Pancreas Health & Diet

The pancreas is an important organ that plays a vital role in regulating your blood sugar levels. If your pancreas develops problems, it can lead to inflammation and even pancreatic cancer, which has one of the lowest cancer cure rates. Although a pancreas-supporting diet can't ensure you won't get pancreatic problems, it can help improve your odds of staying healthy.

History

The pancreas was first identified in 300 B.C.E. by the Greek surgeon Herophilus. It was another Greek, the anatomist Ruphos of Ephesus, who gave the organ its name, which means "all flesh," likely due to its fleshy consistency. The first reports of pancreatitis date back to the 1700s, with the first study and description of pancreatic disease by Reginald Heber Fitz in 1889.

Identification

The pancreas lies in the upper part of your abdomen, behind the stomach and close to the spine. It produces digestive enzymes that your body uses to process food and also makes insulin, the hormone that regulates your blood sugar.

Significance

The main types of pancreatic-related disease include acute or chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer and diabetes mellitus. Diabetes affects 23.6 million Americans, according to the American Diabetes Association. Pancreatitis, or pancreatic inflammation, can cause malabsorption of nutrients as well as diabetes, depending on which cell types are damaged. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death overall, killing more than 37,000 people each year, with a five-year survival rate of only 5 percent. Most patients succumb to the disease within six months of being diagnosed.

Considerations

Pancreatic disorders are often associated with obesity, particularly people who have a lot of abdominal fat. The risk for severe acute pancreatitis is increased by 16 percent for each increase of 1 centimeter, or less than an inch, in waist circumference, according to a study by Andrés Duarte-Rojo, et al, published in the March 2010 issue of "Alimentary Pharmacology Therapy." Obesity is also related to decreased insulin sensitivity, which is important for the development of both diabetes and pancreatic cancer.

Expert Insight

Research led by Elizabeth A. Holly, Ph.D., at the University of California at San Francisco in 2005, found that eating lots of fruits and vegetables is associated with a 50 percent reduction in the risk of developing pancreatic cancer. On the other hand, a March 2010 study in the "Annals of Epidemiology" by M. Rossi, et al, found a direct link between a diet filled with simple carbohydrates high on the glycemic index scale--foods like processed sugar and flour--with a 78 percent increased risk of developing pancreatic disease. The glycemic index assigns a numerical value from zero to 100 that ranks carbohydrates based on how quickly the body converts them into glucose, with 100 being the highest. Other studies, such as the one led by Noel Mueller and published in the February 2010 issue of "Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers Prevention," found that if you down two or more soft drinks a week, you may have double the risk of developing deadly pancreatic cancer, while a 2009 study by the National Institutes of Health linked a diet high in fat, especially from red meat and dairy products, to an increased rate of cancers and other diseases of the pancreas.