Those of us who suffer with pancreatitis, especially those with chronic pancreatitis, also enjoy an increased risk of cancer of the pancreas aka pancreatic cancer. One of the reasons I use aspirin to relieve pain and inflammation is that it seems to be safer than other NSAIDs because it doesn't cause heart attacks. However ...
There may be another good reason for those of you still in pain to use aspirin to rlieve the pain by reducing the inflammation within the pancreas. According to a new study aspirin may reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer. I am not going to go into the whole thing because you can read about it in several different places online. You can read about it via an article published in Science Daily last April right here: Aspirin May Lower the Risk of Pancreatic Cancer
Nothing is conclusive but hey - a little lower risk of developing pancreatic cancer may be a good thing right? In any event the article is interesting :-)
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Pancreatitis Diet: Learn to Love Fish
Once you have completed your initial food diary consisting of vegan foods (fruits, vegetables, legumes, rice and so forth) and have been on the diet and supplements (vit C, grape seed extract and curcumin) for 6 months and no longer have symptoms of pancreatitis (hopefully this is your outcome) then you can begin to consider beginning to upgrade your diet with the necessary protein for sustaining weight and muscle mass. Foods such as white fleshed fish (pollock, halibut, red snapper, bass etc...), chicken and turky.
Fish is much preferred over poultry simply because it offers tons of protein and a huge assortment of beneficial nutrients. For example: 1/2 of a fillet - 159 grams - of halibut will provide over 40 grams of protein, 1064 mgs of omega 3 fatty acids, 916 mgs of potassium, assorted B vitamins including the necessary B-12 (36%) that enables you to build good blood. It will also supply over 100% of your dailt selenium, 10% of your calcium and 43% of your magnesium.
Sardines, mackeral, salmon, trout (fresh wild or wild canned is best) will do even better in the the omega 3 fatty acid department but are oily fish and may cause problems so it is best to use caution and start with small amounts. Pollock, halibut and red snapper (white meat fish) tend to work better in regards to the pancreas.
Poaching or baking your fish or frying without oil is of course the way to cook your fish. If you are quite well (no abdominal tenderness or symptoms) you may be able to use a small amount of safflower oil in frying your fish. How to do this is to dump a small amount of oil into the pan and wipe the pan with a paper towel, this coats the pan but sucks up excess oil. However, you may want to simply use a good quality non-stick pan instead because it is safer for we who have pancreatitis.
Combine your fish with a nice baked potato and some fresh asparagus and you have one, fine, healthy low fat meal (about 5 grams of fat most of which is good fat). Pollock offers ZERO saturated fat, halibut 1 gram of saturated fat, snapper has about 1 gram of sat fat, fresh water bass has about 1 gram of sat fat per fillet (62 grams).
Compare fish to chicken and it's a no brainer. Fish actually offers LESS FAT and MORE NUTRITION. 64 grams of ready to cook chicken offers only 16 grams of protein VS 40+ for fish, no omega 3 fatty acids and only about 2% of your requirement of B-12. Chicken/turkey doesn't offer the other nutrients in the sizable proportions that fish does either. But ...
Chicken and turkey do offer a change of fair and you can use both chicken and turkey to create chili, meat loaf, burgers etc ... so there is a benefit derived from chicken and turkey. But ...
Fish is KING.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Pancreatitis Food Diary: What About Diabetes?
What if you are diabetic due to pancreatitis? If you have become diabetic due to pancreas damage from acute or chronic pancreatitis creating a food diary will be more of a challenge and take more time because you probably won't be able to fast. In fact, the whole process of healing may be much more difficult simply because you may not be able to even rest your pancreas for the necessary time to eleviate pain and more damage. However ...
ASK your doc if you CAN fast if you are not on insulin. If you are NOT on insulin you may be able to stop your diabetic meds and prepare like those who are not diabetic BUT - ASK you doc FIRST!
In fact, I am really dumb when it comes to being diabetic and on insulin so there may be a way to stop taking insulin IF you are not eating - I do NOT know so ASK your doctor.
If you can NOT fast then the only other alternative is to go completely vegan and after a couple weeks of a COMPLETELY VEGAN diet enemize your system in order to get rid of any remaining animal type fats that may be adhereing to your intestinal tract. So ...
The steps you would or will take to create a pancreatitis food diary if you are currently diabetic is to:
1) Ask your doctor about fasting and find out what you can and can not do in regards to stopping insulin injections while fasting (I doubt this is an option), stopping diabetes meds (pills) while fasting, or even if you can fast at all so that you can "rest" your pancreas in order to lesson pain during periods of pancreatitis pain and symptoms.
2) IF you can fast make sure you find out what you need to do in order to start a fast because if you are on meds it may not be safe to simply stop taking them, you may have to titrate (slowly ween off the meds) and your doc can tell you how to do that.
