What is the association between alcohol and pancreatic cancer?
It is not well known that excessive alcohol damages the liver but very few realise that it also enters unannounced and unnoticed into the pancreas - that tiny, soft organ found behind the stomach.
The two major tasks of the pancreas include the manufacture of juices to break down food and the manufacture of insulin to regulate the level of sugar in the blood. When someone drinks regularly, and especially a lot, these jobs start to go wrong.
According to Punarjan, one of the best pancreatic cancer treatment hospitals in hyderabad, alcohol strikes the pancreas in two injurious ways. It compels the organ to make extra-strength digestive juices that can leak and burn the pancreas from inside.
Concurrently, alcohol forms a toxic chemical during the metabolic processes, and this is harmful to the DNA within the cells of the pancreas. These repetitive injuries and DNA breaks have the capacity to gradually transform normal cells into cancerous cells over several years. The injury is non-invasive; in most cases, the cancer is not painful until it is at an advanced stage. This is the reason why it is so important to know this concealed connection.
We are aware that it is bad for the liver, but what few people realize is that it is also stimulating to the pancreas-the silent, leaf-like gland located behind the stomach, which produces the digestive juices and regulates the blood sugar levels.
Why then do the pancreas suffer in case of drinking?
Each time one consumes alcohol, there is a double shock to the pancreas. First, the alcohol makes the pancreas produce extra-strength digestive juices. Normally, these juices are confined to tiny tubes and pass into the intestine, but the tubes swell due to the alcohol and sometimes burst. When the juices spill into the pancreas itself, they begin to digest the pancreas as would an acid on skin. Doctors call this pancreatitis. As a series of attacks leave scars and permanent injury.
That's because as the liver breaks alcohol into acetaldehyde, a poisonous chemical, some of that poison travels through the blood to the pancreas. Acetaldehyde acts like a small bomb inside pancreas cells, blowing up bits of the cell's instruction manual - the DNA. The more you drink, the more the explosions.
So, what occurs throughout the years within the pancreatic cells?
The pancreas has the cells that produce the digestive juices known as the acinar and duct cells that line the microscopic tubes. Both take a heavy hit. When acetaldehyde and other toxic by-products of booze batter DNA in repeated assaults, the repair team inside the cell labors to mend the breaks.
But if drinking never stops, the repair team grows weary and eventually makes mistakes. One day a mistake falls on key genes normally acting as brakes telling cells "stop growing" or "die if you are damaged".
When those brake genes become broken-such as p53 and p16-the cell forgets how to stop. Meanwhile, alcohol is creating constant swelling-inflammation.
Swelling brings angry immune cells that release chemicals to fight the damage but also poke more holes in DNA. After 10-20 years of heavy drinking, one injured cell finally loses all its brakes and starts copying itself wildly. That first wild cell is the beginning of pancreatic cancer.
Does the type of alcohol matter?
No, be it whisky or country liquor or beer or toddy, the pancreas sees only alcohol and acetaldehyde. Studies in Punjab, Kerala and Northeast India show people drinking strong local liquor have the same pancreas damage as those drinking expensive branded drinks. Only the quantity and how many years you drink decide the risk.
Why do some heavy drinkers never get pancreatic cancer?
Luck plays a part. Some people inherit stronger DNA repair teams or better ways to throw out acetaldehyde. But most heavy drinkers develop either diabetes or repeated stomach pain years before the onset of cancer - warning signs from the damaged pancreas.
How much alcohol is too much for the pancreas?
Even two large pegs every day for men, or one large peg for women, over many years slowly add up the damage. It is worse with the weekend binge drinking as it causes sudden big attacks of pancreatitis, leaving behind bigger scars. The combination of both, alcohol and smoking, are a fatal combination.
Conclusion:
The moment one drinks and smokes together, the risk jumps much higher. Tobacco chemicals travel to the pancreas and team up with alcohol poisons to break DNA in more places. Nearly all pancreatic cancer patients who drink also smoke.
The pancreas is a quiet worker that never complains till it is too late. Pain or jaundice appearing indicates that cancer has already spread. Less alcohol means fewer explosions inside its cells, fewer scars, and better chances of repair teams keeping up.
Cut down or stop completely-it is the kindest thing you can do to the hidden organ digesting your food and keeping your sugar steady. For more interesting content about cancer awareness, log on to www.punarjanayurveda.com.
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