Following Your Gut Podcast #10, Taking a Chill Pill with Dr. Kelly Halderman

In this compelling episode of the Following Your Gut Podcast, Roland Pankewich welcomes Dr. Kelly Halderman for a deep dive into the world of Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), a naturally occurring compound with potent anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties. Dr. Halderman, a seasoned expert in medical translation and formulation, shares her personal health journey from conventional medicine to becoming a practitioner of naturopathic solutions. This episode blends scientific insights, personal anecdotes, and practical applications.

The central theme of this episode revolves around the multifaceted benefits of PEA, also known as the body’s natural chill pill. Dr. Halderman elaborates on PEA’s role in modulating inflammation without causing psychoactive effects, providing relief in conditions like chronic pain, fibromyalgia, and neurological disorders. With references to her own formulation, SunBalance, the discussion expands into broader health topics, including the impact of emotional well-being on physical health. For those intrigued by functional nutrition and holistic care, this engaging conversation delivers actionable insights and underscores the importance of addressing foundational health to combat modern-day health challenges effectively.

Key Takeaways:

•             Understanding PEA: Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) is a naturally occurring compound in the body that supports natural inflammatory function in the body and neuroprotective effects.

•             Formulation Synergy: The SunBalance formulation combines PEA with luteolin and quercetin to enhance its effects on brain health, inflammation modulation, and immune support.

•             Foundational Health: While PEA is beneficial, Dr. Halderman emphasizes the importance of foundational health practices, including diet, lifestyle, stress management, and hydration.

•             Emotional Well-being: Addressing emotional health is crucial for overall wellness, and PEA can support this by mitigating neuroinflammation and promoting a balanced mindset.

“The microbiome of our digestive tract is like the soil of our body."

Chapters

• 0:02 Dr. Kelly Halderman’s Journey to Health and Medical Translation
• 5:04 Exploring PEA’s Impact on Emotional and Neurological Health
• 7:09 PEA’s Role in Inflammation and Pain Management
• 15:23 Natural Remedies for College Stress and Menstrual Cramps
• 16:17 The Multifaceted Benefits and Considerations of PEA Supplementation
• 19:39 Synergistic Effects of Supplements for Neuroinflammation and Longevity
• 23:18 Strategies for Managing Chronic Conditions with Personalized Approaches
• 24:05 Inflammation’s Impact on Mental and Emotional Wellness
• 27:36 The Benefits and Safety of PEA for Inflammation and Gut Health
• 33:06 Kelly Halderman Discusses Medical Insights and Practitioner Support

Transcript

Transcript

0:00:02 Roland Pankewich: Welcome back to another episode of the following youg Gut podcast, where health science meets clinical wisdom. And today, I am very excited because I have interviewed her once before. She’s one of my favorite guests to interview because she’s so dynamic. She’s so exciting. So I want to introduce Dr. Kelly Halderman, and rather than me give an improper background, I know you’ve had an incredible journey in your education and professional career. So, Kelly, thank you for being with us first and foremost, and I would love for you to tell everyone a little bit about yourself and what it is you’ve done and what you do.

0:00:34 Kelly Halderman: Yeah, thanks, Roland. I am super excited to be here. You are one of my favorite podcast interviewers because you make it fun, you make it practical, and you keep me on my toes for sure. So thanks so much for having me. You know, as far as my. My story goes, you know, I started off really wanting to. To help people. My dad had kidney failure when I was three years old. So my daycare center was the floor of a kidney dialysis center.

0:01:01 Kelly Halderman: And I remember looking up and just seeing all these people suffering and just at a young age wanting to do something about it. Especially, you know, my dad, he was on kidney dialysis for 16 years, and he eventually got a kidney transplant. But I was just in love with the idea of being able to help people. And so I went into medicine myself and really quickly learned that there was a playbook, and the playbook was using medications and pharmaceuticals in.

