The pancreas is a forgotten organ in the human body.
By the way, where is your pancreas located? Very few people point their fingers in the right place. It is almost one of the unknown organs in the gastrointestinal tract. Very few are familiar with normal pancreatic function too. The popular pancreatic interests are centered mostly with diabetes and pancreatic cancer.
This book is about the pancreas. Writing this kind of book causes the serious dilemma of how to make the reading of this book useful and easy to understand for people without a medical background and, from another hand, making it practical for the medical professionals, which don’t need popularization, but are interested in scientific dates and clinical details?
1st chapter section
The authors have their own writing style. Every beginning of a chapter will have a section for individuals lacking a medical background devoid of getting into the jungle of heavy medical and chemical terminology. This section of the book is for average individuals without deep medical knowledge but with common sense and willingness to learn more. In this case, simple words, charts, analogies, and pictures will be used.
It is difficult to find a person that does not have digestion problems. The digestive system, or gastrointestinal tract, includes hollow tube organs, such as the mouth, throat, esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines as well as solid glands such as the salivary glands, liver, and pancreas.
The pancreas is a vital organ for our body. People can survive without the stomach, small intestine, and colon but not without the pancreas. Life depends on this small gland, deeply hidden inside the abdomen cavity. The pancreas is an organ with dual tasks. Most individuals are only aware about the role of the pancreas in sugar metabolism, and that pancreas produces insulin, the vital hormone to prevent diabetes.
The second function of the pancreas is producing digestive enzymes – powerful proteins that split food we eat into particles small enough to travel through the intestinal wall so that we can digest and assimilate this food.
Ask anyone around, and almost everyone have some sort of annoying GI symptoms: gas, abdominal distention, belching, heartburn, abdominal cramps, pains, nausea/vomiting, diarrhea/constipation, and so on.
What many people do not realize is that the function of many organs and systems and the whole body’s health, strongly depend upon the health of our digestive system. Our health and life depends upon the quality and amount of food we eat and how we can digest this food, assimilate this food, and eliminate waste. The pancreas is a key player in the digestive team. This book focuses about the close relationship between the liver, gallbladder, pancreas, and intestines. Normally, these organs work as orchestra, but in sick conditions, they are bickering foes.
From this book, you will learn about the connection of the endocrine (hormonal) and exocrine (producing and releasing digestive enzymes) functions of the pancreas.
- How to improve the function of the pancreatic gland, as a whole organ?
- How to increase the production and activity of digestive pancreatic enzymes?
- How to help the pancreas to heal and postpone severe complications after the first attack?
- How to help a sick and weak pancreas without drugs and knives?
- How to increase insulin sensitivity?
Here, readers will find the answers to these very important questions.
Most human diseases depend on two big problems:
1. The deficiency of vital substances in the body such as water, proteins, minerals, trace elements, vitamins and so on. As your car without gasoline stops moving, so the deficiency of the vital nutrients will stop the organs from performing their proper tasks.
2. Toxicity (chemical or biological): Toxicity literally kills the cells and harmfully influences the body’s metabolism causing inflammation, pain, cancer development and so on.
These two factors are directly related to pancreatic health. Besides that, this book will try to explain how the whole body acidity – metabolic acidosis destroys the pancreas and proper work of pancreatic enzymes and pancreatic hormones.
Millions of Americans suffer from a variety of gastrointestinal disorders including abdominal pain, stomach discomfort, cramps, gas, bloating, heartburn, cravings, malnutrition, alteration in bowel habits, foul-smelling stool, etc. Many of these sufferers have pancreatic deficiency and do not realize it.
Those suffering from this problem can eat a healthy diet, but the body will not properly utilize the food’s nutrients. Their organisms are literally starving. Some people can be overweight but their body can have severe malnutrition. Without the proper amount and good quality of pancreatic digestive enzymes, even the “healthiest” diet in the world will not make you healthy, good looking and young.
Without the proper function of the pancreas, which produces the right amount of high quality digestive, pancreatic enzymes, people cannot properly digest food; therefore, they suffer also from a deficiency of essential minerals, trace elements, and vitamins. This deficiency leads to serious disturbances of the gastrointestinal tract and the entire organism.
Millions of people are continually tired, develop chronic diseases, and age prematurely. In the worst case scenario, they develop pancreatic cancer.
People can suffer from a hidden pancreatic deficiency and do not even know that a lack of the pancreatic digestive enzymes can also increase inflammation, body’s pain, and a lack of energy, hindering the body’s ability to heal the wounds and traumas.