3) IF you can NOT fast - then you will need to approach this differently than I did. You will need to adapt, improvise and overcome. So, what I would do, if it were me, would be to go COMPLETELY VEGAN (NO animal, Fish, Dairy or OIL). In fact - I would go on a vegegatble juice diet if that was ok with my doctor and then after 5 days of a strict vegetable juice diet I would enemize my intestines until I was sure I had rid my bowels of all animal fats and proteins.
4) IF you are able to do the veggie juice diet that would be very helpful and then after cleansing your intestinal tract you would begin to add in whole vegan foods such as fresh veggies, rice, beans and so on. Once you had been on nothing but fresh veggies and other foods such as rice that have ZERO FAT AND you have ZERO symptoms (hopefully the juice and vegan diet has curtailed the inflammation and pain) you could begin to add in small amounts of dairy (one food at a time) and give it a week to 10 days to see if you develop any pancreatitis symptoms. If you haven't already I'd suggest you read about the basic pancreatitis food diary so that you'll know how to continue your food diary journey.
You can play around with the above ideas to suit yourself because I am simply guessing as to what may work if you are already diabetic due to pancreas damage from pancreatitis.
ASK your doc if you CAN fast if you are not on insulin. If you are NOT on insulin you may be able to stop your diabetic meds and prepare like those who are not diabetic BUT - ASK you doc FIRST!
In fact, I am really dumb when it comes to being diabetic and on insulin so there may be a way to stop taking insulin IF you are not eating - I do NOT know so ASK your doctor.
If you can NOT fast then the only other alternative is to go completely vegan and after a couple weeks of a COMPLETELY VEGAN diet enemize your system in order to get rid of any remaining animal type fats that may be adhereing to your intestinal tract. So ...
The steps you would or will take to create a pancreatitis food diary if you are currently diabetic is to:
1) Ask your doctor about fasting and find out what you can and can not do in regards to stopping insulin injections while fasting (I doubt this is an option), stopping diabetes meds (pills) while fasting, or even if you can fast at all so that you can "rest" your pancreas in order to lesson pain during periods of pancreatitis pain and symptoms.
2) IF you can fast make sure you find out what you need to do in order to start a fast because if you are on meds it may not be safe to simply stop taking them, you may have to titrate (slowly ween off the meds) and your doc can tell you how to do that.
3) IF you can NOT fast - then you will need to approach this differently than I did. You will need to adapt, improvise and overcome. So, what I would do, if it were me, would be to go COMPLETELY VEGAN (NO animal, Fish, Dairy or OIL). In fact - I would go on a vegegatble juice diet if that was ok with my doctor and then after 5 days of a strict vegetable juice diet I would enemize my intestines until I was sure I had rid my bowels of all animal fats and proteins.
4) IF you are able to do the veggie juice diet that would be very helpful and then after cleansing your intestinal tract you would begin to add in whole vegan foods such as fresh veggies, rice, beans and so on. Once you had been on nothing but fresh veggies and other foods such as rice that have ZERO FAT AND you have ZERO symptoms (hopefully the juice and vegan diet has curtailed the inflammation and pain) you could begin to add in small amounts of dairy (one food at a time) and give it a week to 10 days to see if you develop any pancreatitis symptoms. If you haven't already I'd suggest you read about the basic pancreatitis food diary so that you'll know how to continue your food diary journey.
You can play around with the above ideas to suit yourself because I am simply guessing as to what may work if you are already diabetic due to pancreas damage from pancreatitis.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Pancreatitis Blog Comments
I really enjoy receiving quality comments and questions on this blog about living with and overcoming Pancreatitis. If you have questions or comments regarding your acute pancreatitis or chronic disease please feel free to share. Your experience with acute or chronic pancreatitis may help someone else or you may give me a good pancreatitis subject to write about :-)
I have a comment below I am going to answer here in a post because if I'd have published it in the regular manner my reader's email address would have been available for anyone who might want to spam her. Please comment, ask questions but don't put personal info (email, phone, etc.) in your comments or questions. And asking questions or making comments is NEVER a "bother" to me. So do NOT feel that way at all. If I can help you feel better, lessen your pain maybe even help you heal your damaged pancreas from chronic or acute pancreatitis, via any of my personal experience, I am more than happy to do so.
Ok, let's get to the comment.
"Hi. My name's Julie and I left a comment a couple or few weeks ago including my email address and you responded via my email address. My email is so full of junk that I thought I'd ask you a question this way instead of searching for that email. I was wondering if you ever recommend any certain nuts/seeds. I love sesame sticks and was eating them but not sure if they were affecting me or not. I love nuts but know they have fat and not sure what I should try if I put some in a rice recipe. And then I saw a recipe including sunflower seeds. I also wonder if the instant oatmeal packets are ok. I was eating a lot of the cinnamon oatmeal and didn't know if that was affecting me. I guess I'm just so afraid to get sick again and was wondering if you had any insight on any of this. I know I need to add one thing at a time and then wait 48 hours. I did that lastnight with turkey breast. So far so good. I'm new at this and sorry if I'm bothering you. I really really appreciate all you've posted and wish you had a book with all the info in it. I'm planning on printing a lot of your articles and keeping them in a notebook to make things easier. Thank you so much for whatever you can tell me. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks again :)"
My answer:
Hi Julie ...
