Pancreas cancer: What is the Pancreas?

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(Free-Press-Release.com) January 7, 2005 -- Pancreas cancer: What is the Pancreas?

The pancreas is a digestive organ attached to the small intestine. It literally means "all meat" since it looks like a piece of beef. It is about 4 inches long, and has a thicker "head" portion near where it connects to the small intestine, and a thinner "tail" which meets the spleen. The area between the head and tail is called the "body" of the pan-creas.

The pancreas assists digestion in two ways. The first is it's"endocrine" activity which means that it makes hormones secreted into the bloodstream. A hormone is a chemical messenger which controls some activity distantly from where it is secreted. The most important hormones of the pancreas areinsulin and glucagon. Insulin lowers the blood sugar by causing the body's cells to uptake sugar from the bloodstream. It also allows the sugars to be stored and turned into fats. A lack of insulin, or the body's cells being insensitive to it, leads to high blood sugar ("diabetes"). Chronically high blood sugar damages the kidneys, nerves and eyes ("triopathy"). Glucagon has just the opposite effect, it causes sugars to be released into the bloodstream from the cells to raise the blood sugar, and breaks down fat to be used for energy. This is crucial to prevent the blood sugar from becoming to low, since the brain is dependent upon sugar to remain conscious. Thus, both high blood sugar ("hyperglycemia") and low blood sugar ("hypoglycemia") are harmful, and should be immediately corrected by a properly functioning pancreas.

Secondly, the pancreas has "exocrine" activity meaning that it makes substances which are excreted directly into the small intestine, through the "pancreatic duct". This duct meets with the common bile duct from the gallbladder, which also excretes important substances to assist digestion by breaking down ("emulsifying") fats. The area where these ducts meet is called the "Ampulla of Vater". Exocrine substances from the pancreas includeenzymes, such as amylase and lipase, which break down complex sugars and fats into simpler forms allowing them to be easily digested. It also makesbicarbonate to help neutralize the hydrochloric acid produced by the stomach. All these chemicals are essential for digestion, both within the intestines and even within all the body's billions of cells. A person cannot live without these activities, either from the pancreas itself or by giving replacement drugs. Fortunately, we are now able to replace enough of the pancreas' function to keep a person alive without a pancreas!


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