0:01:30 Kelly Halderman: It really bothered me. In the back of my mind. It really bothered me that we weren’t really getting to the root cause of things. And it turns out that when I was in family practice, I was in training, I really had a moment where my. My own health started to fail. And was this moment where I was really confused because all the tools that I had in my toolkit and I paid $500,000 for, they. They weren’t working to help me. I was having neurological issues.

0:02:00 Kelly Halderman: I mean, completely healthy up to then. I had two little kids and just started to. To just decline really fast. And I was escorted to the. The neurologist. You know, we really get great care when we are medical doctors, but I was diagnosed with ms, and at that point, I was. I was told to go home and be with my children. And I was like 27 or 28 years old, and I was like, say what? Like, what caused this? What’s the root cause? What. What was my predetermining factors that got me into this, and they had no answers. And so I had to go back and get a naturopathic medical degree while I was sick and started to apply all those principles of detoxification and gut health and you know, really understanding how the body works and knowing that indeed if you go and you look for the root cause and you straighten out your foundational health that you can really recover. And so I’ve made a complete recovery and just very blessed and in everything that I was able to do and a lot of it did include nutrition and include, included probiotics, master supplements. I used a lot of probiotics, I used a lot of different therapies.

0:03:14 Kelly Halderman: But along the way in my journey, I just discovered that my passion was education. My passion was to take the things that were in the medical research that on average takes 17 years to get into your doctor’s office. I’m like, we don’t have that kind of time. We need someone to translate this high research, this high level research and we need to get it in to help people today. And that’s why I consider myself a full time medical translator because I went and got my board certification as a medical science liaison.

0:03:46 Kelly Halderman: I’m also, you know, have a couple other doctorates that really help me in my educational endeavors. I’m a formulator, nutraceutical formulator. I do, you know, content creation, longevity. I just created a longevity genetic panel and just really staying up on the research to help people discover the root cause, get to the the bottom of of their issues. And also in the past year I’ve really honed in and we were talking about this before we started the podcast, really honed in on the emotional of disease and health and really understanding how what we’re thinking up here really can determine our health and our mindset is so, so important. And when I worked with Dr. Eric Balcavage to write the Thyroid debacle and you’ve interviewed Dr. Eric and I about this, we have a whole chapter on emotional health because it’s something that we really need to not poo poo in medicine quickly. You know, people are, are given diagnosis of it could be like all in your head type things. And so I really think that that’s really moved the needle for me in the past year. But I am excited to talk to you about this absolute rock star nutrient because this nutrient pea. So Palmite.

0:05:04 Roland Pankewich: Yeah, that’s what we’re going to do a deep dive on today.

0:05:06 Kelly Halderman: I mean that was a game changer for me, Roland, like for real. And when I say like emotional, emotional health is like don’t Throw the baby out with a bath water. Right. We’re not throwing every. Everything that we can use to help us heal. We don’t want to do that. We don’t want to be myopic. And so PEA is. Is amazing. And so I can’t wait to get into that with you today.

0:05:29 Roland Pankewich: Yes. Yeah, we’re gonna. This is the first time we’ve had the. The treat of being able to do a deep dive on a single ingredient, But I wanted to just add a couple things. So that only cost you 500,000 bucks. Not a bad deal, number one. Number two, you kind of have the superwoman thing going on. Do you fight crime in the evenings in some sort of vigilante costume that we don’t know about?

0:05:51 Kelly Halderman: I just fight teenagers and little children who.

0:05:54 Roland Pankewich: That’s like negotiating with terrorists. I have a friend who worked in the CIA, and he said negotiating with terrorists is easier than dealing with my teenagers.

0:06:03 Kelly Halderman: Yeah, pretty much. I agree with that. So.

0:06:06 Roland Pankewich: Yeah. So the third thing is, you know, in that journey, and you’re getting into nutraceutical supplement formulation, you have formulated a couple really cool products, and there’s a product called Sunbalance, which is one of your babies. And the main ingredient in SunBalance is pea. And it’s kind of nice because we’re talking about brain health, immune activation, neurological stuff, emotional dysregulation. I feel like all of those come together really nicely as a story that fits under the umbrella of pea. So why don’t we. I’m just gonna let you get into it. Talk to me about pea. Talk to everyone about pea.

