Alcohol: To Drink or Not To Drink

August 9, 2003

Beth,

You wrote, " ....Barry would like to have a lite beer.. I found information on

the Internet stating if Pancreatitis was caused by alcohol -- do not drink.

What if..the Pancreatitis resulted from an ERCP, etc. "

I don't have any firm statistical data to support my comment of " Don't even

entertain the notion that it would be okay, " but I have met a lot of people,

hundreds of people. Many of them had the initial Pancreatitis caused by

something other than alcohol, but for those that continued to drink, their

pancreas,

being in a compromised state, then became very sensitive to the alcohol, and

subsequent drinking eventually brought on calcifications and attacks. Diabetes

is a lot more prevalent in people with Pancreatitis who drink alcohol and

those that do not. It's just not worth it. Mortality from Pancreatitis (mainly)

occurs secondary to complications due to endocrine insufficiency.

What I tell people who seem to romanticize a glass of wine or a beer, is to

go read up on celiac blocks or the Thoracic Splanectomy. The doctors use 100%

pure grain alcohol, which is what wine and beer is made of, to inject into the

main pancreatic nerve to cause it to die. That is how toxic alcohol is.

Karyn E. , RN,

Exec. Director, PAI

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