The pancreas, which is located behind the stomach, secretes digestive enzymes that help your body break down and digest food. Chronic pancreatitis is characterized by inflammation of the pancreas that gradually worsens and eventually leads to permanent damage of the pancreas. When the pancreas is not functioning properly, your body cannot absorb certain nutrients.
Fat
The nutrient most affected by chronic pancreatitis is dietary fat. Fats, or triglycerides, contain three fatty acids attached to a glycerol backbone. For proper absorption, this molecule must be broken down into a monoglyceride and two fatty acids. The enzyme responsible for this breakdown, called pancreatic lipase, is produced by the pancreas and released into your stomach. If you have chronic pancreatitis, your pancreas does not produce and release pancreatic lipase properly. As a result, triglycerides move through your small intestine in their full form. This form cannot physically pass from the intestine into your bloodstream, so instead, it exits your body through your stool.
Fat-Soluble Vitamins
Your body needs dietary fat to absorb the fat-soluble vitamins properly. When you eat foods that contain the fat-soluble vitamins, the digestive juices in your stomach isolate the vitamins. Once the vitamins are isolated, they combine with fatty acids and micelles from the digestive fluid, bile, to travel from the intestines into your bloodstream. Without fat in the digestive system, fat-soluble vitamins cannot travel across the intestinal mucosa. Because chronic pancreatitis is characterized by fat malabsorption, it also leads to malabsorption of the fat-soluble vitamins, which include vitamins A, D, E and K.
Carbohydrates
Some carbohydrates, specifically starch, are affected by chronic pancreatitis as well. Your body relies on a pancreatic enzyme called amylase to break down starch. While some amylase is present in your saliva, the digestive juices released from the pancreas contain most of the amylase in your body. Because the body cannot absorb starch in its full form, the nutrient is eliminated from the body, rather than absorbed into your bloodstream.
Considerations
If you have chronic pancreatitis, your doctor may prescribe synthetic pancreatic enzymes. You must take these enzymes, which allow the proper break down and absorption of food, with every meal and snack. In addition to taking the synthetic enzymes, The National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse notes that following a low-fat diet that consists of small, frequent meals is also important.
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