0:06:40 Kelly Halderman: Yeah. So first of all, your body actually produces pea, And I love really looking at nutraceuticals that have that orthomolecular type of mechanism of action. So why does your body produce pea? Because it is really a rock star when it comes to inflammation and. And a couple other things that we’ll get into, but it’s an endogenous fatty acid amide, and again, your body makes it naturally in response to inflammation and to pain.

0:07:09 Kelly Halderman: I was just reading a little bit more. I was doing a deep dive in preparation, and I found out that some people are actually naturally susceptible to not being able to produce enough PEA in the body, which leads them to diagnosis, like fibromyalgia or chronic pain. So I was like, wow, this is actually. Now we’re looking at genetically susceptible susceptibility, which. I love that, too. But PA Is part of the autocode local injury antagonism family, meaning it works locally to downregulate inflammation.

0:07:41 Kelly Halderman: And luckily it is found in small amounts though, in foods. So it’s found a little bit in egg yolks and soy len and peanuts. But those two latter things are. A lot of people are allergic to them or they, they, they avoid them. But it really doesn’t get to that therapeutic dose that you need for things like inflammation and pain. So I think that segues into like, how does it work? Right? So it actually supports pea, supports your endocannadoid system.

0:08:10 Kelly Halderman: So we’re hearing a lot about that because THC and cbd, so they’re starting to be legalized and people are really using them a lot for, for pain relief. And so you actually have your own, your own PEA that can do the same. And it can really look at how the activation of those receptors. And so it can activate that, those receptors that help with pain without acting directly on the CB1, CB2. So what that means is that the cannaboid system is not activated. So it’s not psychoactive, but it is doing all those wonderful things that things like THC and CBD can do.

0:08:51 Kelly Halderman: And one of the highlights, one of the most important parts of this is because I had mast cell activation, because my root cause is actually Lyme disease and mold toxicity. So my mast cells were, were degranulating and they’re spewing out inflammation. And rightly so, there was a reason. But as I started to heal from that, those mast cells, they can continue to degranulate, and that can really affect your microglia cells. So microglia cells really control the inflammation of the brain. And so when they get into the activation stage, it can cause all kinds of issues. And this is a real issue too, not only with people with mast cell, but in like an autistic community as well. You have that, I always say that itch that you can’t scratch.

0:09:36 Kelly Halderman: Your microglial cells are just so just spewing out inflammation. And your brain is your master controller. So I think that PA really, really shines when it comes to activating on those pain receptors, really quenching that inflammation, helping dampening that microglial activation. I mean, so important, especially in the world we live in right now, how toxic it is, we really need some help with that lessening of that inflammation.

0:10:07 Roland Pankewich: So that’s amazing. So if I understood that correctly, so it’s an endogenous thing. It’s in the body naturally, the body produces it, I would imagine. So mostly the brain nervous system, specific areas that relate to signaling and what you’re Saying it does is it influences, not like THC or cbd, it’s not a psychoactive substance, but it can bind to these cannabinoid receptors, which are these receptors in the body that help to influence how an immune response can be up or down regulated. So it’s a naturally anti inflammatory compound.

0:10:41 Roland Pankewich: Did I get that right?

0:10:43 Kelly Halderman: Yep, you got that right. So it doesn’t actually directly activate those cannabinoid receptors, but it does modulate the pain without activating those. So it’s kind of going around it and doing everything but that thing that causes that psychoactive effect. So that’s where you kind of get the, that all the great things that CBD and THC can do without that really a fact that really nobody, nobody wants to, to feel high where they’re trying to, you know, do their work or you know, get through.

0:11:14 Roland Pankewich: Maybe they don’t. Maybe they do. I don’t know. We’ll see.

