Pancreatitis Supplements - Take for How Long?

Both the pancreatitis supplements I take and the diet I adhere to, and have shared with all of you, are NOT a cure. This means unfortunately, you will need to adhere to a strict diet specifically tailored to help your pancreas heal and stay healed along with taking those supplements for pancreatitis until you die and ...

I hope you enjoy many years of health because many of those who have adopted the supplemets I take and the diet I follow have also seen improvement. In fact ...

In fact while skulking around a pancreatitis forum I found myself  reading one person's post in the FB support group and she mentioned that the supplements and diet have helped her to almost feel normal again and she was able to go back to work! That is what I consider to be GREAT news! Several others have also posted some cool comments and so the diet and supplements seem to be helping those who use both properly.

Unfortunately, like I said in my opening statement, the diet and supplements are NOT a cure for pancreatitis. There is no cure for pancreatitis but from my own personal experience and from what others, who are using the diet and supplements say - they seem to work for other people who suffer from pancreatitis, not just me, and, that is pretty dang cool. But ...

If you begin the diet and supplements, start to feel better, even more well than you may have felt in quite some time and you STOP the diet, or the supplements or both, chances are you'll soon be sick again. Also ...

IF you have pancreatitis due to alocohol consumption and you continue to drink, neither diet nor supplements will keep you well. The diet and supplements may work wonders for those who use them but they won't work for those who continue to drink alcohol, so, if you plan to keep drinking, you may as well save your money for that casket you are going to need in the not to far distant future.

Something else I want to mention and this is strictly my own opinion so take it for what it is worth ...

I stay away from doctors.

I might change my mind if I truly thought I was dying, most folks do anything to live but ...

I have NOT let doctors poke and prod me after I was diagnosed because most everything they do in regards to pancreatitis either doesn't work, can actually cause another acute pancreatitis attack or even kill me and they have NO idea how to cure it anyway. The sad part is they don't even know how to treat it unless you become so bad you need some sort of surgical intervention! They guess, wait for the butchering green light and that is pretty much all they do unless things have really changed. I can do the guessing myself. I'm actually good at guessing. And ...

I think, I ain't sure you understand, that I am alive and fairly well today (30+ years after diagnosis) because I never went back except to keep my nausea meds script current and available. I simply used my head, did research and got lucky. However ...

I DO NOT SUGGEST YOU DO WHAT I DO in regards to doctors and their help but let me give some examples of why I feel this way.

1) Most doctors that I have met (except one) weren't even able to recognize the condition. Unless you blurt out you are an alcoholic (if you are one) the chances are still very good they couldn't diagnose pancreatitis to save their soul, especially if it were due to some other factor. Most still seem to think if you don't drink or have gallstones that you simply couldn't have pancreatitis. However, I must admit that there ARE good doctors out there, I know cuz in 58 years of life I have met two.

2) Even IF you get lucky and have an ER doc who is smart enough to read your prior medical records (you've been diagnosed with pancreatitis already) he or she may be one of those who think they know more than the doc before and tell you that you have some other condition and let you suffer while he looks for some off-the-wall goof ball diagnosis like giardia and all this time you are in pain, puking and the damage to your pancreas is increasing.

3) Let's go so far as to say you get even luckier. You get an ER doc who is not only smart enough to read your prior med records but actually takes them seriously and he or she draws blood to check your enzymes. Your enzymes (Amylase and Lipase) are up, he or she orders a CT and stuffs a tube down your throat, then injects morphine, demerol or some other opiate which irritates the pancreas even more and can even CAUSE acute pancreatitis! And in my case demerol didn't do shit for the pain. Instead of trying to "mask" the pain with an opiate they should be administering an anti-inflammatory such as Ibuprofen. Ibuprofen and other NSAIDS carry risks as well but at least they address the problem, the inflammation where opiates don't do a damn thing in that regard. Then ...

He or she may also decide they need to do an ERCP. They do an ERCP and actually cause another acute pancreatitis attack or damage a duct or actually slice something on accident. Don't roll your eyes ERCP has an 11% complication track record which means 11 people out of 100 suffer complications from ERCP! How would you like to be one of the lucky 11? Yes, ok, in all fairness that also means that 89 out of 100 patients supposedly come through with no problems but ...

If I have other choices, I'll pass. I personally do NOT want anyone poking around my pancreas, gallbladder, bile ducts or pancreatic duct with some sharp instrument that can do me more harm when there are other choices such as, US, EUS, CT, MRI and so on that have a lessor chance of creating further damage. However ...

YOU need to make your own decisions in regards to your life, health and the care you receive. Wow ...

Did I get off the beaten path or what?

Forgive me, I am getting older ya know and dementia could be setting in :-)

Anyway ...

IF you have this crap called pancreatitis and have experienced more than one acute attack or your scans show damage, well, the diet and supplements are a forever thing. There is no cure for pancreatitis.

