Causes Of Pancreatitis

Causes of Pancreatitis

Every time that I have gone to the hospital when I have an Acute flare-up the first question that the Doctor always asks me is whether I drink alcohol or not.

It always happen so I have a spiel every time that I go there.  I tell them that I don’t drink, haven’t had any abdominal surgery or trauma, and I haven’t been bit by a scorpion.

That last, about the scorpion bite, is something that even most Doctors don’t know about.

New Study On Causes of Pancreatitis

Now a new study questions whether heavy alcohol drinking is actually  the biggest cause of Pancreatitis.  But a 12-year study at the University of Pittsburgh has found that there are a few genes that could be the culprits in some cases.

It makes sense to me because most people who are heavy drinkers never get pancreatitis.

The study found that the gene a variant of a gene called CTRC, would cause a higher risk through even light drinking, smoking or other abnormal processes.

“Some people have a very sensitive pancreas because their genetics aren’t quite right, and it makes them likely to have this inflammation and destruction. We can pinpoint who is going to have this kind of problem very early in the course, so that there are things that we can do to help minimize the problem,” said senior investigator, David Whitcomb, chief of gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition at Pitt School of Medicine

The study  discovered that this variant can cause the pancreas’s digestive enzyme, trypsin,  which it uses to break down meat prematurely activates in the pancreas which causes it to eat itself.

Conclusion Of Causes of Pancreatitis

It’s nice to know that there is a study that now shows something that I felt all along.  Even though both my sister and myself have suffered from Pancreatitis none of the Doctors seemed that this was an issue.

Whitcomb said that pancreatitis affects about 200,000 people annually, and of that a third of those people will have recurring problems, and of those another third will have completely destroyed pancreases.

As Whitcomb pointed out this study shows a way to detect the disease rather than it is to just treat the the symptoms like diabetes and abdominal pain.