0:11:17 Kelly Halderman: I mean, that’s right, you and I don’t. The doctor who wants something where they can still go to work and operate heavy machinery and drive a car.

0:11:25 Roland Pankewich: There you go. That, that’s a really great way of framing it. But you have called it like a chill pill before, right? So it does have some sort of effect in how the nervous system behaves, does it not?

0:11:36 Kelly Halderman: For sure. And it really is supporting that microglial, that modulation. So you get that neuroinflammation dampening without the immunosuppression. So it’s like you gotta look at inflammation as not all bad, right? Because inflammation, it needs to be in balance. So especially like if you have acute inflammation, that’s really important for healing and for the responses that we need in order to fight infections and fight cancer cells.

0:12:03 Kelly Halderman: So we don’t want to wipe out all inflammation. We want it to be in a really healthy balance. And unfortunately a lot of people with chronic illness or even the walking unwell who are not even aware they may have high blood pressure or something’s going on, they have that tipped in the favor of more inflammation. Right. And so when you’re looking at the effects of pea, you can look at as inflammation balancing and inflammation balancing in your brain. Right.

0:12:30 Kelly Halderman: Not all substances can actually that are claimed to be anti inflammatory. Not all of them have that ability to also do the chill pill thing. And so, you know, there’s a lot of studies that again show the modulation of the brain cells that the, the mast cells in the microglial. And that’s why I think we’re looking at those case Reports and open label studies showed improvements in speech, behavior and social respons responsiveness in children with asd.

0:13:02 Kelly Halderman: Because you’re getting that as well, you’re getting that chill pill that without any sedating effects. That’s really important.

0:13:10 Roland Pankewich: And is that the most likely target of where this nutrient could be useful? Is it for those spectrum like disorders or does it have a more wide range of use for anyone who’s dealing with something immune stimulating in a negative way?

0:13:23 Kelly Halderman: Yeah, so there have been 20 placebo controlled trials, clinical trials that demonstrate the effects and mainly these have been on chronic pain and neuropathic pain. And that does really make sense. So condition studies were like sciatica, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, carpal tunnel, low back pain, diabetic neuropathy. So I mean they have excellent trials that show that it’s completely safe. So excellent safety profile and also the large effect size.

0:13:56 Kelly Halderman: So really the number needed to treat for using PEA was so low. And that’s great. Meaning that you don’t have to treat 100 people to get one person a response. It really had a response in that area. But you know, you’re also looking at meta analysis showing again the pain responses. But then we can also look at the inflammation and immune disorder. So because it’s affecting the mast cells, a lot of mast cells, again it’s causing that inflammation that has to do with disorders such as interstitial cystitis, inflammatory bowel syndromes, eczema, atopic dermatitis and some seasonal allergies. So it’s just like has so many effects because of again that mechanism of action. So like you said, it is showing some case reports, we’re showing the benefits in autism spectrum disorder.

0:14:49 Kelly Halderman: And then it really, it really spans out. I mean a lot of great research again in pain. There was also some research in, in premenstrual syndrome where you’re having cramping. And so my daughter just went to college a year ago. So she’s home from college and with all of the stress of college and not eating mama’s home cooking, so she’s eating more fast foods and things. She started to get cramps and I was like, you know, what can I give her to that’s not going to be, you know, a non steroidal anti inflammatory, I don’t want her on ibuprofen the rest of her life.

0:15:23 Kelly Halderman: But something that’s gentle and you know, all that stress too. She was just kind of getting anxious. It’s a lot to be a first year college Student. So I shipped her some of the sun balance and she’s like, mom, I really think this is working. Like I didn’t get any cramps and I, I just feel a little more chill. And I was like, yep, exactly. I can show you the mechanism of action if you’d like me to.

0:15:42 Roland Pankewich: You know, I mean, then she hung up, right? Then she, then she was no longer on FaceTime. As soon as you offered that opportunity.

