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By sankey on Monday, April 12th, 2010 | 16 Comments
Hi everyone. A reader, CB wrote to us recently and asked us to post her story:

“I have been suffering with pain since Thanksgiving 2009. Actually about a month or two before but not as severe until Thanksgiving. I am not an alcoholic and rarely drink. On Thanksgiving I was admitted into our local hospital. I was put on an IV and pain killers. I was told that I had gallstones. Two days later they removed my gallbladder and appendix and fixed a small hernia. I continued to have pain on my left side right below my ribs which radiated to my back. I continued to go to my family doctor and advised her of this. She stated that it would take time to recover from this surgery. I continued to have pain and she took a blood test which showed my white blood cells were elevated, so assumed that the pain was due to an infection. I was treated with antibiotics and told that there was a pocket of fluid by the incision from the hernia surgery. When the pocket of fluid wasn’t reduced after the antibiotic treatment, the doctor tried to drain the pocket by reopening my belly button. Even after that I continued to have pain. Finally after almost 2 months after my surgery, I was sent to a gastrinologist. At first all he did was give me more pain killers and review blood tests. He advised me that my pancreas and liver levels were high. Which for my pancreas was told they should be between 0 – 300 and were coming back at the lowest 900. I was then told to go on a low fat diet. So I did, but I was still having pain. I eventually went on a completely fat free diet. I still continued to have pain. Another visit and the doctor finally decided to schedule some tests. The first test was an MR/CP. The radiologist said that it showed nothing. Thank God the doctor decided to review the scan himself. He advised that he seen a small blockage in the tail end of my Pancreas. He then scheduled me an ER/CP.

After that test he verified that there was a blockage. I was then referred to a University for an EUS. At that time a biopsy was taken. I was informed that the test results came back inconclusive. I was then referred to a surgeon. On March 8th 2010 I went in for surgery. The surgeon was almost positive that I had cancer. 75% of my pancreas, my spleen, 22 lymph nodes, a stomach biopsy and a wedge resection of my bowel was performed.

(It turned out to be a cyst in my pancreas which was not cancerous) I was in the hospital for 6 days. My recovery started out good. I had a JP tube in to get the excess fluids out of me. After approximately 2 weeks the JP tube was removed. On that day, I went to our local ER in so much pain, I could barely breathe or move. They sent me back to the University Hospital who performed the procedure. They ran several tests and came up with no cause.

I was kept in the hospital for 2 days and when released was advised that I needed to go back on a fat free diet. The day after being released I went back to the gastronologist for his opinion and assistance. At that time he referred me back to the University ER. It has been 8 days now with only minor pain. Today however the pain was back. The only time I have had complete relief is when I have been on a complete liquid diet. I know this is not healthy by any means. I have lost almost 40lbs since the procedure that was done on March 8th. I am absolutely terrified that I will die as the doctors seem not to be able to do anything except give me pain medication, which is beginning not to work anymore. I need help and feel I have nowhere to turn. Every doctor I see continues to refer me back to the Hospital that performed the procedure. Even my insurance company which assigned me a case manager is concerned. I have two children and am so worried. I’m afraid to sleep or eat anymore. I don’t know what to do or where to turn.”

As a postscript to CB’s original note:

“I have an appointment on April 15th with the surgeon and will press her for answers as to the diagnosis of my condition and what avenue I should take to finally be done with this extreme pain. I will advise you of what I find out. Hopefully my information and story will help someone out that is experiancing the same issues. Thank you for your research and your support. As bad as this may sound, it’s nice to know I’m not alone in my suffering.“

We’d love to hear from any others who have had similar experiences to CB (and I’m sure CB would love to hear from you as well!).

I’m sure all of us wish CB all the very best.

Kind regards

Jenny

By sankey on Monday, March 29th, 2010 | 2 Comments
Hi

BP from Sacramento California asks this question in a recent email – something many who have had pancreatitis as long as he has often ask themselves. If you have any thoughts on this please leave a post.

