Even if so-called pancreatitis has hardly any hereditary component, it is often family life habits that often drive the hidden organ to the brink of excessive demands. It is wedged in by the liver, spleen and small intestine on the left in the back of the upper abdomen. Its job is to make digestive enzymes called lipase, protease, and amylase.
These have to break down carbohydrates, proteins and fats in order to make these food components usable for us. To break down fat, they need the bile from the neighboring liver. In a common passage these aggressive enzymes flow into the duodenum, where they diligently start their work. Our digestive juices are in top form on festive days, when people usually eat very generously and fat.
When it gets way too much, the otherwise silent gland can utter a cry for help. Usually only in the form of a feeling of pressure and slight flatulence in the upper abdomen, but in some cases so severe that extreme pain makes hospitalization inevitable.
Prof. Reinhold Függer, head of surgery with the pancreas center at the Linzer Ordensklinikum, says that he can attribute eight out of ten pancreatitis to fatty food, too much alcohol consumption and gallstones. Since you are, as you say, somewhat obese, your doctor will most certainly have been referring to your diet and drinking habits, because the pancreas in particular reacts sensitively when it has to work at full speed.
With sensible eating and moderate drinking behavior, this gland is almost always a silent servant in the orchestra of our organism. So if you take the words of your doctor and Prof. Függer to heart, then your pancreas will most certainly do its important work for your digestion, hidden in the back of your upper abdomen, inconspicuously.
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