0:15:48 Kelly Halderman: You know, she, you know, she’s done. But I was like, very cool. Like this can, this has a lot of far reaching effects. And also, so PEA has been explored in long Covid and post viral fatigue syndromes because of its immune modulation and its mitochondrial protective effects. So again, just a rock star nutrient. I know that some of the older literature came out of Czechoslovakia like I think in the 70s and that looked at pea and preventing colds and flu.

0:16:17 Kelly Halderman: And I’m like, what can’t, what can’t this, this nutrient do? It’s, it’s really, it’s really ubiquitous in its effects in the body.

0:16:26 Roland Pankewich: Well, that’s an interesting thought in what you just said. What can it do? Might there be in your mind a population of people who would maybe respond negatively or who might derive no benefit from it at all, or is it just not even really something that you’ve thought about?

0:16:41 Kelly Halderman: Well, you know, I think that there may be a population now. There, there’s really like, all these studies are not showing any side effects, which is amazing. Right? They’re not showing any, any side effects, but there’s, there’s so many reasons for, for pain and inflammation. Right. And so I don’t want people to think that they should take a bunch of PEA and then forget about their diet and their lifestyle and their nutrition and their gut and their hydration and all of that.

0:17:09 Kelly Halderman: Right. So I think that if you are constantly not, you know, I’ll use the analogy, I think it’s from Dr. Horowitz. If you have 19 nails in your foot and you take out four nails, that’s amazing. Way to go. You took out four nails, but you still have all those nails in your foot and your foot is going to hurt. So it’s like we can’t ignore the things that could be causing the downstream effects of having, having the pain, having the inflammation, having, you know, like the, the, the, the cramps when you have premenstrual syndrome. So I think that it’s really a nutrient again that you have to attend to the other things. That’s why working with the docs that we work with and us enzymes and masters, they understand that as well. But I think it’s where your body should get an effect because you’re, you’re endogenously making it. It’s there for a reason.

0:18:04 Kelly Halderman: And there are, again, no sleep side effects. They’ve used it in combination with people on opiates as well, because opiates are obviously, we know that over prescription, over prescribing of opiates is an issue, and people were able to cut down on their opiates by using pea And I think that’s really great too, is that you can use them in combination. Again, always consult your doctor and your licensed healthcare provider for anything.

0:18:31 Kelly Halderman: But we’re looking at really across the board. But again, non responders, I think perhaps the dose is too low and we’ll get into dosing in a minute. Perhaps the dosing is too low. Perhaps they just haven’t really got to the root cause of, of what’s going on. Let’s say it’s like diabetic neuropathy. Maybe their blood sugars are still very uncontrolled and they’re just having so much damage due to that glycosylation.

0:18:56 Kelly Halderman: And so we have to, like, stop the. We have to put out the fire. And we can’t just load up on PEA and just ignore the fire that’s causing the inflammation.

0:19:06 Roland Pankewich: Well, that’s just sound advice across the board. Right. You know, a supplement is not here to save you from anything in terms of its individual scenario. I mean, if you have violent food poisoning, maybe a mega dose of probiotics will help you not clutch the bathroom mat or the toilet asking for forgiveness. But fundamentally, the perspective is there. You have to understand that this is a signal that comes in. And there are other variables that need to be more foundationally approached or taken care of before you start placing expectations on what a product can do to reverse a serious inflammatory scenario.

0:19:39 Roland Pankewich: You’re teeing up the pathways of where I want to go naturally and what you’re saying. But I did want to ask about dosing before I get into my next question. So you said there is a dosing strategy or there’s some good research surrounding quantities of efficacy.

0:19:54 Kelly Halderman: Yes. So typical dosing, as per the clinical literature, looking at like the pain, neuropathic pain and all those pain syndromes, would be somewhere between 300 and 600 milligrams twice a day. So you’re looking at a total of about 600 to 1200 milligrams per day. Again, looking in the literature is you know, finding the dosing strategy. Often we start off at about 300 milligrams twice a day. And you can, and you can taper up.

