Antioxidants may help cure pancreatitis

United States, January 10: According to a latest study published in the American Gastroenterological Association Institute’s official journal Gastroenterology, antioxidant supplements can be useful for patients suffering from chronic pancreatitis (CP). They help in easing the pain and lowering levels of oxidative stress.

At present, there is no definitive cure to relieve CP pain, though some drugs may be helpful. As per the National Institute of Digestive and Kidney Diseases, in case of CP involving acute pain, surgery is required to block the nerves.

For the research purposes, 127 CP patients were involved. Then the patients were administered inactive drugs or antioxidantsdefine, in that placebo-controlled, double blind trial.

At the end of the six-month period, it was found that those people, who were in the antioxidant group, suffered less pain in comparison to the ones in the placebo group.

In addition, it was discovered that the people, who were given antioxidants, needed lesser pills. Surprisingly, 32 percent of CP patients on antioxidants got rid of the pain.

Besides, oxidative stress levels were also monitored and the researchers found that the antioxidants led to an increase and then a decrease in the stress levels.

Therefore, in case of CP, there must be a state of increased free radical mediated injury. And probably, this can be reverted in people with antioxidant supplements.

Pramod Kumar Garg, MD, DM, of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and lead author of the study was quoted as saying, “Abdominal pain, the predominant symptom in patients with CP, is difficult to treat. The main reason for a largely ineffective medical treatment is that the mechanism of pain in CP is not well understood.”

He further added, “We are encouraged by our findings, as significant improvement was noted with antioxidants in respect to all the parameters of pain in this study. In addition, reduction in pain resulted in fewer man-days lost, thus providing functional employment gain to the patients. The findings should spur further research in this exciting area.”

The cause of CP is not always known but it is mostly caused due to gallstones, alcohol abuse and genetic mutations. This inflammatory disease can lead to dysfunction of the pancreasdefine and due to this, people suffering from CP lose excessive weight, develop diabetes and get affected with vitamin deficiencies and diarrhoea.