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Pancreas and ME/CFS

Messages
32
Location
Norway
Ten years ago I got a mild pancreatic inflammation, and since then my Amylase values have been elevated from time to time. The last 6-9 months they have been constantly elevated, about 80 (10-65). I have quite bad stomach aches on the left upper side of the abdomen, under the ribcage - going out to the back. A CT as well as an ultrasound showed a normal pancreas, so my doc doesn't think it's really anything wrong.

I have been on digestion enzymes since two years back, but they have not really helped bringing the amylase value down.

1) How common is pancreatic problems when suffering from ME/CFS?
2) Is there any literature on this, that I can present to my doctor?
3) What other tests should be done to rule our that something is wrong with the pancreas?

Would really appreciate some advice on this :)
 

Dufresne

almost there...
Messages
1,039
Location
Laurentians, Quebec
Hi Leonora, I pulled the following from a post on the forum, some of it may be relevant:

The pancreas in CFS and Lyme
Hi Fred,
According to Dr. Byron Hyde's CFS study, pancreatic failure is the #3 cause of death in CFS. Also, due to extreme dominance of the sympathetic over the parasympathetic nervous system, Lyme patients who are seeing knowledgeable doctors are told to take enzymes, because this ANS imbalance will produce both maldigestion and malabsorption. Then there is Dr. Sarah Myhill, who has written an excellent paper on how the presence of viruses, parasites, and bacteria in the small bowel of almost all CFS patients (this has been found in FMS too) can get bad enough to stop the pancreas from producing enzymes. The treatment for that involves 3 things, two of which I am deathly allergic to, so there is no point in pursuing it, except to shore up my immunity as best I can. I have also used herbals.

In my case, my GI doctor believes that my obvious gallbladder symptoms were ignored for years because my tests kept coming back normal. 80% of Lyme patients lose their gallbladders. The pathogen love cholesterol. After almost ten years on OTC enzymes, plus being told I had gastroenteritis over and over in the ER when tests came back normal, my doctor ran a special test to prove I had gallstones called an EGD with biliary microscopy. It cost as much as the gallbladder surgery that I had immediately, when the test proved I was full of tiny stones. These stones had been backing up in the ducts for years, and when I ate and my pancreas made enzymes, the enzymes could not get out and ate my pancreas instead. Since the enzymes could not get out, I took more and more OTC enzymes. After the gallbladder was removed, my symptoms improved for awhile, but then came back full force, which is when I was diagnosed with severe exocrine pancreatic insufficiency,a condition that takes an average of 20% off your lifespan, even when properly treated. The symptoms of the condition are pretty gross, so I won't list them here. If anyone has a similar history to what I just described and a strong stomach, PM me and I will describe what would be happening if you had this problem.

Thanks for letting me know I can take both forms of B12 at once. I will PM you about your friend.


jenbooks
Senior Member


Of course the first sentence is an attention grabber, though I don't know how accurate it is. According to my former acupuncturist the brain and pancreas are connected in TCM. Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt has said the same thing if I remember correctly. I also believe Amy Yasko has mentioned the pancreas as a sight of excitotoxicity in those prone to it. Perhaps that "tired but wired" feeling many of us experience is also causing our pancreases to function in an excitotoxic fashion.