0:20:24 Kelly Halderman: Um, it can also be combined, which maybe we’ll talk about later, the combination of why I formulated sunbalance with luteolin and quercetin. But you can also add in some other things because they’re synergistic to get that neuroinflammatory more with that luteolin. The brain absolutely loves luteolin. It really calms those mast cells, but really it has a building effect. So you’re looking at two to four weeks to really get up to the, that steady state. So it’s not something where it’s like, I’m going to try for a.

0:20:57 Kelly Halderman: And if it’s not working, I’m going to give up on it. It really, it can take again two to four weeks to build up to that point where it’s really helping you objectively and subjectively feel the effects.

0:21:09 Roland Pankewich: And that’s true of a lot of other supplements too. You know, it’s not a drug, it’s not like a cup of coffee. You feel that instantly. It’s not a Tylenol. It doesn’t work almost instantaneously, then go away. The body has to regularly receive that signal.

0:21:23 Kelly Halderman: So.

0:21:23 Roland Pankewich: So in that thought, in conjunction with pea, are there some other things that you’ve either use yourself clinically or have been told to you that are really nice clinical synergists of maybe combining products for some of these conditions that we talked about?

0:21:37 Kelly Halderman: Oh, for sure. So, you know, with the sun balance. So we put the PEA with the luteolin, again, a really impressive nutrient that can, can calm that inflammation down, calm those mast cells down and then some quercetin. So quercetin, again, another impressive compound that also has some anti aging effects. So it really helps the CD38 not gobble up all of our NAD. So our NAD is an energy molecule that we need for mitochondria and it has been linked to longevity.

0:22:11 Kelly Halderman: So we put those three together. We could do a podcast on, you know, on quercetin and ludiolan. We put those three together because I saw the synergistic effects. I saw it in the literature as well. And originally, again, it was, it was a little bit selfish because I knew I had mast cell activation and I was grabbing all these supplements and I really wanted masters and I wanted us enzymes to come in because you’re the sourcing.

0:22:37 Kelly Halderman: It’s exquisite. It’s absolutely exquisite. So I didn’t have to worry about any issues with trying to cheap out on luteolin, trying to get, you know, forms that weren’t, that weren’t studied in the literature. So we really put together the most powerful formulation with the most superior ingredients that we could find. I also think that Omega 3s, however, you’re going to source them depending on your diet, depending on if you’re a vegan, if you are okay sourcing from an animal. Omega 3s work really well with pea I found that to be a really great combination as well.

0:23:18 Roland Pankewich: Interesting. Yeah. Because I’m sure a lot of people are who are clinicians practicing, they’re seeing all of the different things that you just mentioned, be it fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, sciatica, these, these scenarios that are almost like phantom. Sometimes they’re there, then they go away, then they come back. And there’s really no long term strategy of approaching these things. And I think you do really need to become a little bit of your own mad scientist of trying different combinations of things. So any of the, the guidance that you could share, not only, you know, being the person who formulated this, but having your expertise and seeing people yourself, it’s important to know that there are different strategies, but you do need to do your due diligence of understanding, I guess, how these mechanisms cross over and what might be affecting the person positively or not.

0:24:05 Roland Pankewich: So within the context of sunbalance, I wanted to bring it to brain inflammation and something that’s close to your heart. Of late, you talked about a mental and emotional wellness. Those things are connected, aren’t they?

0:24:18 Kelly Halderman: Oh, for sure, for sure. So if your, if your brain is on fire, it’s really hard to emotionally keep it together. Of course. And it’s, you know, we can’t separate it. Right. You can’t separate the, the, the mast cell activation from trying to be your best self, trying to be emotionally well rounded and the best that you can be when again you have something physiologically going on. And so I really think that another reason again is just I was like anxious when I had Lyme and mole when that, that mast cell activation was just like an itch I couldn’t scratch, just really aggravating, just irritability. And how are you supposed to meditate and be again and even, even recognize that emotional health was something that you needed to work on? It seems so back burner.