The popular health books and websites focus on the liver, colon, heart and stomach but not on the pancreas. On the other hand, there is not much medical literature concerning pancreatic health either. Various specialists have different opinions focusing on different aspects of the pancreatic health.
This sounds a lot like the story about six blind men who were asked to determine what an elephant looked like by feeling different parts of the elephant’s body. The blind men guessed that the elephant looked either like a pillar, rope, tree branch, hand fan, wall or solid pipe from feeling the elephant’s leg, tail, trunk, ear, belly and tusk (in that order). All the blind men were correct, but this was far from the real picture obviously.
In this book, you will find personal viewpoints from the authors on digestive (pancreatic) problems, which are confirmed by common sense, years of the authors’ personal, clinical experiences but also scientific information from many respectful researchers and medical doctors.
If you have health problems, you will find many recommendations in this book. Do not use them as medical advice. Try to find knowledgeable medical providers to work with. Belief, willingness, patience, and self-discipline are required for this job.
2nd chapter section
The rest of each chapter is provided for individuals with a medical background wishing to know more and, certainly, for medical professionals.
Today, researchers and medical practitioners look at the pancreas and make different points of view on cause, development, and possible treatment of its disorders and diseases according to their own specialty.
Having medical experience in acute, intensive care, outpatient clinic and private practice in digestive disorders’ allows the authors sharing of thoughts about pancreatic health.
Some topics about pancreatic health in this book are new and will sound strange to some.
To convince conservative, but interested in this topic persons, more than 300 referrals from respectful and reputable medical books, textbooks, magazines, articles, and websites are referenced. These referrals are scientific and clinical works regarding pancreatic function, health, disorders of the pancreas and their treatment of respectful and well known professors, researchers, medical doctors and health practitioners from the USA, Canada, North and South America, Europe, Asia, Russia, etc.
Medically speaking, the pancreas by itself is also in a strange situation. Disorders of the exocrine function of this organ are the priority of the gastroenterologists, but other specialists treat pancreatic endocrine diseases such as diabetes.
Let’s take, for example, chronic pancreatitis. Even authorities in pancreatic diseases do not have a consensus what is the main reason for developing this serious disease.
In all medical schools’ textbooks of gastroenterology (for example, Yamada T et al, Sleisenger & Fordtran’s, etc.), it can be seen that the clinical presentation of chronic pancreatitis starts from steatorrhea, malabsorption, diabetes, pain and weight loss. This condition in the medical literature is called “pancreatic insufficiency”. Sorry to say, it is not pancreatic insufficiency; this is real pancreatic failure similar to kidney, liver, heart and lung failure.
Clinical description of chronic pancreatitis begins from the final stage of this disease, when only 10% functional capacity is left, and the treatment approach is very limited. This is a medical paradox.
From the first attack of pancreatitis to pancreatic failure takes about 8 -15 years. Therefore, the focus has to be done in this time, to prevent pancreatic failure, which is called chronic pancreatitis now. Even for brilliant specialists with virtuous technique and sophisticated equipment it is not an easy task to help patients when the pancreatic tissue and 90% functionality is gone.
Successful treatment of pancreatic diseases nowadays is generally difficult and requires many different approaches.
Exocrine pancreatic disorders are more common than formerly believed both in diabetic and non-diabetic people. For instance, autopsy studies indicate pancreatic involvement in 13% of a “normal” population. Some clinical studies find the relation between functional digestive diseases and low pancreatic function. In almost all chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, exocrine pancreatic function is diminished.
87,000 cases of pancreatitis annually occur in the USA. This is only the tip of the iceberg of digestive (pancreatic) diseases. Acute and chronic pancreatitis are diseases on the rise.
The diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis can be challenging since laboratory studies and imaging procedures may be normal, especially in the beginning of this process. Most attacks of pancreatitis are mild and go undiagnosed.
Some authorities in the pancreatic field consider that 8% of diabetes mellitus cases are caused by chronic pancreatitis. On the other hand, a large number of diabetics suffer from digestive problems as well.
According to the statistics, the epidemic of obesity leads to a rise in epidemic proportions of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (fatty liver). There is growing evidence that the fatty liver combines with the fatty pancreas with lowering of both their functions.
More than 25 million people in the United States suffer from liver, bile duct, or gallbladder diseases, according to the American Liver Foundation. No question that in many of these cases, there is close pancreatic involvement.
The authors’ viewpoint that the pandemic of digestive (pancreatic) disorders is strongly interrelated with the pandemics of metabolic acidosis and dysbiosis will be attempted to be proven in this book.