In the meantime, thanks to BP for sharing your thoughts and concerns.

Regards and best of health to all

Jenny

FROM BP:

I have had idiopathic chronic pancreatitis for more than twenty years and for twenty years prior I had occasional attacks of sharp pain that had been variously misdiagnosed, but was likely my pancreas. Three months ago I had an attack which generated not only pain under the sternum, but also on the back right side of my rib cage which has never resolved. I was unable to return to eating anything without taking enzymes. It seems the pain on my rib cage is gradually increasing and often after eating even a nearly fat free meal with small portions I have pain on the front of the chest which will usually resolve by taking another enzyme capsule.

I had an MRI/MRCP dye contrast which shows a badly atrophied body and tail of the pancreas and two pseudo cysts (fluid)approximately 3/4 inch diameter and about 1 and 1/4 inch long. They both touch the duct which appears totally normal. I had the gall bladder removed 2 1/2 years ago because I was passing stones. My pancreas is apparently not producing much of anything to assist in digestion and is only giving me pain.

I am 66 years old, am not diabetic yet, have aggressive coronary artery disease, but at the moment no angina and take no medications for the heart.

I have investigated the possibility of a total pancreatectomy with islet cell transplant in the liver at the University of Cincinnati Pancreas Disease Center. I am not sure I can get medicare or insurance to approve the procedure, but it looks like a possible way out of my pain without becoming diabetic.

What are the negative consequences of such a surgery? Is it a possible solution to remedy the pain? Another pancreas sufferer said that she was told a total pancreatectomy would result in phantom pancreas pain. Is that true? Thanks for taking my questions.

By sankey on Monday, March 1st, 2010 | 6 Comments
As most would know we strongly advocate asking questions of medical professionals if you are ever in doubt or unsure about the diagnosis process, what treatments are being considered for pancreatitis, etc. We’ve had some recent feedback from LM who writes about recent experiences with her 13 year old daughter who has just had a first attack. We’ll let LM tell the story:

Hi i am so sorry your dad wasnt diagnosed properly you must be devastated and let down by the health profession.

My daughter who is only 13 had her first pancreatitis attack in September followed by being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and is now on drugs to control colitis which can bring back pancreatitis! She has now had a second pancreatitis attack and the hospital she is under thought it was her just not “managing the pain” but we stuck together as a family and said it wasnt acceptable her pain and after 10 days they are now listening to us and her after implying “difficult family circumstances” is the problem! She had an ultrasound yesterday and is having an MRCP scan next week now and may go on pancreatic enzymes like you mentioned. Fingers crossed the health care havent messed up and let her pancreas get too bad as she is on tramadol for pain as i insisted and anti sickness drugs. Its been a trying time for the last 6 months in and out of hospitals with 2 recurring diseases running alongise so i know how you must of felt.

Reading your article has armed me with fresh ammunition to ask more questions for a meeting in 1 hours time with the consultant so thank you for that.

Take care

LM

By sankey on Saturday, March 28th, 2009 | No Comments
Interesting to hear of a recent report in Diabetes Care that found a strong relationship between Type II diabetes and pollutants in the body. Some may now argue that because of the use of contaminants in conventional commercial vegetable and fruit growing operations, that people with diminished pancreatic function should stick to organically grown food.

I’ve got to admit I haven’t been able to find a copy of the actual study but the article I read mentioned six particular pollutants as being of concern, including:

hexachlorobiphenyl
2 dioxins: heptadioxin and OCDdioxin
2 pesticides: oxychlordane and trans-nonachlor, and
a pesticide metabolite: DDE, a metabolite of DDT
It seems the study found that these chemicals were found in more than 80 percent of the study participants and this group had almost 38 times greater likelihood of developing diabetes as those with the lowest level of exposure.

As we say in the book ‘Cooking Hints and Recipes for Pancreatitis’ one shouldn’t want any chemical additives to the food one eats. Our preference would be to go organic, but we realize that’s not always possible for everyone because of price, availability and assurance that you are in fact getting organic. (One thing you find when you start looking in to this area of food processing is that there is a ‘range’ in determining whether or not something is organic).

