Overcoming Pancreatitis Pain in Children

Nothing is more difficult for a parent than to watch their child suffer in agony and so I'll tell you what I would do if it were my child in pain due to pancreatitis.

Since we both know that pancreatitis can turn ugly fast it would be a good thing to move quickly and resolve that flare or acute attack.

This is only what I would do.

You have to do what you think is best.

If it were my child in pain I'd give the regimen I use to stop the pain a try with some revisions.

1) Since young children should not be given aspirin I'd check with my doc to find out how much Ibuprofen (motrin, advil) I could safely give my child based on age and weight.

I might also check with a pharmacist to verify.

If I were to check out the link to Ibuprofen and scroll down to over dose I'd see the amount necessary to cause problems in humans.

Problems can arise at 100mgs/kg so adjust accordingly.

1 kilogram = 2.20462262 pounds.

You can get liquid flavored Ibuprofen as Ibuprofen or Advil for kids at the drug store (Walgreens etc ...).

2) Grapeseed extract comes in capsules that most likely are difficult for young children to swallow so I'd want to break one open and add it to a clear juice, like maybe apple juice and have my child drink it fron a sippy cup. Now the dosage is another challenge and I would guess using the ONE milligram per pound of body weight guidline for optimum saturation a 10 pound child would only need 10 - 15 milligrams.

The problem lies in finding 10 or 15 milligram capsules. One way is to break open the capsule and guess at 10-15 mgs. I sincerely doubt more would harm them.

I thought liquid grapeseed extract might work better so I may try to locate some liquid grapeseed extract, not oil, just liquid grape seed extract and make sure it isn't combined with or "tinctured" with alcohol or anything such as vinilla extract (contains alcohol) for flavor enhancement.

3) Curcumin. I'd also see if there were some 100mg curcumin capsules available. That way you could break one open and give it mixed in some juice with the grape seed extract. The only liquid curcumin I found was mixed with alcohol and vinilla extract - BOTH - are big NO-NO's so that may not be a possible option. I may have to use 500mg caps and wing it by breaking one open and splitting it into 5 somewhat equal shares (using a blade of some sort and a small mirror to create the eqaul shares).

I would imagine that the grape seed extract and curcumin is going to taste pretty foul so chances are my child is gonna hate the stuff which may be the biggest challenge of all and that's why disguising it in some way (juice) may be a marginal solution.

If my child is old enough to swallow capsules easily that solves the problem of taste (looking over shoulder to see if my kid is old enough) but either way it is, in my opinion, essential to stop the pain and inflammation as quickly as possible to avoid more pancreatic damage.

IF the pain and nausea doesn't completely resolve within 60-90 minutes after giving him or her the cocktail then it's off to the ER we go! Time is tissue. Save the tissue.

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The KEY to Beating Pancreatitis: STOP the Inflammation!

It is absolutely imperative to stop the inflammation in order to begin beating pancreatitis, Acute Pancreatitis and Chronic Pancreatitis.

Nothing else matters.

Nothing!

I'm gonna harp at you about this until you "get it."

It's inflammation that causes the enzymes to start chewing on your pancreas which inturn causes all the damage.

Ok, it is actually the digestion of the pancreas by its own digestive juices that create the damage BUT ...

It Is Pancreas INFLAMMATION That Is Responsible

That is why MY first goal to achieve during an Acute Pancreatitis episode is to STOP the pain by STOPPING the INFLAMMATION.

That is WHY I swallow 800mgs of Ibuprofen OR 1300mgs of aspirin, the EXTRA grape seed extract and curcumin during an acute pancreatitis episode. All THREE are HIGHLY anti-inflammatory.

If you have chronic pancreatic pain, you have inflammation.

The inflammation is caused by:

• Previous unhealed damage
• The food you eat
• The alcohol you consume
• An underlying unresolved condition

Narcotics only mask the pain. They DO NOT stop the inflammation which is causing the pain. In order to STOP the pain you MUST stop the inflammation.

I Think Pancreas Tissue Can Be Regenerated

I am beginning to think that pancreatic tissue can regenerate but this regeneration (if possible) can not take place until the inflammation is completely resolved. My thoughts on this subject of pancreas regeneration has to do with adult stem cells in the pancreas and other organs as well.

How do you stop or resolve the inflammation?

You begin my regimen.

1) Diet. You adhere to MY Pancreatitis Diet (find it in previous posts). If you have pain you need to become a vegan (No meat of any kind or any type of food prepared with meat, this includes broths. No dairy, No fat, No oil).

Vegans use oil to cook, you don't.

No oil.

BUT ...

Do you want to know HOW to develop your own personal pancreatitis diet? If so check out this page on HOW to do a proper pancreatitis diary. This is the absolute best way to formulate your own, specific to you pancreatitis diet.

