Your pancreas is one of the many glands in your body that keep you healthy and your digestive system functioning properly. But sometimes, pancreatitis can disrupt the natural processes of the pancreas and probably requires treatment.
Acute pancreatitis can occur at any age. The good news is that, with treatment, it usually disappears within a few days. However, if not treated properly, it can lead to chronic or recurrent pancreatitis, which can be difficult to treat, as well as other life-threatening conditions.
Here, we will cover pancreatitis and the symptoms that may be felt. We’ll also go over how pancreatitis is diagnosed and what your treatment options are so your pancreas can function as it should.
What is pancreatitis and how does it develop?
The pancreas is responsible for producing enzymes that help break down food in the body. It also produces hormones, such as insulin, that are released into the bloodstream to control blood sugar levels.
When functioning properly, the pancreas produces digestive enzymes that flow from the pancreas to the intestines to aid in digestion. But with pancreatitis, digestive enzymes can leak into the pancreas and cause irritation and inflammation.
Inflammation can be acute (appears quickly and disappears shortly) or chronic (symptoms occur over long periods of time). With chronic pancreatitis, symptoms tend to worsen and can lead to more serious health problems.
There is also a rare condition called autoimmune pancreatitis, in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the pancreas. As with many other autoimmune diseases, doctors aren’t sure why this happens.
Where is the pancreas located?
The pancreas is a tadpole-shaped gland located between the stomach and the spine, near the first part of the small intestine. When your pancreas is working normally, you shouldn’t be able to feel it. But with pancreatitis, you experience abdominal pain where the pancreas is located that may radiate to your back.
Pancreatitis symptoms vary depending on the type of pancreatitis you experience.
There are three types of pancreatitis: acute, chronic and autoimmune. Acute and chronic are the most common forms, and while symptoms are similar between types, they are usually caused by different things.
Common Acute Pancreatitis Symptoms You May Experience
The most common symptom of acute pancreatitis is pain in the upper stomach that may start quickly or come on slowly and spread to the back. The pain can be mild or severe and last for several days. Other common symptoms of acute pancreatitis may include:
- Fever
- Nausea
- fast heart rate
- Swollen abdomen that may be tender to the touch.
Chronic pancreatitis symptoms can be serious
Chronic pancreatitis usually causes the same symptoms as acute pancreatitis. However, it can cause additional, more serious symptoms based on impaired pancreatic function. These may include:
- Indigestion and pain after eating.
- Loss of appetite
- Greasy poop that leaves an oily film in the toilet.
- Sudden, unintentional weight loss
Symptoms of autoimmune pancreatitis.
It can be difficult to diagnose both types of autoimmune pancreatitis because it is very rare and one form may resemble pancreatic cancer. Type 1 is the most common and can cause inflammation and swelling not only in the pancreas, but also problems in the kidneys, liver, lungs, and other organs. Autoimmune pancreatitis type 2 only affects the pancreas, but may be associated with inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Common symptoms include:
- Pain in the upper abdomen and lower back.
- Diarrhea
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Unintentional weight loss
Pancreatitis can happen to anyone. Excessive alcohol consumption and gallstones account for about 80% of pancreatitis cases, and the rest are usually caused by certain types of medications, viral infections, trauma, or surgery of the pancreas.
Gallstones can cause acute pancreatitis
To digest food, your body produces bile, a digestive enzyme, and stores it in the gallbladder. When bile builds up and hardens, it can form gallstones. These gallstones can block the bile duct and cause inflammation and other symptoms of pancreatitis.
Because high levels of estrogen can slow gallbladder function, gallstones and gallstone complications, such as pancreatitis, occur more frequently in women and pregnant women.
Gallstones are common and do not always cause complications. But when symptoms of pancreatitis occur, it is important to receive treatment as soon as possible, before symptoms worsen and complications occur.
Alcohol-related pancreatitis is caused by excessive alcohol consumption.
Alcohol-related pancreatitis is associated with excessive alcohol consumption, usually over a long period of time. Doctors aren’t sure why it happens to some people who drink alcohol for a long time and to others who don’t.
It rarely occurs from excessive alcohol consumption, but excessive alcohol consumption is occasionally associated with acute pancreatitis, where recurrent acute attacks of pancreatitis can become chronic.
Possible risk factors for autoimmune pancreatitis
With an autoimmune disorder, the body’s immune system becomes overactive, causing it to attack healthy organs and tissues. If you have autoimmune pancreatitis, your body’s immune system attacks your pancreas for many reasons, including:
- Have an autoimmune disorder, such as lupus, inflammatory bowel disease, or rheumatoid arthritis
- Certain viruses and bacterial infections.