Nevertheless, the evidence seems to be mounting that chemicals used in the growing of food can and do have an impact upon the ultimate consumer of that produce. I can’t vouch for this, but the article I read said that the average American takes in nearly a gallon of pesticides per year by eating conventionally grown fruits and vegetables! For the pancreatitis sufferer, it means continued vigilance in controlling what food one consumes, not only because of the potential poisoning but also because of the greater risk of further impairment to the pancreas and the potential for increasing the potential on-set of diabetes.

Until next time.

Bill

[email protected]

www.pancreatitis-diet.com

Taming the Sugar Beast (Part 3)

By sankey on Sunday, February 1st, 2009 | 3 Comments
White is NOT right when it comes to sugar (..and rice…and bread!)

We’ve probably all suspected it for a long, long time but there’s now growing empirical evidence that in the pursuit of perfect-looking white sugar and fluffy white bread rolls and rice, we’ve emptied these products of their original nutritional value and have, in the process, increased our risk of disease. Richard Weisinger of La Trobe University in Melbourne Australia has recently reported finding important nutritional health benefits in products that are removed when processing white sugar.

“When sugar is processed, the stuff that is thrown away seems to have a lot of polyphenols” he explained recently.

Polyphenols are natural plant chemicals that have powerful antioxidant properties and numerous potential health benefits. One of these potential benefits, suggests Weisinger, is to reduce the amount of fat our body retains after eating a fatty meal. Returning polyphenols to our refined sugar has the potential to reduce insulin resistance and diabetes.

In the experiments Weisinger used mice to test the benefits of polyphenols in sugar. He found that polyphenols reduced the amount of fat that mice stored in their bodies. The mice given the polyphenols did not get as fat as the ones without the polyphenols.

Weisinger explained that these benefits are specific to polyphenols from sugar cane which are different from those found in other food sources such as green tea. He hopes his research can be used to benefit individuals at risk of diabetes by reducing insulin resistance. Insulin is produced in the body (as we know by the pancreas). It removes sugar from the bloodstream and stores excess sugar as saturated fat. Insulin resistance, the cause of diabetes, leads to an inability to remove sugar from the blood.

Researchers are unsure precisely how polyphenols act in the body to reduce fat intake, but Weisinger has some ideas:

“Polyphenols increase energy excretion and make it more difficult to store fat, For example, instead of your body absorbing all of the calories from a meal, it will only keep 90% of the calories. The remaining calories are excreted in faeces.”

Weisinger goes on to explain that larger fat cells, that store a lot of fat, release certain hormones that are inflammatory – certainly not something that pancreatitis sufferers need! Any inflammatory inducing hormones could cause inflammation of the pancreas and cause a flare-up.

So, what’s the upshot of this research for the pancreatitis sufferer. Well, firstly as we’ve been reinforcing throughout previous articles, it is best to remove the need for additional sugar in the diet. Any additional blood sugar is going to put pressure on the pancreas to produce the insulin required to remove the sugar from the bloodstream. Everyone’s tolerance of sugar will be different, but if you are currently adding sugar-based products to your cooking or tea and coffee, then it will be best to use sugar cane products with the least level of processing. From the article I read about Weisinger’s research it wasn’t clear what alternatives to white cane sugar there might be. One could presume that raw can sugar would contain a higher number of polyphenols than the white.

There’s obviously a lot more research that needs to be done in this area, but I still tend to think that the pancreatitis sufferer will do well to continue to reduce his/her ‘sweetness habit’ and in the process use natural sweetners such as stevia.

Oh, some may have been wondering why we ever started removing the polyphenols from sugar cane. As Weisinger explains, “Polyphenols are bitter. People like white, beautiful and very sweet sugar”. Just reinforces our belief that we’ve become increasingly addicted to sweetness in our food and we must start to tame the sugar beast before it gets completely out of control! Colour in our food is a very good thing.

Till next time.

Bill

[email protected]