weeks and after 6 weeks all had improved at least 50%.
• Colds and flu: not directly related to Endometriosis, but in a total of 4000 people who took PEA for 12 days when they had fever and pain, saw a pain and fever reduction of 45.5% compared to people who didn’t take it and there was a significant reduction in sick days.

I know this has been a long post, but I want you to understand that I’m not recommending the latest fad in supplements. I’ve only recently learned about PEA and have not yet had direct experience with its results, but the research is solid.

Now again a word on supplements that you can buy in the supermarket or at the chemist: you might be able to find PEA there. But the product will say ‘Pure PEA’ which sounds great, but isn’t. It means it hasn’t been ‘micronised’ or made smaller. Pure PEA contains particles that are too large to be absorbed, so you would not get much benefit. And for PEA to be beneficial, you need very high doses.

You will need a practitioner-only version that is micronised or ultra-micronised to get the results PEA can give you.