Pancreatic enzyme preparations are used to treat patients who do not digest their food properly because they do not make enough pancreatic enzymes, a
condition called exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. This can be caused by cystic fibrosis, excessive alcohol consumption, or other conditions that damage the pancreas.
Soon after the role of pancreatic enzymes in digestion was discovered in 1856, practitioners began administering raw pancreas, ground into a slurry, to patients.1 The patients found the raw pancreas unpleasant to consume, so defatted, dried pancreas material (pancreatin) in a capsule or tablet was used instead. The methods for preparing pancreatin have not changed much in the last fifty years.
The pancreas product used by Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez and myself over our years of practice is freeze-dried whole pancreas, minimally activated. It is closer to raw pancreas than the other forms of pancreatic enzymes on the market, which are made by methods devised before freeze-drying was commonly available.
No direct comparisons of efficacy between raw pancreas and pancreatin have been done in humans. However, exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) occurs in dogs as well as people, and dogs do not find raw pancreas unpalatable.
In a 1987 study, various formulations of pancreas, including raw pancreas, were given to dogs with EPI, and the enzyme content in their intestinal tract was evaluated.2 The raw pancreas delivered more enzymes to the intestinal tract than the other formulations tested. On a website devoted to the topic of EPI in dogs, raw pancreas is listed as a treatment option.
While our freeze-dried, encapsulated version of raw pancreas is preferable for humans, dogs love it too.
- DiMagno EP. A short, eclectic history of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency and chronic pancreatitis. Gastroenterology. 1993;104(5):1255-1262. doi: 10.1016/0016-5085(93)90332-7.
- Westermarck E. Treatment of Pancreatic Degenerative Atrophy with Raw Pancreas Homogenate and Various Enzyme Preparations. Journal of Veterinary Medicine Series A. 1987;34(1-10):728-733. doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0442.1987.tb00339.x.
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