Quercetin Kills Pancreatic Cancer Cells in Mice

The fact that research now suggests that a natural anitoxidant, quercetin, kills pancreatic cancer cells in mice is extremely promising because many times what works in rodents turns out to work in us humans as well. And ...

Sometimes natural therapies, especially antioxidants, work so well that they get swept under the rug here in the USA. In fact the FDA and FTC go all gestopo and ban marketers or companies from selling or mentioning benefits (EVEN WHEN RESEARCH PROVES IT) because the globalists can't make any money with natural products but that is another story. However ...

It is my gut feeling that you'll soon need to have your doc write you a prescription for vitamin C in order to get it and then, something that is now totally safe when manufactured by the private wellness industry will become toxic and kill you when manufactured by the Big Pharma companies. But lets continue with this post on quercetin.

Does quercetin kill pancreatitc cancer cells?

I don't know.

I'm just a guy who reads a lot :-)

But in the exact words of this article abstract published September 20, 2012 in Pancreas it states and I quote "Results: Quercetin inhibited the growth of pancreatic cancer cell lines, which was caused by an induction of apoptosis."

What is apoptosis?

Apoptosis is programmed cell death. In the case of the above article abstract on quercetin it means programmed pancreatic cancer cell death.

That is pretty exciting considering that nothing orthodox medicine does for pancreatic cancer victims kills pancreatic cancer cells.

Quercetin is a flavonoid found in fruits vegetables and grains.

Some foods such as tea, capers, lovage, apples and red onions are extremely rich in quercetin.

The fact that there is strong evidence that quercetin kills pancreatic cancer cells is HUGE simply because as I have mentioned before in a previous post regarding pancreatic cancer conventional therapy is almost useless in most cases and ...

Since inflammation from chronic pancreatitis increases our risk for pancreatic cancer it just shouts another reason why consuming green tea, capers, apples and red onion is a very good idea and none of those foods should be inflammatory towards your pancreas.

Maybe this is why mom used to say eat your apple and the word on the street was "an apple a day keeps the doctor away." So the next time you go shopping make sure you pick up some nice, sweet, juicy, apples (fuji, honey crisp, pink lady apples are my favorites) and munch away!

You may also want to find some decaf green tea, red onions (add them to beans, rice, veggies) and capers (add them to your fish dish) and start enjoying the benefits of quercetin. If you want a larger amount of quercetin it is available in supplements too.

Jarrow Formulas Quercetin 500mg

Glybera: New Gene Therapy for Familial LPL Deficiency

I had a reader ask me if I knew anything about the new gene therapy call Glybera. I don't or didn't know squat. I still don't know much and the reader most likely knows as much or more than I do. I had to look up Glybera in order to even know what the reader was talking about. Anyway ...

Glybera is a new gene therapy developed for the treatment of lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD). Lipoprotein lipase deficiency or LPLD is a very rare inherited condition that is associated with increased levels of chylomicrons and chylomicrons are small fat globules composed of protein and lipid (fat).

Symptoms of familial LPL deficiency usually begin in childhood and include abdominal pain, acute and recurrent inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis),skin lesions called eruptive cutaneous xanthoma and an enlargement of the liver and spleen (hepatosplenomegaly).

So in laymans terms what exactly is lipoprotein lipase deficiency or familial LPL deficiency? It's extremely high blood fat levels. I mean we are talkin HIGH. Not just a tad over 150 for triglycerides but maybe 2500 - 5000 or more. We are talkin HIGH blood fats. Anyway ...

I remember mentioning somewhere that I didn't even know high blood fats cause acute pancreatitis until I started writing about my experiences, joined a couple support groups (didn't know those existed either) and read a bunch of posts. I didn't know kids got this crap. I didn't know a lot of things except what had happened to me because in 1979 everone looked at me like a bull with a bastard calf and so when I finally got diagnosed I thought I was all by my lonesome. I figured if most doctors couldn't even recognize pancreatitis that it just wasn't to dang common and when I started doing research to find out how to survive the information was so hard to come by that I just figured it was a rare thing - I guess I was wrong. The GOOD news is ...

That those who suffer with pancreatitis due to high blood fats may be able to find relief via gene therapy and Glybera. I still don't know anything about Glybera. It's brand new, just on the market and it may not be available in the United States as yet. In fact according to PRNewswire rollout doesn't begin until sometime towards the second half of next year but ...

If you suffer with pancreatitis due to extremely high triglycerides you may want to poke your doc and get him/her pointed in the direction of Glybera to find out if it may be something you should seriously consider.

Now one important note: A very low fat diet, preferrably vegan, or a modified vegan that includes some egg whites, fish and skinless poultry (not fried) and everything cooked without oil may help as well. In fact John D Brunzell, MD from the University of Washington's School of medicine says "symptoms usually resolve with restriction of total dietary fat to 20 grams/day or less." Read here

IF you have truly tried a very low fat diet for at least 6 months to one year without success you may want to look into Glybera. If you get on Glybera let us all know how you do on it.