If your pancreas doesn’t make insulin and pass it into the blood stream, you can develop diabetes. But there are other serious diseases of the pancreas, of which the most important are inflammation, or pancreatitis, cystic fibrosis, and cancer.
Inflammation of the Pancreas
The pancreas can become inflamed. That means that it swells, causes pain, and may not work effectively. This can happen suddenly — acute pancreatitis — but settle down completely in a short time, or it may slowly get worse — chronic pancreatitis. If this happens the tissues and cells will fail to do their job of producing the enzymes that help your digestion. Read the rest of this entry »