Few people think about the functions of the pancreas in the human body. Hearing a diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis, the patient is usually confused. And where did this misfortune come from? If the diagnosis was carried out correctly, you will have to change your lifestyle once and for all. The treatment of chronic pancreatitis is long and serious. If you let the disease take its course, then everything will end in death.
Brief description of pancreatitis as a disease
Chronic pancreatitis occurs when progressive damage begins in the pancreas due to constant inflammation. Today it is one of the most common and serious diseases among men 43-50 years old and women 35-50 years old.
Over the past two decades, the percentage of chronic pancreatitis among adults has increased several times. Doctors attribute this to thoughtless drinking of alcoholic beverages and poor quality nutrition. Alas, now even small children sometimes get this diagnosis.
The disease progresses within 5-6 years asymptomatic. Then he makes himself felt with pain in the abdomen. The continuous inflammatory process of the pancreas also signals a violation of insulin resistance, obesity, general weakness, frequent stomach upsets, diarrhea, and residues of undigested food in the stool.
According to the international classification, the following for chronic pancreatitis is the ICD 10 code:
- K86.0 Chronic pancreatitis of alcoholic etiology.
- K86.1 Other chronic pancreatitis
Often patients also have biliary (or biliary-dependent) pancreatitis. It develops due to existing diseases of the liver, gall bladder and biliary tract.
What is the pancreas and what are its functions?
This organ is located in the abdominal cavity, immediately under the stomach, next to the spleen.
In Latin, this gland is called pancreas. Therefore, its enzymes are called "pancreatic". And the inflammation of this gland is called "pancreatitis."
The pancreas has two main functions:
- exocrine - regulates digestion;
- endocrine - responsible for the production of insulin and the regulation of blood sugar.
Check your pancreas for an ultrasound scan if you experience the following symptoms from time to time:
- bloating, disruption of the gastrointestinal tract;
- unpleasant sour taste in the mouth in between meals;
- nausea and vomiting after eating fatty and heavy foods;
- pain of a girdle in the upper abdomen (aggravated after junk food or drinking alcoholic beverages).
What contributes to the development of pancreatitis
Most often, however sad it may sound, addiction to alcoholic beverages causes chronic inflammation of the pancreas. In our society, drinking on weekends has become the norm. Campaigns in clubs with heavy alcohol libations, gatherings at home for beer - all this became commonplace. It’s rare that anyone realizes that this is commonplace alcoholism.
Liver problems and gallstone disease also often become the causes of the rapid development of pancreatitis.
The third place of honor should be given to malnutrition for many years. All organs suffer, but the pancreas is one of the first to take the blow. Can chronic pancreatitis be cured? The answer to this question largely depends on the desire of the patient.
Three stages of the development of the disease
According to the severity of symptoms, three forms can be distinguished.
- Severe course: due to constant pain, from which the drugs can no longer be saved, the patient is forced to undergo treatment in hospital conditions 4-5 times a year. Due to pancreatic diarrhea, the patient rapidly loses weight, has a pale and haggard appearance. Almost any food eaten causes nausea and vomiting. More and more complications are added: diabetes mellitus, decreased insulin resistance, intestinal paresis, gallstone disease, stagnation of bile.
- Moderate: exocrine pancreatic function is practically absent, in the analysis of feces a large amount of fat and protein. The patient is losing weight, often experiencing girdle pain. But after the course of treatment, he still maintains a long remission - about a year. Then the symptoms return, and with each next year the tests are getting worse.
- Mild course: the tests are almost normal, body weight and appearance, as in a healthy person. Of the symptoms, only frequent diarrhea, mild nausea after a rich oily food, an unpleasant sour taste in the mouth.
Chronic pancreatitis: symptoms and treatment in adults
Often people do not care about their health. Having heard their diagnosis, they are in no hurry to adjust their nutrition and give up alcohol. Meanwhile, chronic pancreatitis in several years is able to progress to pancreatic necrosis, and this is a fatal diagnosis, and the chances of surviving with it are slim.
If you discover the symptoms of this ailment, do not hesitate, consult a doctor. Diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis is simple and easy to do today. In just a couple of days, doctors will be able to accurately say what exactly the patient suffers from.
Treatment of chronic pancreatitis is usually carried out inpatiently. Approximate procedure for a patient in a hospital:
- Following a strict diet. The first days after exacerbation and diagnosis, almost complete starvation is recommended.
- Elimination of pain and spasms - here medications are used.
- Normalization of the digestive process. Reporting to the patient that now for the rest of his life he needs to adhere to a certain diet, completely eliminate alcohol from his life.
- Replenishment of enzyme deficiency using fermented preparations.
- If this is still possible, try to recover some of the affected pancreatic tissue.
Pharmacology against pancreatitis
If the tests showed the presence of infection, antibiotic therapy is carried out for 8-10 days. If the ducts are inflamed, they usually prescribed Amoxiclav, Amoxicillin (the doctor always chooses the drug). Also, antibiotics in some cases can facilitate the outflow of bile. But sometimes Ursosan is additionally prescribed for this. Such measures help stop the inflammatory process, thereby relieving pain in chronic pancreatitis. For spasmodic girdle pain, Noshpu or Drotaverinum is prescribed.
In parallel, you must follow the nutritional rules for chronic pancreatitis. Otherwise, the course of antibiotics will be taken in vain, and the symptoms will return again.
To reduce the level of acidity, "Maalox" or "Almagel" is most often prescribed.
