Obesity is a giant obstacle in the way of healthy living. It disturbs the function of almost every organ of our body. Pancreas is among the most important organs that serves many vital functions. It not only helps in digestion of food in the intestine by producing pancreatic juice but also the main source of insulin in our body. Increased body fat (as in case of obesity) is a danger for severe inflammation of pancreas called acute pancreatitis. This inflammation may lead to a number of complications including death.
Acute pancreatitis is a condition in which inflammation of pancreas cause severe pain in upper abdomen along with symptoms like vomiting, low blood pressure and others depending upon the severity of pancreatitis. Almost 80% patients suffer mild pancreatitis while 20% patients have severe pancreatitis with local and systemic complications. But in case of obesity more and more complications occur.
Complications of acute pancreatitis can be divided into local complications and systemic complications. Local complications include necrosis and inflammation of the pancreas, necrosis of the colon, rupture of spleen and bleeding from gastrointestinal tract. Systemic complications include coagulopathy (deranged function of blood clotting), hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia, renal failure, respiratory failure and hypovolumic shock. The consequences of pancreatitis in the long run may be pancretitic insufficiency in which pancreas is not able to produce pancreatic juice and digestive system is affected badly as well as diabetes mellitus.
How Obesity Enhances Severity of Pancreatitis?
Research shows that fat tissue of our body serves endocrine function and releases substances called adipokines which are main culprit in producing severe inflammation of pancreas. Severity of obesity is directly related to severity of acute pancreatitis. Obesity is considered one of the prognostic factors in acute pancreatitis so patients who have normal weight recover from pancreatitis easily without acquiring complications while those who are obese suffer complications of pancreatitis more frequently. Some of the facts about obesity and complications of acute pancreatitis are as follows,
- Obese patients have more severe inflammation of pancreas than non-obese patients
- Systemic and local complications of acute pancreatitis are seen more frequently than in patients with normal weight
- Chances of dying in acute pancreatitis are more in obese people than in non-obese patients
Conclusion
The above discussion signifies the importance of normal weight in bearing the stress of acute pancreatits. Obesity is a life threatening condition that should be addressed seriously. Good thing about the complications of the obesity is that most of them are reversible if weight reduction is done in time. Losing weight remains challenge in morbid obesity where simple measures like dieting and exercise don’t prove much effective in significant weight loss. In case of morbid obesity in which patient has BMI more than 40 the only effective and time tested measure is weight loss or bariatric surgery.
The beauty of bariatric surgery is that it has a number of options individualized to need of people selecting this wonderful way of losing weight. Effectiveness of bariatric surgery is above board; people who undergo bariatric surgery procedures at specialized bariatric surgery hospitals feel the difference in weeks. Many complications of obesity are cured automatically when patient comes to normal weight. Important thing to remember is that bariatric surgery is a specialized type of surgery that should only be done by experienced surgeon in safe environment. Both experienced surgeon and safety of procedure is only available at dedicated bariatric surgery hospitals not in substandard surgery centers.
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