- certain medications
- Low thyroid levels (also known as hypothyroidism, commonly caused by Hashimoto’s thyroiditis)
Because the symptoms of autoimmune pancreatitis can resemble the symptoms of pancreatic cancer, it is important to obtain an accurate diagnosis so that appropriate treatment can be sought.
How pancreatitis is diagnosed
The pancreas is located deep in the abdomen, so diagnosing problems related to the pancreas can be challenging, especially through a physical examination. So if you are experiencing symptoms of any form of pancreatitis, your doctor will first check your pancreatic function in several ways:
- Imaging tests – This includes ultrasound, which can create an image of your pancreas, as well as find gallstones; a computed tomography (CT) scan to create images of the pancreas, gallbladder, and bile ducts; and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which examines organs to determine possible causes of pancreatitis.
- blood test – These evaluate your levels of digestive enzymes, blood sugar, and lipids (fats), as well as for signs of inflammation in the pancreas, gallbladder, liver, and bile ducts.
Chronic pancreatitis requires additional diagnostic steps
If your doctor suspects you may have chronic pancreatitis, he or she may also order a fecal analysis in addition to imaging and blood tests. This determines whether you have fat malabsorption, where the body cannot extract nutrients from the foods you eat. A fecal analysis can also help determine whether the pancreas produces enough digestive enzymes.
How to treat and prevent different forms of pancreatitis
There is no specific medication to treat pancreatitis. However, acute pancreatitis may require gallbladder surgery and short-term treatment, and chronic pancreatitis generally requires more intense, ongoing, lifelong treatment.
How acute pancreatitis can be treated and prevented
If you are diagnosed with acute pancreatitis, you usually require hospitalization to control your initial symptoms. Your doctor will likely prescribe medications to relieve pain, intravenous (IV) fluids to keep you hydrated, and, in cases of more severe symptoms such as vomiting, a feeding tube to help with nutrition.
If your acute pancreatitis was due to gallstones, you will eventually need to have your gallbladder removed through a procedure called cholecystectomy. Most often this is done during your hospital stay to treat acute pancreatitis. But if your acute pancreatitis is severe, this surgery may be delayed to allow your body to fully recover.
Most people’s symptoms improve within a week in the hospital, but it may take longer. After a hospital stay, you can manage and prevent acute pancreatis in several ways:
- Make lifestyle changes – This includes quitting smoking, safely reducing or completely eliminating alcohol consumption, and losing weight to control or avoid conditions that can cause acute pancreatitis (such as gallstones) or complicate it (such as diabetes).
- Adjusting your diet – A diet low in fat and cholesterol and rich in nutrients can help with symptoms and is especially helpful if the pancreatitis was caused by gallstones. Increasing your water intake can help you stay hydrated. And eating small meals throughout the day can help put less stress on your digestive system.
- Gallstone procedures – If gallstones were the cause of your pancreatitis, your doctor may recommend non-surgical procedures to break up the gallstones or remove gallstones from a blocked duct with something called endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography.
Ways Chronic Pancreatitis Can Be Treated and Controlled
Making lifestyle changes, such as reducing or stopping smoking and alcohol altogether, and adjusting your diet can help you control chronic pancreatitis, but may also require more intense treatment, such as:
- Long-term condition management – You may need to manage your pain and symptoms for the rest of your life. Your doctor may prescribe pain relievers or pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy to help restore your digestive tract and your ability to properly digest food. You may also need medications to control other conditions that may complicate your symptoms.
- pancreatic surgery – Your doctor may recommend surgery to remove part or all of the pancreas. While you can live without a pancreas and gallbladder, you may need to make major lifestyle changes and take lifelong medications to effectively manage your condition.
Treatment for autoimmune pancreatitis
In a small number of cases, autoimmune pancreatitis goes away on its own. But most people diagnosed with autoimmune pancreatitis need treatment. This is usually a high dose of a corticosteroid to help reduce swelling and calm the immune system so it stops attacking the pancreas. Unless you experience complications, no additional treatment is usually needed for autoimmune pancreatitis.
If you experience symptoms of pancreatitis, don’t ignore them
If you start experiencing symptoms, no matter how severe, talk to your doctor to get diagnosed and start treatment right away. If you are diagnosed with acute pancreatitis, you should start to feel better about 5 to 10 days after starting treatment. If you can avoid anything that may have caused acute pancreatitis, it is unlikely to occur again.
And if you have been diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis, it is important to be aware of your symptoms and treatment, so you can slow the progression of the disease and avoid complications. With the support of your doctor, you should be able to manage your symptoms and live a normal life.