0:25:12 Kelly Halderman: I just like needed to fix my, my body first. And so in order to, to really go in and help myself physiologically, I’m like, I know I, I have this inflammation in my brain, which, again, there’s so many people who do look at our Alzheimer’s rates, our Parkinson’s rates, and neurodegenerative. You know, I, I saw a post on Instagram. I think it was from the longevity doctor. But he talked about the four horsemen of death.

0:25:37 Kelly Halderman: And those are cardiovascular disease, cancer, metabolic disease, and neurodegenerative disease. And I’m like, all of these are, are linked to inflammation, right? They’re really linked to the body’s immune modulation. Inflammation’s out of control. And we can really help people if we can, if we can start to. Again, foundation, foundation, foundational health. Right? We really want to do that. But then give people some, some naturally occurring. Again, this is a naturally occurring molecule that can help them calm that down, help them be less anxious and start to then move toward more and more emotional work. Like eric and I, Dr. Balkevich and I, we wrote that book on thyroid health, and it has an entire chapter on your emotional health, your thought processes, like what’s going on in, you know, the space between your ears is so important.

0:26:29 Kelly Halderman: And I think that, you know, we’re society right now, we have a lot of chronic illness, and I think people are, are reaching for things such as like CBD and THC to really try and calm things down and. But I don’t want them to dissociate. I really just want to help them get at the root cause of, of issues and then use things strategically to help them get in a better space to address that mental and emotional health.

0:26:55 Roland Pankewich: So even if someone isn’t per se suffering from a known inflammatory scenario, they’re a perceived healthy person. But obviously, if you do have some sort of mental disturbance, it might be a clue that there is something neurologically inflammatory going on. They may have a low level of brain or some gut dysfunction, some gut brain axis dysregulation. These people can also benefit from using these things more as a preventative strategy. Like you can take PEA without having to have a clinician suggest that you do it. It can actually be beneficial just to keep people on the even keel so they can be less inflamed in the brain and more even in terms of how they deal with themselves in the world around.

0:27:36 Kelly Halderman: Yeah, the safety profile, again, looking at the robust research, it’s extremely well tolerated, even at higher doses, which can be up to 18 milligrams per day, which are in some of the trials. But again, you want to, look, you want to work with a practitioner. If you’re going to go higher but there’s no addiction potential, there’s no known drug interactions. Again, just safe for even long term use.

0:28:00 Kelly Halderman: And I will touch on that. I was looking at a study that was showing some gut protection as well. So PA having a modulatory effect in the gut. And with, with that we know that everything that affects the gut is going to affect the brain. And so yes, I think that it’s a strategy where you know, we can’t see inflammation, we can’t like get a microscope and, and look and see what’s going on. But according to the American Federation on Aging, our DNA is insulted 1 million times per day.

0:28:34 Kelly Halderman: And so that’s going to cause a lot of inflammation and that’s going to cause, you know, genomic instability and things. So I think we have to have more defenses up as we’re moving into this world because again, look at the rates of Alzheimer’s, look at the, the rates of neurodegenerative diseases. It’s something where you know, we, we blink our eyes and 10 years has passed and processes such as Alzheimer’s and diabetes and all of these four horsemen of death, they start decades before we actually in cancer, they start way before. So I think like putting in a protective strategy, especially one that helps your gut, I think that is amazing. And the other study on PEA was that it helped, it helped repopulate the gut with Akkermansia and two other strains of positive bacteria. So again, microbiome is everything.

0:29:28 Kelly Halderman: So if we look at something that can help with that, I think that in of itself, on top of all of the anti inflammatory properties it has, I think it’s a really good choice.

