Digestive · Pancreas
Pancreas
Two organs in one trench coat: a digestive gland and the reason your blood sugar is survivable.
- Length
- ~15 cm
- Enzyme output
- ~1.5 L of juice / day
- Islets
- ~1 million, about 1% of tissue
- Insulin discovered
- 1921, Banting and Best
What it does
Secrete enzymes that digest fat, protein, and carbohydrate into the duodenum, and release insulin and glucagon into the blood to regulate glucose.
The marvel
Roughly 99% of it makes digestive enzymes. The other 1%, scattered islets of about a million cell clusters, makes the insulin and glucagon that keep blood glucose in a narrow band. Lose that 1% and you have type 1 diabetes, while the other 99% works perfectly.
How to serve it well
Alcohol and gallstones cause most pancreatitis
Together they account for the large majority of acute cases. Heavy drinking is the main avoidable one.
Smoking is a major pancreatic cancer risk
One of the clearest modifiable risk factors for a cancer that is notoriously hard to catch early.
Keep glucose in range
New-onset diabetes after 50 without obvious cause is occasionally the first sign of pancreatic disease and deserves proper assessment.
Do not ignore fat in the stool
Pale, greasy, floating stools that are hard to flush can indicate the pancreas is not delivering enough enzyme, which is treatable.
Book an appointment
- Persistent upper abdominal pain that bores through to the back
- Pale, greasy stools or unexplained weight loss
- New diabetes with no clear cause after 50
Emergency, go now
- Severe upper abdominal pain radiating to the back with vomiting
- Jaundice with abdominal pain and fever
What you may have been told
“Sugar consumption directly causes diabetes by "wearing out" the pancreas.”
Type 1 is autoimmune destruction of beta cells and is not caused by diet. Type 2 involves insulin resistance and genetics, where excess calories and body fat matter more than sugar specifically. The mechanism is not a worn-out organ.
Where this comes from
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases · Pancreatitis
- American Diabetes Association · Standards of care
- NHS · Pancreatic cancer
LUMEN is education, not medical advice, and it cannot know anything about you. It does not diagnose. If something here matches what you are experiencing, take it to a clinician who can examine you.