By Madison Williams
What is the pancreas?
The human pancreas is an organ located in the abdomen, behind the stomach, and surrounded by other organs like the liver and spleen. This organ is incredibly important for proper digestion and blood sugar maintenance. It is approximately six inches in length and has four main regions: the head, neck, body, and tail, which can be seen in the picture below.
What does the pancreas do?
The pancreas produces many enzymes necessary for digestion. Some of these digestive enzymes include amylase, which breaks down carbohydrates, lipase, which breaks down fats, and trypsin and chymotrypsin, which break down proteins. These enzymes are sent to the small intestine after they are made.
The pancreas also makes hormones that are sent into the bloodstream for other cells and organs to use. One important example is insulin, which you have probably heard of before if you know someone with diabetes. Insulin helps cells take in sugar from the bloodstream to be used for various cellular processes such as glycolysis, which allows your body to make ATP for energy. If insulin is not working properly, your blood sugar can get too high. This is what often happens in those with diabetes. Glucagon is another hormone made by the pancreas, but its effect on blood sugar is opposite to that of insulin – it increases blood sugar! This hormone is helpful when you have not eaten in a while and your cells need sugar for energy.
What happens if something goes wrong in the pancreas?
If something goes wrong with insulin production and release, it could lead to the development of diabetes. Diabetes is typically a life-long disease that requires supportive care and some lifestyle changes, such as a healthy diet, frequent exercise, or taking prescription insulin.
If the pancreas becomes inflamed, a condition called pancreatitis develops. When this happens, the digestive enzymes produced by the pancreas build up and the organ can actually begin to digest itself! Pretty crazy, huh? This could be a short-lived condition or long-term, but either form is serious. Pancreatitis is usually the result of gallstones clogging the gallbladder, a nearby organ that also aids in digestion. The inflammation usually goes away after treatment, but it typically requires a patient to stay in the hospital for a few days for antibiotic treatment, intravenous (IV) fluids, and pain medication.
The most severe disease of the pancreas is pancreatic cancer. Like many cancers, pancreatic cancer occurs when an abnormal cell growth in the pancreas becomes large enough to form a tumor. This tumor could be benign (noncancerous) or malignant (cancerous). If the tumor is benign, it grows slowly and does not invade other organs. Malignant tumors grow quickly and destroy healthy tissue either locally (“locally invasive cancer”) or in distant parts of the body (“metastatic cancer”). Typically, pancreatic cancer is hard to detect early in patients. This is because symptoms are subtle and similar to many other diseases, and doctors have a hard time detecting tumors by hand when feeling a patient’s abdomen during an exam.
Surgery is the best route for treating pancreatic cancer, but chemotherapy and radiation are other alternatives. If surgery is determined to be the best option, either a portion of the pancreas or the entire organ can be removed. However, if the entire pancreas is removed, the patient will need to take prescription insulin and digestive enzymes, since their body can no longer make them.
Happy digesting!
