Acute pancreatitis usually begins with pain in the upper abdomen that may last for a few days. The pain may be severe and may become constant - just in the abdomen - or it may reach to the back and other areas. It may be sudden and intense or begin as a mild pain that gets worse when food is eaten. Someone with acute pancreatitis often looks and feels very sick.

Other symptoms may include:

• Swollen and tender abdomen

• Nausea

• Vomiting

• Fever

• Rapid pulse

• Severe cases may cause dehydration and low blood pressure. The heart, lungs, or kidneys may fail. If bleeding
   occurs in the pancreas, shock and sometimes even death follow.

Causes

Common causes include drinking too much alcohol and gallstones blocking the bile tubes. Other contributing factors may also include:

• Drugs

• Physical damage to the pancreas

• Mumps or

• Pancreatic cancer

Diagnosis

Besides asking about a person's medical history and doing a physical exam, a doctor will order a blood test to diagnose acute pancreatitis. During acute attacks, the blood contains at least three times more amylase and lipase than usual. Amylase and lipase are digestive enzymes formed in the pancreas. Changes may also occur in blood levels of glucose, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, and bicarbonate. After the pancreas improves, these levels usually return to normal.

A doctor may also order an abdominal ultrasound to look for gallstones and a CAT (computerized axial tomography) scan to look for inflammation or destruction of the pancreas. CAT scans are also useful in locating pseudocysts.

Complications

Acute pancreatitis can cause breathing problems. Many people develop hypoxia, which means that cells and tissues are not receiving enough oxygen. Doctors treat hypoxia by giving oxygen through a face mask. Despite receiving oxygen, some people still experience lung failure and require a ventilator.

Sometimes a person cannot stop vomiting and needs to have a tube placed in the stomach to remove fluid and air. In mild cases, a person may not eat for 3 or 4 days and instead may receive fluids and pain relievers through an intravenous line.

If an infection develops, the doctor may prescribe antibiotics. Surgery may be needed for extensive infections. Surgery may also be necessary to find the source of bleeding, to rule out problems that resemble pancreatitis, or to remove severely damaged pancreatic tissue.

Acute pancreatitis can sometimes cause kidney failure. If your kidneys fail, you will need dialysis to help your kidneys remove wastes from your blood.

If injury to the pancreas continues, chronic pancreatitis may develop. Chronic pancreatitis occurs when digestive enzymes attack and destroy the pancreas and nearby tissues, causing scarring and pain.

Symptoms

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.

• Nausea

• Vomiting

• Weight loss

• Fatty stools

• Weight loss, 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.

Causes

The usual cause of chronic pancreatitis is many years of alcohol abuse, but the chronic form may also be triggered by only one acute attack, especially if the pancreatic ducts are damaged. The damaged ducts cause the pancreas to become inflamed, tissue to be destroyed, and scar tissue to develop. Damage from alcohol abuse may not appear for many years, and then a person may have a sudden attack of pancreatitis. In up to 70 percent of adult patients, chronic pancreatitis appears to be caused by alcoholism. This form is more common in men than in women and often develops between the ages of 30 and 40.

While common, alcoholism is not the only cause of chronic pancreatitis. Other causes of chronic pancreatitis are:

• Blocked or narrowed pancreatic duct because of trauma or pseudocysts have formed

• Unknown cause (idiopathic)

• High levels of calcium in the blood (hypercalcemia)

• High levels of blood fats (hyperlipidemia or hypertriglyceridemia)

• Certain autoimmune conditions

• Certain drugs, including azathioprine, sulfonamides, corticosteroids, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs),
   and antibiotics such as tetracycline

• Infection with mumps, hepatitis virus, rubella, Epstein-Barr virus (the cause of mononucleosis), and cytomegalovirus

• Abnormalities in the structure of the pancreas or the pancreatic or bile ducts, including pancreatic cancer

• Surgery to the abdomen, heart, or lungs that temporarily cuts off blood supply to the pancreas, damaging tissue

• Hereditary diseases, such as cystic fibrosis

• Injury to the abdomen

• Heredity - Hereditary pancreatitis usually begins in childhood but may not be diagnosed for several years. A person
   with hereditary pancreatitis usually has the typical symptoms that come and go over time. Episodes last from 2 days
   to 2 weeks. A determining factor in the diagnosis of hereditary pancreatitis is two or more family members with
   pancreatitis in more than one generation. Treatment for individual attacks is usually the same as it is for acute
   pancreatitis. Any pain or nutrition problems are treated just as they are for acute pancreatitis. Surgery can often
   ease pain and help manage complications.

Diagnosis

Diagnosis may be difficult, but new techniques can help. Pancreatic function tests help a doctor decide whether the pancreas is still making enough digestive enzymes. Using ultrasonic imaging, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), and CAT scans, a doctor can see problems indicating chronic pancreatitis. Such problems include calcification of the pancreas, in which tissue hardens from deposits of insoluble calcium salts. In more advanced stages of the disease, when diabetes and malabsorption occur, a doctor can use a number of blood, urine, and stool tests to help diagnose chronic pancreatitis and to monitor its progression.

Treatment for pancreatic disorders depends on the cause. Surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and life long medication such as insulin may be necessary to treat individual disorders of the pancreas.

Natural and holistic remedies can be highly effective when used in combination with other conventional treatments. These remedies manage to address the symptoms of pancreas problems as well as the individual’s overall health and wellbeing. Herbal and homeopathic remedies are gentle, yet effective without the harmful side effects of conventional medicine.

Herbs such as Galega officinalis maintain pancreatic health and healthy insulin levels while Vaccinium myrtillus (Bilberry) is traditionally recommended to promote healthy blood sugar levels as well as healthy insulin production. Gymnema sylvestre is a well-known and highly respected Ayurvedic remedy which is also known as the 'sugar killer' as it is said to remove the taste for sweet foods.

Another powerful herb is Ginkgo biloba which has a beneficial effect on peripheral and cerebral circulation and can therefore help to promote pancreas health as well as healthy body tissue and circulation. Remember to find a remedy that suits your individual needs obtain all herbal and homeopathic remedies from a reputable source.

In Acute Pancreatitis