The pancreas is the largest gland in the human body. Its role in digestion is the formation and secretion of secretions containing enzymes for the breakdown of fats, proteins and carbohydrates in the duodenum. In addition, pancreatic juice contains bicarbonates, which neutralize the acidic content that enters the intestines from the stomach. About 700 ml of pancreatic secretion are produced by the gland per day. Special pancreatic cells synthesize insulin and glucagon. These are hormonal substances that are directly involved in carbohydrate metabolism. Their action is the opposite: insulin reduces, and glucagon increases the glucose content in the body.
Chronic pancreatitis is an inflammatory pancreatic disease with a long recurrent course, with alternating periods of deterioration and remission, leading to a violation of its functions.
Chronic pancreatitis should not be confused with acute. The latter is a rather serious life-threatening disease, which should be treated only in a surgical hospital.
How to restore the pancreas in chronic pancreatitis and is it possible to do this? This will be discussed in the article.
Causes
Before you learn how to restore the pancreas, you should understand the causes of the disease. They are as follows:
- Alcohol abuse. The toxic effect of ethanol on pancreatic cells has been proven, which leads to their damage and necrosis. As a result of increased pressure in the ducts, the production of enzymes is activated. Alcoholic pancreatitis affects mainly young men who regularly drink low-quality alcohol.
- Errors in nutrition: excessive consumption of fatty, fried, spicy, overeating.
- The presence of other diseases of the digestive system: chronic gastroduodenitis, peptic ulcer of the duodenum.
- Cholelithiasis. More often it causes pancreatitis in women after 50 years who have obesity, high blood pressure and excessive blood cholesterol.
- Violation of the outflow from the pancreas: pathology of the sphincter of Oddi (spasm, inflammation, tumor), Vater's nipple tumor.
- Smoking.
- Stress. They cause impaired motility of smooth muscles.
- Hereditary pancreatic defects (detected in members of the same family).
- Autoimmune pancreatitis. It develops when, due to a malfunction in the immune system, antibodies to pancreatic cells begin to be produced.
- Acute poisoning.
- Helminthiasis.
- Injuries.
- Cystic fibrosis is a condition in which sclerosis of pancreatic tissue occurs. This is the most common cause of pancreatitis in young children.
- Idiopathic pancreatitis.
Clinic
One of the first manifestations of the disease is pain that is localized in the upper and middle parts of the abdomen, in the middle or in the left hypochondrium, is given to the back, and often has a girdle. In the initial stages of the disease during exacerbation, they can be quite strong, boring. In the future, as the development of fibrotic changes, the pain becomes dull and aching, their intensity decreases markedly.
In connection with the violation of the normal functioning of the body, the digestion of food is disturbed: nausea, lack of appetite, periodic vomiting, unstable stool with oily sheen, weight loss. Symptoms of intestinal dysbiosis develop: increased gas formation, belching, fetid stool.
Many patients with chronic pancreatitis, due to a decrease in hormone secretion, develop endocrine disorders - the so-called pancreatogenic diabetes mellitus.
Is it possible to restore the pancreas?
How to restore the pancreas? The answer to this question depends, firstly, on the causes of the disease, and secondly, on how far the process has gone. The best treatment results are achieved in the early stages of the disease, if the cause was an error in the diet. But even with a long experience of pancreatitis, if desired, you can restore the pancreas.
With the development of diabetes, unfortunately, full recovery will not be possible.
How to restore the pancreas?
Dieting is the key to restoring impaired functions. Its main principle is the use of food, which is easily digested in the digestive tract. This makes it possible to rest the damaged pancreas.
General principles of diet for pancreatic disease
How to restore the pancreas? As mentioned above, our nutrition plays an important role here. With the disease, a strict diet is necessary, namely:
- The complete exclusion of fatty, fried, spicy.
- Food should be boiled or steamed.
- Do not consume hot and cold.
List of Recommended Products
How to restore the pancreas? What can I eat? Recommended products are as follows:
- chicken, beef, veal;
- dairy products (natural yogurt, cottage cheese, fermented baked milk, kefir);
- hard mild cheese;
- fish of low-fat varieties (haddock, hake, pollock);
- eggs in the form of omelettes or boiled "soft-boiled";
- limited quantities of tomato, potatoes, other vegetables (except cabbage);
- fruits, with the exception of citrus fruits (baked apples and pears are recommended);
- berries, except raspberries and wild strawberries;
- all types of cereals ;
- desserts: biscuit cookies, marshmallows, marshmallows, inedible crackers;
- drinks: chamomile tea, rosehip broth, weak tea.
Prohibited foods
Is it possible to restore the pancreas and how to do it? As mentioned above, this is quite realistic, but one of the main conditions will be diet. It is strictly forbidden to eat:
- sausages;
- smoked meats;
- whole milk;
- tomatoes, garlic, legumes;
- citrus;
- raspberries and strawberries;
- coffee, black tea, carbonated drinks;
- ice cream;
- mushrooms, etc.
Within a week, cooked food should be cooked. Further, as well-being improves, the need for this disappears. Such a diet should be followed for life.
Pancreatic Recovery Medications
Since one of the most important signs of the disease is a violation of exocrine function, substitution treatment with drugs containing enzymes (amylase, protease, lipase) is prescribed for the recovery period. Pancreatic restorative preparations: Mezim Forte, Creon, Pancreatin, Panzinorm. Doses of drugs and the duration of their intake are selected by the doctor in each case individually.
Under the action of enzymes, digestion of food improves, intestinal pressure decreases, stool normalizes, pain decreases, and the patient's well-being improves.
For the correction of intestinal dysbiosis, preparations containing bifidobacteria and lactobacilli are prescribed: Bifiform, Bifidumbacterin, Bifilis, Linex Forte. Normalization of intestinal microflora helps to reduce flatulence, nausea.
The use of alkaline mineral waters gives a good effect : Borjomi, Essentuki.
To reduce pain, drugs are prescribed from the group of antispasmodics that relax the smooth muscles of the biliary tract and intestines: No-shpa, Duspatalin, Buscopan.
The most proven recipes of traditional medicine for pancreatic restoration
Is it possible and how to restore the pancreas with folk remedies? Such therapy is carried out after the symptoms of exacerbation of the disease subside.
- Take 100 grams of oat grains, rinse, pour water in the amount of one and a half liters, bring to a boil, then simmer for about 40 minutes. Knead the boiled grains and cook for another 20 minutes. Switch off. Cool, strain through a fine sieve. Store the resulting milk in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Eat 100 grams 3-4 times a day before meals.
- Take buckwheat, rinse and sort, then dry on a baking sheet in the oven. Cool. Grind to flour. Dilute in the evening a tablespoon of the obtained flour in a glass of kefir. Take in the morning on an empty stomach.
- In the evening, pour half a glass of buckwheat flour pour 250 ml of kefir, leave until morning. Further according to the scheme: half a serving the next morning, half two hours before bedtime. Take for 10 days, then 10 days off, and so on. This recipe is especially useful for patients with diabetes.
- Take 10 leaves of bay leaf, pour a glass of hot boiled water. Insist a day in a thermos. Take a quarter cup half an hour before meals
- On the basis of ready-made pharmacy herbal preparations containing corn stigmas, plantain, calendula, chamomile, peppermint, decoctions are prepared. The method of preparation and use is usually indicated on the packaging.
To achieve the best result, treatment with traditional medicine should be carried out with mandatory diet and in combination with medications prescribed by a doctor.