What is chronic pancreas diesease and what types of symptoms do you experiarnce.?

Question

I know that your pancrease is used to break down sugars, I am not looking for diabetic symtoms I am curios as to other symtoms? What causes it, and what makes people suspect they have it. Is your pancrease on your left side?

Answer 1

Patients with chronic pancreatitis can present with persistent abdominal pain or steatorrhea (diarrhea resulting from malabsorption of the fats in food, typically very bad-smelling and equally hard on the patient), as well as severe nausea. Some patients with chronic pancreatitis often look very sick, while others don't appear to be unhealthy at all.

Considerable weight loss, due to malabsorption, is evident in a high percentage of patients, and can continue to be a health problem as the condition progresses. The patient may also complain about pain related to their food intake, especially those meals containing a high percentage of fats and protein.

The most common cause in the Western world of chronic pancreatitis is excess alcohol ingestion. Gallstone-associated pancreatitis is predominantly acute or relapsing-acute in nature, and some cases of chronic pancreatitis are of undetermined or idiopathic origin. A few are inherited or autoimmune in nature. In up to one quarter of cases, no cause can be found.

Cystic fibrosis is the most common cause of chronic pancreatitis in children. In other parts of the world, severe protein-energy malnutrition is a common cause.

I hope this information is of some help.

Answer 2

Do you mean pancreatitis?

Most people with chronic pancreatitis have abdominal pain, although some people have no pain at all. The pain may get worse when eating or drinking, spread to the back, or become constant and disabling. In certain cases, abdominal pain goes away as the condition advances, probably because the pancreas is no longer making digestive enzymes. Other symptoms include nausea, vomiting, weight loss, and fatty stools.

People with chronic disease often lose weight, even when their appetite and eating habits are normal. The weight loss occurs because the body does not secrete enough pancreatic enzymes to break down food, so nutrients are not absorbed normally. Poor digestion leads to excretion of fat, protein, and sugar into the stool. If the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas (islet cells) have been damaged, diabetes may also develop at this stage.

Answer 3

Do an online search and see what you find...there are all kinds of medically related websites that may have good information on this.

Good luck in your search.