There is a drink called Turmeric - The Elixir of Life that is filled with anti-inflammatories such as ginger, cayenne and turmeric and other good things that don't hurt my pancreas such as honey, sea salt. Click on the link to read more about the product. It appears that it is only available in 5 areas within the State of NY. If that's not local to where you are perhaps you can make your own?
By the way, it's made with local NY honey - an added bonus if you're from here. If you make your own you might use local honey to help defray the effect of seasonal allergies.
Something to remember is that with pancreatitis more is not necessarily better. For me, I'm not ever better off with more of anything (unless it's sleep, lowered stress and more money). As far as foods and liquids go, I'm always better off leaning toward less. If you are trying a new food or drink take it slow so you can see how your body reacts.
I have had an entire bottle of Turmeric - The Elixir of Life at a time. But you'll need to test it out to see what works best for you. With most juices, I've learned that I'm best off only having a couple ounces at a time. I've also learned that it is very important for me to have a variety of juice so I'm getting the entire rainbow of food groups. Different food colors offer different benefits for the body.
I'm notorious for only liking certain things and sticking with only those things. Unfortunately, this sort of eating doesn't benefit the overall health of my body so I try very hard to have a variety of colored drinks. Green, red, blue, yellow and orange. If I only have a couple ounces of two colors in a day then that's fine. I do try to mix it up so my body can benefit from all the colors. My choice would to never drink mango juice. That being said, I've learned what an important part of my diet it can be since it is so high in potassium and it is easy for a person who doesn't tend to eat a lot to have unsafe levels of potassium. Something I recently learned the hard way.
Wow, thanks so much for your blog. I just stumbled across it and it's so helpful. I was diagnosed with pancreatitis three months back and am trying to figure out how to live daily with the pain and flare-ups that occur. I had my gall-bladder removed 10 years ago and now have the pancreatitis to boot, and I'm only 32 years old. I'm trying to make up for all my years of hard living by taking better care of myself and this site looks like a great tool to help with that. Thanks again for all this information!
ReplyDeleteHi Russell!
ReplyDeleteGlad you are enjoying the site. It took a long time before things calmed down with my pancreas but eventually I began to figure out what foods I could and couldn't eat. No one's perfect but I try. I should have stopped eating fatty foods long before I did. It would have helped a lot with the flare-ups. Of course, alcohol is an absolute no-no from now on. It's like being grounded for life.
Eating small amounts of food at a time is much easier on my pancreas than a large meal. In fact, I never eat large meals anymore. I had a hard time limiting the amount of steak I would eat at one sitting but now I really do understand that if I don't want pain in my pancreas than I need to stick to no more than 4-6 ounces of steak at a time. Lean might be more expensive but there is much less chance of a flare-up if I stay away from fatty meat.
It can take a while to recover from a flare-up. Like months. It can take months to recover. So it is best to be patient. It can be a little discouraging and feel like you might not ever feel better. Just remember that feelings aren't facts.
When I am mid flare-up I back off food and tend to veer more toward a spoonful of honey, really runny tapioca with honey, chicken broth and other things that will be easy on the pancreas.
You can think of it this way, when the pancreas is hurting it acts like a screaming brat and will be really pissed off if you feed it. So I wait until the pancreas is feeling better.
Remember that it can take about an hour or an hour-and-a-half before your pancreas reacts to food. That makes it hard to gauge how much is okay to eat while eating it.
I tend to drink about an ounce or two of fruit juice at at time. It's taken a long time for me to realize that my pancreas just doesn't appreciate it when I have more than that in one sitting. Water isn't going to hurt my pancreas at this stage in the game. If I'm thirsty then water is a great alternative.
I don't take pain killers for my pancreatic pain. I want to know when my pancreas hurts. If I can feel the pain I can figure out the triggers and adjust my diet accordingly. I also feel that if I mask the pain I am allowing the symptoms and problem to persist inevitably allowing it to get worse and thereby shortening my lifespan. For these reasons, I'm not a fan of pain killers.
There are several articles on this site about food, pain and how I deal with it.
I appreciate your feedback. Let me know how it goes. I love to hear other people's stories. There is no cure for this disease so our ability to communicate and learn from each other is vital in helping each other down the path of recovery!