2) Supplements - You consume 300 - 800mgs of grapeseed extract (100mgs to 200mgs 3-4 X Daily), at least 500mgs of curcumin (preferrably 1000, 500 2 X daily) and at least 1000mgs of vit C DAILY. You also take a GOOD enzyme supplement with pancreatin 4X 15-20 minutes before every meal and a QUALITY multi-vitamin supplement with B12 (do not buy a product with the B12 called cyanocobalamin. Cyanocobalamin is super cheap B12 and contains cyanide used in the extraction process. Methylcobalamin is what to look for). You NEED B12 when on a vegan diet because B12 can only be consumed naturally by eating meat and dairy.

3) Anti-inflammatories for pain (Ibuprofen, aspirin)

Once you have adhered to the regimen for how ever long it takes to become pain free you continue with the vegan diet until you have been pain free for at least 6 months. Then and ONLY then ...

You may begin to add in some LIGHT fat to your diet and see how it goes. But your days of red meat, pork, lamb and any form of alcohol are OVER.

Just because you become pain free does NOT mean you are cured. There is NO cure for Chronic Pancreatitis. Once you have it - you are ALWAYS at risk. So ...

For the rest of your life you will be on the regimen, diet and supplements unless of course you want to have pain or worse.

The choice is this:

Stop the Inflammation or DIE

No sense "pussy-footin" around. IF you don't do what it takes to live and live without pain, nausea puking, etc then you are choosing to live in pain and potentially dying a painful death.

Those are your options.

Granted you may not die tomorrow if you don't change your lifestyle and stop the inflammation. You may be lucky and suffer for YEARS before having that Acute Pancreatitis episode that leads to necrosis, infection, internal bleeding, organ failure and death. Or maybe the medical establishment will get you totally hooked on narcotics, slice open your pancreas (various proceedures) or even remove it completely before you die. That sounds wonderful doen't it?

Yes, I am blunt, rude, obnoxious and sarcastic but I am doing my damn best to get you to understand how critically important it is to STOP the damage and you can ONLY do that by stopping the INFLAMMATION!

If you ever come up with a better plan, please, let me know.

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Grapfruit Juice: Learn to LOVE Grapefruit Juice!

Grapefruit juice may be a friend you need to become close with because ...

Going back over my personal experience with Pancreatitis I have remembered something that may be important, which is I drank a LOT of grapefruit juice (research now shows it may be significant).

I honestly can not say I drank grapefruit juice because I knew it would help. In fact, just the opposite.

I drank grapefruit juice because I could no longer drink alcohol socially and I liked unsweetened grapefruit juice.

I first started drinking grapefruit juice when I became involved with the vacation timeshare industry.

Those folks were party animals.

We'd work all day and party all night but since I could not drink alcohol I drank grapefruit juice - a lot of it.

I never noticed that the drinking of the grapefruit juice had any significance because I was on meds prescribed by Dr. Langdon and had cut all fat from my diet. What I do remember is that my acute pancreatits attacks ceased. Poof and they were gone! But ...

I thought it was simply diet and meds (prescription robinul, compazine and Ibuprofen) but now ...

I am not so sure.

It may have had a lot to do with the amount of grapefruit juice I was consuming daily, my LOW fat diet and Ibuprofen.

All I know is that I was free of acute pancreatitis episodes for the whole 7 years I was in the vacation timeshare industry.

I wasn't totally well (my abdomen was still tender, I'd get nausea from time to time) but no acute panc episodes.

I had not yet found grape seed extract or curcumin and ...

My abdomen did not heal (the tenderness leave) until I found grape seed extract and curcumin.

It took quite sometime for my abdomen to heal after I started with grapeseed and curcumin, but one day, I realized, the tenderness was gone and has only been back ONE time and that was during and after the acute pancreatitis epsidoes I had when I ate the dang turkey sausage about 5 years ago. That episode lasted for about 3 weeks and I don't remember how long the tenderness and lump lasted. Yeah, I had that dang lump again after those acute attacks but it again went away and ...

I can not tell you what that lump was because I have never gone back into emergency ever since Dr. Langdon diagnosed me and gave me the Ibuprofen to relieve the pain.

I mean what was the use?

I'd been into the ER seven (7) times before and none of those people even had a damn clue!

How were they gonna help me? And ...

What I just said does NOT mean YOU should avoid the ER! Just because I have some issues doesn't mean you won't get help and YOU need to get help when you are sick with this crap.

Anyway, you might say I stumbled onto to grapefruit juice by accident because I had no idea at that time it may be beneficial but now there is research that indicates it may have been a huge contributor to my recovery.

More research on grapefruit seed extract

You can buy grapefruit seed extract if you hate grapefruit juice but if it were me I'd try grapefruit juice first, for like 90 days, use it 2, 3, even 4 times a day (for taking your grapeseed, vit C and curcumin) and just see if you notice improvement. In combination with the grape seed, vit C and curcumin it may be the extra kick some of you who are sick need to overcome this thing and start healing.

One word of caution:

Grapefruit juice, grapefruit seed extract or simply eating grapefruit is potentially hazardous when taking certain prescription drugs such a those used to lower cholesterol. There are many others too. And the combination of some can have deadly adverse effects so ...

If you are on prescription meds and wish to begin drinking grapefruit juice, call your phamacist first and go through your meds with him or her and check for any possible interactions with grapefruit juice before you start drinking it.

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