0:29:41 Roland Pankewich: I mean that sounds incredible. It sounds like there’s really no known downside. And for people who have been grappling with something for quite a while and they’ve never heard about it, almost zero risk to try. So it does really sound like quite a powerful, wonderful thing for the average person to be taking. So I want to round it out just to make sure that I’ve understood everything well that this way we can communicate that to everyone else. So a naturally occurring substance, substance in the body has the ability to modulate the immune system and the nervous system via how it interacts with these things that are called cannabinoid receptors. Indirectly it has a wonderful effect at being neuroprotective, helps to manage inflammation in the brain, helps to potentially resolve or attenuate a lot of these inflammatory like conditions in the body, be it fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, IBS or All the syndromes, but also the more, I guess, nefarious inflammatory conditions, autoimmunity, IBD, MS, things of that nature.

0:30:44 Roland Pankewich: It can be taken by people who are being healthy and proactive. It has no known toxicity profile, no negative interactions with any nutraceuticals or pharmaceuticals. And I really want to hit home what you said because it’s really important to reiterate this. As long as you’re taking care of all the foundational stuff, you’re eating well, you’re sleeping well, you’re moving well, you’re managing stress well, you’re relating to yourself and the world around you well, breathing clean air, drinking clean water.

0:31:13 Roland Pankewich: Those are really all the things that really work foundationally regardless of what you’re doing with supplements or not. But it does sound like this can be an incredible strategy for people who may be grasping at something and they’re unfortunately in a bad state of suffering right now.

0:31:29 Kelly Halderman: Yeah, I think that you nailed it with the summary. The one thing that clinically that I will note is that there is some concern when you are combining it with immunosuppressive drugs. So immunomodulating drugs, so things like methotrexate, cyclosporine, JAK inhibitors. So those are the ones that if you are on immunosuppressive or immunostimulatory, some interferons, you’re going to just, you’re going to want to check with your practitioner. But that is the one caveat would be that immune modulating drug category. But other than that, like you said, Roland, it’s just, it’s really a compound again that our body makes on purpose.

0:32:13 Kelly Halderman: Some people have a decreased ability to produce it, which I find very interesting. And then you look at all these pain syndromes and you’re like, oh geez, I wonder if they could just take some of the, you know, the nutrient that their body is wanting to make but can’t and, and help with that. In the clinical trials and again alone, I try never to speak on opinion. I always speak on the, the PubMed findings and the things that we can point to our papers.

0:32:40 Kelly Halderman: It just, it’s very impressive and I think again, you nailed it with the, the ability again to get at that, the root cause of inflammation. Looking at all the effects that it’s, that it’s having in the body just throughout, but really honing in on that brain, that, that microglial activation, that mast cell calming, it’s just, it’s just an amazing, amazing supplement that we can use in a lot of people.

0:33:06 Roland Pankewich: Oh, Kelly, thank you so much for this incredible deep dive. We have yet to do one of these and I think we’re going to have to do some more of them. We might bring you back on if we’re going to do another one in the future. So thank you for starting a trend. I think it’s going to be very useful for all those who listen and I want to thank all those who take the time to listen and support us. And we try to continue to bring you the best guests, the highest level experts and the best education to help you in your journeys.

0:33:30 Roland Pankewich: To finish off, Kelly, is there anything that you can share with us? Maybe if people want to find where you are or what you’re doing, how they can connect with you?

0:33:37 Kelly Halderman: Yeah, I am on all the social media, so LinkedIn as well. So if you have any questions for me, if you’re a practitioner, if you have any questions about, again, using this in your patient population. I don’t see patients anymore. I’m just too busy creating and researching and doing things like this, which are so fun. But again, I can be reached pretty much any, anywhere, and I seem to be the only Kelly Halderman out there.

0:34:04 Kelly Halderman: So people really don’t have any issues finding, finding me out there.

0:34:08 Roland Pankewich: That’s awesome. Well, thank you for being a medical translator and helping us all understand things on a more practical level.

0:34:14 Kelly Halderman: Yeah.

0:34:14 Roland Pankewich: Well, as always, everyone, thank you for being here for another episode. We will be back with some great new guests in the future. So always remember, keep following your gut. We’ll see you next time. Bye now.