From the sounds of things you are feeling better - that is great! I hope the New Year is kind to you and your pancreatitis symptoms remain a memory.
Just as you already know and mentioned seeds such as sunflower and nuts all contain natural oils and fat. You may or may not be able to tolerate the fat content. If you have been well for 6 months (no pancreatitis symptoms) and want to try eating some seeds and nuts I would suggest going with SMALL amounts. You may want to hold off using nuts and sunflower seeds in cooking and simply try some alone first and see how they work for you.
Instant oatmeal shouldn't be a problem. If you eat it plain. If you eat it with milk or worse, cream, you may have problems due to fat from the milk or cream.
The 48 hour thing is for fruits, vegetables and other non animal or non dairy products. Any type of animal or dairy product should be given a weeks surveillance, even 10 days to see what the affects are going to be because it takes upto 2 weeks to digest animal type proteins. And for some reason many foods that trigger instant pancreatitis pain and symptoms one day will maybe take a week to do the same next time or visa-versa.
In ALL cases of MY pain and nausea, the culprits are ALWAYS foods that contain FAT or ALCOHOL. I made myself sick one time eating oatmeal and that is how I found out that vanilla extract just doesn't work. I used to add vanilla into my oatmeal for flavor, I don't do that anymore.
If you like chocolate be advised that most chocolate manufacturers use VANILLA. Chocolate also contains FAT. It may be a source of unwanted pain so tread lightly.
If anyone has some questions that need answers be sure to ask me.
I have a comment below I am going to answer here in a post because if I'd have published it in the regular manner my reader's email address would have been available for anyone who might want to spam her. Please comment, ask questions but don't put personal info (email, phone, etc.) in your comments or questions. And asking questions or making comments is NEVER a "bother" to me. So do NOT feel that way at all. If I can help you feel better, lessen your pain maybe even help you heal your damaged pancreas from chronic or acute pancreatitis, via any of my personal experience, I am more than happy to do so.
Ok, let's get to the comment.
"Hi. My name's Julie and I left a comment a couple or few weeks ago including my email address and you responded via my email address. My email is so full of junk that I thought I'd ask you a question this way instead of searching for that email. I was wondering if you ever recommend any certain nuts/seeds. I love sesame sticks and was eating them but not sure if they were affecting me or not. I love nuts but know they have fat and not sure what I should try if I put some in a rice recipe. And then I saw a recipe including sunflower seeds. I also wonder if the instant oatmeal packets are ok. I was eating a lot of the cinnamon oatmeal and didn't know if that was affecting me. I guess I'm just so afraid to get sick again and was wondering if you had any insight on any of this. I know I need to add one thing at a time and then wait 48 hours. I did that lastnight with turkey breast. So far so good. I'm new at this and sorry if I'm bothering you. I really really appreciate all you've posted and wish you had a book with all the info in it. I'm planning on printing a lot of your articles and keeping them in a notebook to make things easier. Thank you so much for whatever you can tell me. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks again :)"
My answer:
Hi Julie ...
From the sounds of things you are feeling better - that is great! I hope the New Year is kind to you and your pancreatitis symptoms remain a memory.
Just as you already know and mentioned seeds such as sunflower and nuts all contain natural oils and fat. You may or may not be able to tolerate the fat content. If you have been well for 6 months (no pancreatitis symptoms) and want to try eating some seeds and nuts I would suggest going with SMALL amounts. You may want to hold off using nuts and sunflower seeds in cooking and simply try some alone first and see how they work for you.
Instant oatmeal shouldn't be a problem. If you eat it plain. If you eat it with milk or worse, cream, you may have problems due to fat from the milk or cream.
The 48 hour thing is for fruits, vegetables and other non animal or non dairy products. Any type of animal or dairy product should be given a weeks surveillance, even 10 days to see what the affects are going to be because it takes upto 2 weeks to digest animal type proteins. And for some reason many foods that trigger instant pancreatitis pain and symptoms one day will maybe take a week to do the same next time or visa-versa.
In ALL cases of MY pain and nausea, the culprits are ALWAYS foods that contain FAT or ALCOHOL. I made myself sick one time eating oatmeal and that is how I found out that vanilla extract just doesn't work. I used to add vanilla into my oatmeal for flavor, I don't do that anymore.
If you like chocolate be advised that most chocolate manufacturers use VANILLA. Chocolate also contains FAT. It may be a source of unwanted pain so tread lightly.
If anyone has some questions that need answers be sure to ask me.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Happy New Year People!
I forgot to post on New Years Day so I thought I'd post today and I don't have anything great to say - Just that I hope (if you suffer from pancreatitis) 2012 brings you a much healthier, and pain free pancreas.
If there is anything you want to know about my personal experience with pancreatitis and how I overcame pancreatitis that I haven't covered please, feel free to ask me about what you need to know. I'll be more than glad to help IF I can.
Happy New Year!
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