The health supplements for pancreatitis I personally use are gluten free because I am a celiac so wheat, barley, rye are not acceptable in my supplements. One is a vegetarian vcap, two are regular capsules, One is in tablet form and one is a powder formula. These are NOT in order of importance. ALL are important.
1) Curcumin puts out the fire of inflammation and so helps control pain. It is also a powerful antioxidant and it also inhibits cancer growth by actually causing cancer cells to die (according to some research). I use the Vcaps and I make sure I ingest plenty of black pepper during the day (in food) to help the absorption of the curcumin. There are those who will insist that you need to buy expensive curcumin in combo with Piperine but it seems to me that plain old black pepper works the same.
Jarrow Formulas Curcumin 95, 500mg, 120 Capsules
2) Grape Seed Extract is another very strong anti-inflammatory but it is also one of the most powerful antioxidants on earth and one of the few that will cross the blood-brain barrier. According to research grape seed extract causes cancer cells to die but more importantly grape seed extract in combination with curcumin and vitamin C help relieve nausea and pain (at least they do for me) that we all know are two rotten symptoms of pancreatitis. Over time it helps heal the pancreas, at least it did mine but instead of simply taking me at my word read this second to the last sentence in a sholar type article: "supplementation of GSPE ameliorates chronic pancreatitis in humans." The word ameliorates means "to make or become better, improve." So get some and see if it works for you too.
Grape Seed Extract +
3) Vitamin C is another antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and essential nutrient. Vitamin C can do so many things and it has done wonders for me, in combination with grape seed extract and curcumin. The three in combination are extremely powerful pancreatitis remedies. This particular formula also contains bioflavonoids and rose hips.
Now Foods, Vitamin C-500 Tabs
4) Enzymes are important simply because your pancreas produces digestive enzymes and the less your pancreas has to work the better. If your pancreas has sustained a large amount of damage it may not produce enough enzymes to digest your food and of course this makes an enzyme supplement mandatory. The enzymes I use contain pancreatin 4X which is Amylase, Lipase and Protease.
Pancreatic Enzymes
5) Vitamins, Minerals and Antioxidants are important simply because with pancreatitis we can often suffer from malabsorption which simply means we do not absorb the nutrients in our food like we should. Extra vitamins, minerals and antioxidants may be very helpful in providing more energy and all-around better health. About this formula it may not be the best but if it isn't, and I have scoured the net and health stores it is very close. Most are natural vitamins/mineral from plant sources but a few are synthetic, which most of the well known multi-vitamins are and synthetic vitamins suck compared to the real thing. This formula also uses a much higher grade of B12 and B12 is important for making blood and except for one source of sea vegetation can only be gotten from animal products. That is why I use this formula. It's gluten free and of excellent quality.
Multi Vitamin/mineral
Well, there you have them. Those are the exact formulas I use every day. You may wish to use different formulas, like I said I need to use those because they are gluten free and it is difficult to find quality, gluten free supplements. I use the ones above, I can vouch they work. The "they work" part is important. However ...
IF you decide to use another product, that is perfectly cool but make sure you do not buy grape seed or curcumin or vitamin C that is coupled with mineral or vitamins. You want your THREE supplements to be as pure as possible so that they are non-toxic in large doses. In other words you want quality, stand-alone grape seed extract and stand-alone curcumin. The vitamin C w/bioflavonoids and rose hips.
Now ...
How I take the supplements.
I take one capsule each of grape seed, curcumin and vit C in the morning when I get up, usually on an empty stomach and then have my coffee and a smoke lol. The enzymes I take just before I eat sometimes with another dose (one cap each) of grape seed, curcumin and vit C and then I take my last dose of grape seed, curcumin, vit C and the vitamin/mineral/antioxidant drink at night before bed. I only use HALF the dose on the label of the powder vitamin/mineral/antioxidant formula, one rounded teaspoon instead of a tablespoon because that is all that is needed to get a good dose of nutrients However ...
When I started with the supplements years ago when I was still quite sick I took them (grape seed extract, curcumin and vit C) 4 times per day and the grape seed extract in fairly large amounts of 200 milligrams, 4 times per day. The curcumin I was using at that time came in much smaller amounts so it comprised about 400 mgs total per day for curcumin at that time. And the vitamin C was about 5,000 milligrams per day. I've taken upto 10,000 mgs per day of vitamin C with no adverse effects but some folks get stomach cramps and diarrhea with large doses of vitamin C similar to eating to much fruit or to many green apples. So start with small doses and work up to about 4,000 - 5,000 milligrams per day.
All three are non-toxic so you can take large amounts without fear of a lethal overdose however ...
When you first start out you may experience some unpleasant effects due to the fact that those powerful pancreatitis supplements are purging your body of toxic waste so it may be prudent to start off with the minimum dose of once per day and then add another dose and then another and so on until your pain and other symptoms resolve. Then stay at a fairly strong dose until your abdomen is no longer tender and your symptoms have disappeared.
I must say this - and this is important - the supplements work however they alone did NOT do it for me. It was Supplements and MY Pancreatitis Diet in combination that worked to heal my pancreas. ONE (either one) helps but will not produce healing - at least it didn't for me. It wasn't until I learned that I NEEDED BOTH to heal that my healing began.
I also drank large amounts of grapefruit juice, probably a gallon per day, starting in 1982 which was years before I found the supplements. YES, I said a gallon. If it wasn't a gallon it was damn close to it. It was grapefruit juice that first stopped my acute pancreatitis attacks. I did NOT know that until I found research several months ago that said grapefruit protected mice from acute pancreatitis. Yes, I know we are not mice but I don't think it is simply happenstance that my acute attacks resolved once I started drinking large amounts of grapefruit juice because grapefruit juice contains OPC's which are found in larger quantities in grape seed extract.
So, get yourself the supplements, take them religiously for life (they are not a cure - there is no cure), adhere to my chronic pancreatitis diet and start healing. Of course you can do what you want but so far this regimen or whatever you want to call it has bought me some really good years I may not have had otherwise. In fact, I may have already been dead by now.
Good luck and I hope you find healing!
