Poll Have You Tested for Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency (EPI)?

[PrimalPancreas]

How many of you have had your exocrine pancreas function tested to check for any level of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (a.k.a EPI)?

EPI happens when your pancreas no longer produces and/or delivers enough pancreatic enzymes in order to break down fats, protein and carbohydrates properly into usable nutrients.

EPI can cause many symptoms, often not thought to be related, through malabsorption of nutrients and subsequent nutrient deficiencies. This in turn causes metabolic pathways to struggle.

This was the underlying cause for my ME/CFS and is often not considered by doctors and sufferers.

 

[pip]

Did you lose weight early on or was that something that happened much later after your health really tanked ?

 

[Carl#1]

No I have not been tested but I know that I have it because my Iris shows the cause of it. The NHS testing is rubbish so I would waste my time attempting to get them to do any testing. I attempted to get a SARS-CoV-2 test and was told that they could not do it without a mobile phone number, most likely to implement their test and trace system. I do not own and will never use a mobile phone because of the dangers they have. BTW this was after a doctor on the UK 111 telephone service wanted to call an ambulance to pick me up because of breathing and chest problems. I refused because there is such a high chance of death if I went into hospital. She told me to get tested for the virus which I said I would do but could not get it done because of the excuses they came up with.

They will also not test for Increase Digestive Permeability either because my now retired GP told me that it was an "old" test that is no longer used. Basically she was telling me utter bullshit like everything else that has ever come out of her mouth.

My whole pancreas is pretty much none functional because I am also T1 diabetic. That is different to what you discuss because a large portion, but not all beta cells were destroyed but what you discuss is not usually caused by tissue destruction. The larger digestive part of my pancreas has significantly reduced function because of changes to the nervous system in that portion of the pancreas. BTW that does also put me at high risk of pancreatic cancer because the nervous system controls the immune system in the area of the body and with weak immune system control cancer can develop and so can autoimmunity.

However this is not significantly relevant to my CFS or in any way causative.

 

[pip]

No I have not been tested but I know that I have it because my Iris shows the cause of it. The NHS testing is rubbish so I would waste my time attempting to get them to do any testing.
.

Yeah, Being in the UK and being ill really sucks.
What are you doing for it ? Taking any Creon or Digestive support at all ?

 

[PrimalPancreas]

Did you lose weight early on or was that something that happened much later after your health really tanked ?

Initially it was a slow process, masked by taking supplements like protein powders after sports and multi-vitamins daily. But, I had two distinct episodes where I dropped 20 lbs in a month or two that did not have any explanation, except in hindsight. The big drops were spread over a few years, almost as if the pancreas was like a sputtering motor, trying hard to keep producing.

 

[Carl#1]

Yeah, Being in the UK and being ill really sucks.
What are you doing for it ? Taking any Creon or Digestive support at all ?

I take Now foods pancreatin capsules mainly for fat digestion reasons to get it out of my stomach as quickly as possible. My longer term aim is to repair the damage once my digestive system is functioning better and moving more freely ie no constipation. However that is quite difficult because part of my problem is my mother who instilled harmful beliefs about not expressing sadness which my father also reinforced, you know fathers telling their sons not to cry or big boys don't cry type of thing. That type of thing causes enormous health problems. I am T1 diabetic as a result of my father's ideas which affected my colon movement at the area related to the pancreas tail. That altered my immune function in the pancreas which set up the conditions to destroy the pancreatic beta cells, although not all of them.