Chronic Pancreatitis and Fatty Liver, December 5, 1999

Chronic Pancreatitis and Fatty Liver, December 5, 1999

Chronic pancreatitis occurs frequently, often presenting as left upper abdominal pain that worsens after consuming greasy foods, meat, and eggs, radiating to the waist, left chest, and around the navel. Its onset is often associated with cholecystitis and gallstones. Clinically, it is diagnosed based on elevated serum and urinary amylase levels, but since most patients’ serum amylase returns to normal within 48 hours and urinary amylase within 72 hours, dropping to normal after about a week, there are almost no reliable diagnostic indicators for this disease, leading to frequent misdiagnoses. When I was young, I suffered from this condition, and my father prescribed a treatment plan that proved effective, so I continued taking the medication for a year until I fully recovered.

Later, building on my father’s prescription, I formulated a bile-pancreatic compound formula: Bupleurum 10 g, Citrus aurantium 10 g, White Peony 10 g, Chuan Xiong 6 g, Cyperus rotundus 6 g, Licorice 6 g, Rheum palmatum 6 g, Coptis chinensis 6 g, Scutellaria baicalensis 10 g, Salvia miltiorrhiza 10 g, Agarwood 10 g, Cardamom 6 g, Corydalis yanhusuo 10 g, Chuan Lian Zi 20 g, processed frankincense and myrrh each 6 g, Sichuan pepper 6 g, dried ginger 6 g, Dandelion 15 g, and Bajiangcao 15 g.

This formula can cure 80% of patients with chronic pancreatitis, and I have saved countless lives over more than 40 years of practice. Currently, textbooks do not mention the coexistence of chronic pancreatitis and fatty liver, but through long-term observation, I have found that nearly 80% of patients with chronic pancreatitis also suffer from fatty liver. Fatty liver occurs when excess fat accumulates in the spaces between liver cells, gradually compressing the liver tissue and impairing its function, leading to compensatory fatty fibrosis and eventually cirrhosis. Both fatty liver and steatorrhea are caused by impaired fat metabolism: if fat cannot be digested and absorbed, it results in steatorrhea; if it cannot be fully utilized, it leads to fatty liver. The former is due to reduced pancreatic enzyme activity, while the latter is due to increased insulin secretion. Chronic inflammation can affect the pancreas, stimulating it before it loses function, causing reactive over-secretion of insulin, which in turn leads to glycogen accumulation in the liver, excess fat, and hypoglycemia.