Medical providers can help their patients by focusing on early stages of the pancreatic disorders. The authors propose that the practical, clinical classification of the exocrine pancreatic deficiency stages be the following: functional, structural, and irreversible. For each of these stages, the reader will find healing programs and recommendations.
It is time for medical professionals to reassess established protocols dealing with pancreatic health. Medical practitioners are used to looking at the pancreas as an “accessory” digestive gland. Yet, here it is considered that the pancreas is one of the body’s essential organs. Moreover, it is believed that all gastrointestinal health critically depends upon the proper functioning of this vital organ.
Basic scientific and clinical evidence currently encourages a fresh, holistic look at the development of pancreatic disorders, particularly a comprehensive look at the pancreas as a whole and vital organ.
In the minds of the authors, here are the most salient points:
- Almost all problems of the GI tract are closely related with the proper functioning of the pancreas. Therefore, a clinical diagnosis of a gastrointestinal disorder de facto includes pancreatic disorders.
- The pancreas is the main organ of the entire digestive system. It is vital for the pancreas to have strong and healthy relationships and connections to its “neighbors” and “co-workers” such as the liver, gallbladder, stomach, duodenum, small and large intestines.
- Today, the medical view on digestive disorders narrowly focuses on the “hollow” organs such as the stomach, small and large intestines without any attention on the “solid” digestive glands such as the pancreas and liver. It is known that without proper quality and quantity of pancreatic juice and bile, the normal digestive process in hollow chambers could not occur.
- Furthermore, it is important to look at the close relationship between exocrine and endocrine functions of the pancreas when assessing pancreatic disorders. Both pancreatitis and diabetes are diseases of the pancreas, and they have many similarities in point of causes, development, symptoms, course, complications, and treatment.
- Pancreatic disorders develop relatively slowly; therefore, medical professionals need to be more sensitive and focus on the first silent signs and symptoms at the beginning of the illness.
- The treatment of pancreatitis at the final stage of the disease is very difficult; preventive measures and treatment at the early stages of these diseases are more likely to stop or reverse the progression of the disease and to postpone pancreatic failure.
- Normal pancreatic function is vitally dependent upon maintaining homeostasis of the body. Metabolic acidosis and a deficiency of proteins, vitamins, minerals, trace elements, and bicarbonates have a serious and negative impact on pancreatic function, digestion and entire health.
- For healing purposes, it is essential to focus on the patients’ lifestyle, and diet and their possible impact on the development of pancreatic disorders.
- It is difficult to overestimate the positive or negative impact of food on digestive (pancreatic) disorders. Therefore, the patient must be taught the proper customized healing diet and then must adhere to the dietary recommendations.
- Digestive (pancreatic) disorders must be observed with an outlook on the regulation of the pancreas by digestive hormones, as well as the nervous and endocrine systems.
- Positive changes of harmful environmental, toxic, parasitic, and dysbiotic factors are necessary for the prevention and treatment of digestive (pancreatic) disorders.
This book is an attempt for a fresh and deep, holistic look into the pancreas, its structure, and function as a vital organ for whole body. This book focuses on the many ways of to improve the functions of the pancreas by using nondrug, non-surgery approaches. These rational approaches have been used for hundreds of years by medical doctors, and health professionals all over the globe, for millions of their patients to improve the digestive (pancreatic) health.
The authors have used many of these methods in their practice for decades with positive results. Some of these holistic, alternative and complementary approaches for healing and avoiding pancreatic disorders are absolutely unknown by the American public and medical professionals, for example, using healing mineral water and a medical diet for pancreatic aliments.
Because the pancreas is a very complicated essential organ with many puzzles and mysteries, prevention and treatment of pancreatic disorders are extremely difficult problems and require many disciplinary approaches.
The authors consider that there is only one medicine to help people prevent and treat the diseases but that implementation can be different. Successful treatment of pancreatic diseases requires a team approach. Practitioners of complementary or alternative medicine can be very good players in this process, especially in the early stages.
The authors emphatically believe that healing approaches described in this book can improve the quality of life and life span of sufferers of pancreatic diseases.
The medical credo of the authors: “The treatment of disease must be less dangerous than disease itself!”
The authors hope that this book will be useful to many different health professionals: medical doctors, naturopathic physicians, RNs, chiropractors, herbalists, acupuncturists, nutritionists, and colon hydro therapists and, most importantly, for the hundreds and thousands of sufferers with the digestive (pancreatic diseases).
Evidence based clinical and scientific practice has been shown in this book:
Healthy pancreas means a healthy organism
Authors
