Migraine headaches are more than a headache. Migraine sufferers experience, not only intense pain, but nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light and sound. Some also experience visual disturbances. Migraines can seriously impact quality of life. A safe, natural treatment would be a lot of help for a lot of people.
Migraines affect a huge 14.7% of people world wide. They affect three times as many women as men, and the intensity of pain is often higher in women than men.
Palmitoylethanolamide, or PEA for short, is not a well known supplement. But, if recent research is a predictor, it will be. PEA is made naturally in your body. PEA has antidepressant effects, but it is also powerfully anti-inflammatory, pain relieving and neuroprotective. PEA has strong immune effects, and it influences control mechanisms in our cells that control cellular stress and inflammation. PEA has been shown to balance the inflammatory response of the immune system.
This wide range of beneficial properties suggests that PEA could help migraine sufferers. And research has shown that it can. One study showed that 600mg of PEA given for 3 months reduced the frequency of migraines by more than 50% in 63.9% of children who suffer from migraines (Pain Res. Manag. 2020, 2020, 3938640).
This new study looked at an adult population and wanted to see if PEA could treat a migraine as well as it prevented a migraine.
The double-blind study asked 64 adults to take either a placebo or 600mg of PEA as soon as they started feeling a migraine coming on. If they still had a migraine after 2 hours, they took a second dose of placebo or PEA.
After two hours, significantly more people on the PEA than on the placebo had their migraines resolved and were pain free. This fast finding is important because migraines can last for days. The placebo group was forced to use significantly more rescue medication than the group taking PEA, and people taking PEA reported significantly greater improvement in pain at 1.5 and 4 hours than those taking a placebo.
This study suggests that, in addition to preventing migraines, PEA, taken at the onset of a migraine, can decrease pain, duration and need for rescue medication. An important bonus is that the PEA was safe.
Pharmaceuticals. 2024;17(2):145.
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