To reduce the general intoxication of the body with inflammation of the pancreas, the modern preparations Hemodez and Ringer have proven themselves well.
Chronic pancreatitis (ICD code 10 - K 86.0) most often causes a complication of the gastrointestinal tract. For normal digestion, the patient is prescribed drugs-enzymes "Creon", "Pancreatin".
If medicines for chronic pancreatitis did not give the expected improvement, then the patient is prepared for surgery.
Nutrition Rules for Patients
Diet plays a huge role in restoring the well-being of a sick person. Most often, the pancreas begins to function incorrectly if a person abuses fatty, spicy, salty foods and often drinks alcohol. Heavy smokers are also at risk.
The diet and treatment of chronic pancreatitis are closely related. If you continue to eat, as before, then the disease will develop into pancreatic necrosis (i.e., actually the death of the pancreas and poisoning of the body by toxins).
- Prefer well-ground food (even if you take separately enzymes for digestion). Cream soups, vegetable purees, minced meat (for example, steamed cutlets).
- Stick to fractional nutrition. Large volumes of food are now simply not able to digest the stomach. Optimum 7-8 meals per day. The total volume of one serving is about 200 grams.
- The balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates should be balanced. Once and for all, forget about meat diets and vegetable fasting days. Daily in small quantities in the diet should be proteins, and healthy fats, and carbohydrates.
- The total calorie content of the daily diet is about 1500-2000 kcal for women and 2500-3000 kcal for men. You can not overeat, this will cause an exacerbation of the disease and the occurrence of pain in the abdominal region.
Approximate daily diet
An excellent breakfast would be oatmeal on the water. To make up for the lack of healthy fats, add a teaspoon of olive oil. For drinks, prefer weakly concentrated compotes of your own preparation (you can cook them from fresh frozen berries or use dried fruits).
Snack - one non-acidic apple, a glass of fermented baked milk.
For lunch, be sure to eat protein foods. Light vegetable soup with sliced boiled chicken. Or a plate of buckwheat porridge with veal goulash. You can’t fry food, i.e. about chops, scrambled eggs, classic cutlets in oil, you can forget about forever.
Another snack is a briquette of low-fat cottage cheese with a spoon of honey or non-sour fruit.
Dinner will be perfect protein. Steamed fish with greens (cod, pollock, carp - give preference to low-fat varieties). As a side dish, a vegetable salad seasoned with a tablespoon of olive oil is suitable.
Sometimes you can arrange a "feast of the stomach" - please yourself with low-fat ice cream, a milkshake or kefir smoothie with your favorite fresh berries.
Nutrition for chronic pancreatitis is the key to stable remission.
Folk remedies for pancreatitis
Many patients like to use simple home remedies in the treatment of diseases. Older people are still confident that herbal infusions can heal almost any disease. Symptoms of chronic pancreatitis and treatment in adults suggest the opposite: starting from the second stage, traditional medicine is powerless.
Here are the most popular ones.
- A decoction of rose hips and needles. Dry rose hips (300 g) and 100 grams of green needles are poured with a liter of water and brought to a boil. Then the berries are crushed to a puree condition, as far as possible, and boiled for another half hour. Strain the pulp from the needles and rose hips, and the broth is taken twice a day half an hour before meals in a glass.
- Corn stigmas, peppermint, calendula and plantain are mixed in equal proportions. Pour boiling water, insist for two hours. The resulting infusion should be taken on an empty stomach, several times a day. Only at the initial stage of pancreatic inflammation, immediately after the diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis, can there be any sense from such infusions.
- It is believed that raw potato juice mixed in half with carrot juice can heal pancreatitis in a couple of weeks. Whether you believe this miraculous recipe is up to you. If you decide to try, be careful, as the juice of raw carrots can cause increased pain.
- People are advised to drink goat milk every day on an empty stomach. Allegedly, after such a breakfast, the manifestations of the disease in many people are gone. Goat milk does have a number of beneficial properties. But scientific studies have not proven the effect of goat milk on the state of the pancreas.
Many patients are interested in the question of how to cure chronic pancreatitis forever with folk remedies. If it were possible so simply, would people suffer from an exacerbation of the disease for many years? The treatment of chronic pancreatitis is not as quick and simple as it might seem at first glance. It happens that the disease returns after a couple of years, and during this time irreversible changes have time to occur.
Can chronic pancreatitis be cured?
It is definitely difficult to answer this question. A lot depends on the stage of the disease and on the individual characteristics of the body, general health. The important thing is whether the person himself is ready to make efforts to recover.
Starting from the second stage, it is impossible to get rid of this disease. If degenerative processes have already begun in the pancreas, they can only be slowed down.
Patients who forever gave up alcohol in any quantities, completely redefined their diet and lifestyle, can forget about the recurrence of pancreatitis for many years or even decades. But a return to the old way of life will invariably lead to an exacerbation of the condition.
Surgical treatments
In some cases, surgery cannot be avoided: it is about the survival of the patient. With inadequate treatment of chronic pancreatitis, the case often ends with surgery.
The main task of the surgeon is the elimination of necrotic foci in the pancreas. In the presence of cysts and abscesses - their complete removal. Pancreatic drainage is done to reduce pressure. Also, pus and fluid are released through the drainage, which can cause an infectious process if they have nowhere to be excreted.
Often surgeons have to make anastomoses between the pancreas and intestines. The prognosis of the patient's life expectancy after such operations is unfavorable.