What Is Pancreatin?

Pancreatin (also referred to as pancreatic acid) is a type of digestive enzyme combination (produced by blending several digestive enzymes made by the pancreas' exocrine cells). Pancreatin is commonly used for supplementing insufficient levels of digestive enzymes in the body. There are many different uses for pancreatin, including treating people with cystic fibrosis, treating autoimmune disorders, celiac disease, allergies to certain foods, weight loss and cancer.

Components

• Pancreatin consists of several different components, which are amylase, trypsin and lipase. These three are all pancreatic enzymes. Pancrelipase is an enzyme that is very close to pancreatin. However, the difference is that pancreatin has less active lipase in comparison.

Function

• The enzymes in pancreatin all have different functions. The amylase is responsible for starch hydrolyzation. It turns them into disaccharide maltose and oligosaccharides. The trypsin functions for hydrolyzing proteins into oligopeptides, and the lipase hydrolyzes the trigylycerides into glycerol as well as fatty acids.

Purpose

• Pancreatin is beneficial due to its purpose of supplementing enzymes. Pancreatin substitutes lost pancreatic enzymes that are required for various crucial processes of the body. They are also extremely helpful for eradicating cancer and also for assisting in food digestion.

Conditions

• Pancreatin is often used as a treatment option for conditions that involve pancreatic secretion deficiencies. Some of these conditions include pancreatitis, cystic fibrosis and surgical pancreatectomy.

Considerations

• If you are considering taking pancreatin, you should consult your doctor if you have various health related issues. These problems include frequent stomach surgeries, acute pancreatitis, swallowing difficulties, esophagitis and various others. You should also consult your doctor if you are either pregnant or attempting to get pregnant.