Tag: Pancreas Damage

EPI has such a wide range of possible symptoms due to nutrient deficiencies impacting all aspects of your body. This is one of the reasons exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) is so poorly understood, and often misdiagnosed or diagnosed much later than desired. It took me going to dozens of doctors and specialists, a tremendous amount of testing, and above all perserverance before I could even start the journey to improve my quality of life.

Do not give up!

Some doctors suggested going to a psychiatrist, as it was out of their experience to diagnose or treat the large list of symptoms. I even had four doctors tell me that my pancreas was fine mainly based on two standard blood tests. Important to note is that those two standard blood tests for amylase and lipase that doctors usually go for are utterly useless in determining exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI). They are likely a cause of many missed diagnoses of pancreas damage. They might be helpful briefly during an acute pancreatic infection or duct blockage, when those enzymes spill over into the bloodstream. But, if you are not making enough of these pancreatic enzymes in the first place, they will not show up elevated in the blood.

Please do not give up and be your own advocate for your quality of health.

Good news

The good news is that many of the downstream symptoms that are due to nutrient deficiencies can be improved once a correct diagnosis is made and steps are taken to correct the nutrient imbalances.

List of my personal resolved issues:

Some examples of major symptoms that were resolved in my case, including many classic ME/CFS symptoms include:

• Debilitating chronic weakness and fatigue
• Post-exertional exhaustion, malaise, fatigue (PEM)
• Many layers and types of chronic pain
• Cardiovascular dysfunctions: heart arrhythmia and premature ventricular contractions
• Breathing dysfunctions: asthma-like breathing issues, oxygen starved feeling
• Neurological issues: delayed reactions, memory loss, abnormal sleep patterns, headaches, temporary dyslexia, temporary stuttering, brain fog, confusion, difficulty processing information, difficulty understanding conversations, paresthesia
• Motor impairments, poor coordination, sudden clumsiness, spasms
• Immune symptoms, non-stop flu-like malaise, difficulty healing, swollen glands
• Gastrointestinal dysfunctions: malabsorption, nutrient deficiencies, microbiome dysbiosis, silent reflux, small intestinal bacterial and Candida yeast overgrowth
• Pre-diabetes, hypoglycemia, triglycerides, HDL, homocysteine, and HbA1c levels
• Low testosterone, sleep disorders, neurotransmitter issues
• Slow wound and soft tissue healing, easy bruising
• Sensitivities to light, noise, heat, cold, smell, taste, food
• Blurry eyesight, night blindness

There are many paths to ME/CFS, but whether the trigger for it is, for example, viral, bacterial, toxic overload, auto-immune, unknown, or pancreas damage as in my case, the results can be debilitating and life-altering.

Pancreas damage, especially EPI, malabsorption and its chronic nutritional deficiencies, is just one possible path to at least look into.

The steps I took to go from death’s door to a functioning human being again are transferable to anyone suffering from chronic ailments and ME/CFS, and not just those with pancreas damage, as they help the body in the overall re-balancing and healing process.

It has been a journey of six years of unhealth, five years without knowing a pain-free day, four years of non-stop malaise, over three years of being homebound, and perplexing dozens of doctors. Like many others, my situation had stumped a few dozen doctors with varying specialties after countless ECGs, ultrasounds, X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, blood, urine and stool tests spread over the years prior to the diagnosis. For those of you suffering from ME/CFS, chronic pain or illness, or any pancreatic damage you have likely suffered far worse.

But, I was too stubborn to accept that the remainder of my life would have devolved into being a prisoner of my bed or couch, dependent on my wife for everything to just survive in pain and malaise. Determined not to take doctors’ feedback and non-answers as gospel any longer, I was able to ask for the right medical tests to perform to finally uncover my pancreas damage, nutrient deficiencies, and microbiome dysbiosis. Four doctors had actually told me my pancreas was fine, even though it was so atrophied that I had less than 10% functionality left and I was pre-diabetic. This just shows you how pancreas damage is flying under the radar of most doctors until it is often far too late.

Since I wanted to find out what caused my health breakdown and how I could get better, I kept track of how I felt most days, including any symptoms, medical test trials, food and supplementation experimentation, bodily insult lowering actions, as well as any interesting bits of information I gathered during my research. Most available hours of energy I had in the last 4 years were spent in reading and researching my symptoms and possible ways to heal. The notes I kept throughout the years helped me to write this Primal Pancreas book. It is written it in a way that I wish had been available to me when my health first started to deteriorate, or after dozens of doctors still had no answers, or even after my official medical diagnosis.

This book includes actions to help heal the body, lower oxidative stress and inflammation, and lists of medical tests (some not commonly used like urine metabolites or comprehensive stool tests), food and supplements to consider.

If it can help even one person by shedding some light in order to help the healing process, or help a doctor with any of their patients, it was worth writing.

A. Toxopeus