Pancreatic Health: 5 Warning Signs You Should Never Overlook

The pancreas is a glandular organ in the abdomen that performs both digestive and hormonal functions:

Pancreatic diseases can range from acute to chronic pancreatitis, fatty pancreas, pancreatic cancer and pancreatic endocrine insufficiency (which causes decrease in insulin production and pancreatic diabetes) or pancreatic exocrine insufficiency (leading to decrease in digestive enzymes of pancreas and chronic diarrhea).

Signs of chronic pancreatitis include upper abdominal continuous nagging pain which often also radiates to the upper back, decreased appetite, weight loss and chronic diarrhea with fat globules in stool which give oily appearance to stool which us sticky, floats in water and does not gets easily flushed with water and also causes recurrent Vinit ting and episodically severe intractable pain.

Patient of acute pancreatitis have severe upper abdominal pain radiation to back which peaks within 30 mins to 1 hr., and can also be associated with abdominal distension, fever, and shortness of breath and sometimes low blood pressure, sepsis and renal failure. Due to this, it can be life threatening and should not be taken lightly and patient should be immediately taken to well-equipped hospital. Acute pancreatitis occurs usually after a bout of heavy alcohol, or a gallstone that has slipped from gall bladder into bile duct and impacted at pancreatic duct opening.

Pancreatic cancer may not have any symptoms, or they might be hard to spot.

Symptoms of pancreatic cancer can include:

• the whites of your eyes or your skin turn yellow (jaundice), and you may also have itchy skin, darker pee and paler poo than usual
• loss of appetite or losing weight without trying to
• feeling tired or having no energy
• a high temperature, or feeling hot or shivery

 Other symptoms can affect your digestion, such as:

feeling or being sick, diarrhea or constipation, or other changes in your poo, pain at the top part of your tummy and your back, which may feel worse when you're eating or lying down and better when you lean forward, symptoms of indigestion, such as feeling bloated

If you have another condition like irritable bowel syndrome, you may get symptoms like these regularly.

You might find you get used to them. But it's important to be checked by a GP if your symptoms change, get worse or do not feel normal for you.

Symptoms of a fatty pancreas include:

• Pain: Pain in the upper abdomen that may worsen after eating, especially fatty foods. The pain may spread to the back or below the left shoulder blade. 
• Other symptoms: Nausea, vomiting, fever, rapid heart rate, swelling or tenderness in the upper belly, fluid buildup in the belly, and lowered blood pressure. 
• Weight loss: Unintended weight loss. 
• Stools: Clay-colored stools or oily, smelly stools that leave an oily film in the toilet

Investigations required for pancreas disease include blood investigations like amylase, lipase, CA 19-9 (cancer marker), stool fecal elastase (for digestive function of pancreas) and radiological imaging like Ultrasound, CT scan of the abdomen, Endoscopic Ultrasound and PET CT in case of pancreatic cancer.

Signs and symptoms in early pancreatic disease and pancreatic cancer can be minimal and should not be ignored, as mentioned above.