Something for everyone-Health blog

The pancreas is often a forgotten organ within the body. Neglected because of its size, the pancreas is a smaller organ hiding behind the stomach. A large gland, the pancreas produces hormones like insulin and secretes important fluids like digestive enzymes that help to breakdown fats, proteins, and carbohydrates within the body as they transfer into the small intestine. Pancreatitis occurs when the pancreas becomes inflamed and damages the way it functions, causing severe abdominal pain, bouts of nausea, and in some cases considerable weight loss.

Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is often a result of six to twelve years of daily (more than 150 grams) alcohol intake but can also be caused by gallstones or a reaction to certain medications. However, some cases of pancreatitis are a mystery. A year ago and a half ago I was diagnosed with what emergency room doctors assumed was acute pancreatitis and now a year after my surgery to drain a large cyst from my pancreas, my specialists have yet to figure out the reason for my immediate onset of abdominal pain that brought on the ailment in the first place. Even though I hope that my condition has been taken care of and that my diagnosis of pancreatitis won’t ever come back, nothing is permanent. A new study reveals that adding antioxidant supplements to the treatment of pancreatitis may help curb some of the pain involved in chronic cases.

The study, published recently in Gastroeneterology—the journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute—found that patients with CP had a lower pain ratio than when the study started.

In the double blind trial, 127 patients were split up into a placebo group or an antioxidant group and given pills accordingly to see if the pain would be lowered after six months. The researchers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India, found that the supplements given to the antioxidant group were effective in reducing pain and levels of stress in patients with chronic pancreatitis. With 90 percent of CP patients only being able to rely on painkillers for their symptoms, this new evidence shows hope for those living day to day with stabbing pains in their left side, that can also move to their lower back, making it hard to sit, stand, or work for long periods of time.

Lead author of the study from the Institute, Dr. Pramod Kumar Garg, says that their research was hopeful not only for the patients of CP but for their employers as well. “Abdominal pain, the predominant symptom in patients with CP, is difficult to treat. The main reason for a largely ineffective medical treatment is that the mechanism of pain in CP is not well understood…. We are encouraged by our findings, as significant improvement was noted with antioxidants in respect to all the parameters of pain in this study. In addition, reduction in pain resulted in fewer man-days lost, thus providing functional employment gain to the patients. The findings should spur further research in this exciting area.”

A hopeful 32 percent of the antioxidant group became pain free and the effects were shown as early as three months into the trial. The implications of the study are twofold: first, the oxidative stress that was lessened overall was actually heightened at the beginning of the study suggesting that free radical damage could be increased with CP but the injury from free radicals is thankfully reversible. The second effect of the study is significant in showing pain relief through antioxidants as a step towards finding complete relief in CP patients, who have not been given any other medical therapy beyond copious amounts of pain killers.

With 2.3 times the drop in pain reports per day for pancreatitis sufferers, antioxidants seem to be a great sign of relief for now. More studies will undoubtedly still have to be done to find out the risk of daily antioxidant use and the reaction of those antioxidant supplements with other medications. However great antioxidants may continue to prove to be for chronic pancreatitis, the only sure ways to stop the progression of the condition are to abstain from alcohol and smoking, as well as continuing to take the regulated medications.