To understand why and where the pancreas hurts, you can only know the features of its functioning and structure. As a rule, pain does not arise without cause, or against the background of general well-being. They are necessarily preceded by any impairment of digestion: prolonged starvation and improper exit from it, overeating, drinking alcohol, and unusual food. Sometimes, for the appearance of a painful syndrome, it is enough to eat too fatty food, drinking it with a carbonated drink, or drinking wine, biting juicy fatty meat.
For this reason, thinking why the pancreas hurts, it is necessary to remember what exactly was eaten the day before, in what quantity and whether alcohol was taken at the same time. It should be remembered that it can also hurt from such harmless at first glance drinks as alcoholic and energy cocktails, wine and beer. It is also important that the lower the quality of drinks, the more likely the occurrence of pain and development of pancreatitis.
The cause of pain in the pancreas can be her injury, as well as various diseases of the digestive system, among which the most dangerous stones in the gall bladder, gastritis and peptic ulcer with increased acid content. This should also be remembered when looking for an answer to the question of why and where the pancreas hurts.
Can the pancreas hurt?
One of the first alarming manifestations of diseases of this kind are abdominal pain. We tend to write them off on poor digestion, but do not think about their true origin.
It is worth remembering - if the pain is acute and systematic, this clearly indicates the presence of a certain pathology. Often this disease is pancreatitis - one of the most common forms of damage to the digestive system. Pancreatic disorder develops for a variety of reasons, such as poor diet, excess weight, hormonal disorders in the body, progressing to obesity, a tendency to abuse alcohol, and even pregnancy. Often, the development of pancreatitis is a logical continuation of patients suffering severe poisoning.
At the same time, it is acute, sometimes intolerable pain, strangely enough, positively affects the dynamics of the cure of pancreatitis. After all, diseases, which are less painful and noticeable, are much more dangerous later for the human body than those that declare themselves aggressive, threatening manifestations.
Why pancreas aches in pancreatitis: the causes of
This disease is an inflammatory process that develops in the pancreas and prevents its proper functioning. Enzymes necessary for the processing of nutrients contained in food, cease to be produced, or their chemical composition is so modified that it begins to act destructively on the body. Hence the sharp pain sensations, which may accompany even a rise in temperature.
In some cases, the pain of the pancreas can acquire a dull aching character, and even becomes chronic. A huge mistake is any attempt to eliminate it by improvised medication, or ignoring in the hope that the pain will go by itself.
Painful points of the pancreas, where it hurts with pancreatitis?
The main symptom that allows to suspect the development of the disease is precisely the pain localized at different points of the abdomen, depending on the nature of the course and accompanying manifestations.
There are two forms of pancreatic disease: acute and chronic. Depending on the form, there is a corresponding symptomatology.
In acute nature of pancreatic pain, as a rule, powerful, irradiating( giving) in the back and, less often - in the sternum, the left scapula. Their nature is so sharp that with a strong enough attack, even a loss of consciousness is possible, and sometimes deaths are recorded, the cause of which is the experienced pain shock.
The acute form of pancreatitis is characterized by a fairly wide number of points of soreness:
- if the pancreas is inflamed in the head area, pain occurs in the right side( hypochondrium);
- in the case where the focus of the inflammatory process covers the body of the pancreas, the symptom is localized in the epigastric region( as they say, "under the spoon");
- when the inflammation touches the tail area of the organ, the pain moves to the left side( hypochondrium).
Thus, with acute pancreatitis, pain points in the pancreas can be localized in both the right and left sides. Often, people about this feature of the disease are not aware, which leads to a dangerous ignoring of pain manifestations.
However, cases of inflammatory processes that cover the entire structure of the pancreas are not uncommon. In this case, the pain manifests itself as particularly acute and surrounding.
What is characteristic is that the sensation increases in the supine position, and it calms down when the person sits down and slightly leans forward. Pain of this type does not respond to spasmolytic drugs, it usually occurs 40-60 minutes after eating.
In some cases, pancreatitis can progress to a chronic form. In particular, this often happens if the liver and biliary tract have experienced a preliminary lesion. The pain in the pancreas is amplified, they become more regular in nature. Chronic pancreatitis, in addition to characteristic pain, is also accompanied by a number of other negative manifestations, namely:
- frequent vomiting;
- feeling of nausea, worse after eating certain foods;
- with acidic eructation;
- bloated in the stomach;
- with increased salivation;
- by various other digestive system disorders.
In particular, there are also acute disorders of the stool, sometimes accompanied by bloody discharge. The fecal mass changes its structure, becomes more liquid, grows gray, often particles of untreated food enter it.
In the chronic form of the disease, the localization of pancreatic pain points is approximately identical to the acute form. It feels like in the stomach, and gives in the back and the intercostal area. The chronic form of the disease proceeds more sluggishly and slowly, in comparison with acute, but the consequences of it can be disastrous for the organism. Chronic pancreatitis can cause an abscess of the pancreas and often causes death.
Inflamed pancreas invariably reacts sharply to fatty, spicy foods, and also negatively perceives alcohol. Therefore, one of the first steps in the fight against pancreatitis is a carefully balanced, proper diet, including complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages.