Patient Stories: Problems with Body Systems PDF

Patient Stories: Problems with...

Patient Stories: Problems with Body Systems With every breath and every bite of food, the human body takes in millions of molecules. These molecules are so small that they can’t be seen under a common microscope, but the body can’t live without them. How can something so tiny be so important to the health of the whole body? When everything works properly, the body gets certain molecules from food and from the air. The molecules enter the cells of the body and provide everything the cells need to be healthy. Healthy cells make up healthy organs, and healthy organs work An injury to the pancreas keeps the body from Injury to the Pancreas: Trouble Digesting © The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Image Credit: Shutterstock together in systems to keep the body breathing, digesting food properly. moving, thinking, and releasing energy. The relationship between molecules and health isn’t just a cool idea: tiny molecules can actually make a person feel better or worse! Injury to the Sometimes people get sick because their cells Pancreas: Trouble aren’t getting the molecules they need. When this happens, we say the person has a medical Digesting condition. Doctors often look for medical conditions when a patient’s symptoms don’t My Story seem to be caused by something like bacteria When I was a little kid, I got hit by a car when or a virus. In many cases, people can manage I was riding my bike. Luckily I was wearing my medical conditions by taking medicine to make helmet, so I survived. Still, I was pretty badly sure their bodies get the molecules they need. injured where the car ran into my body. I had to Read the following story to find out about a go to the hospital and have some operations. I person whose body systems didn’t provide his seemed fine for a long time after that, but then cells with everything they need. I started to get sick. It felt like I wasn’t digesting my food right. My insides usually hurt after I ate, and I had diarrhea. I also felt tired a lot. My parents took me to see the doctor. After a bunch of tests, the doctor said that my pancreas must have been injured in the bike accident. He said I have chronic pancreatitis, which means that my injured pancreas isn’t Injury to the Pancreas: Trouble Digesting E1 working as well as it should. I’d never even heard of a pancreas! The doctor explained that it’s a small but important organ that’s part of the digestive system. He said injury to the pancreas is a really unusual diagnosis, and that may be why no one figured it out earlier. How My Pancreas Injury Affects My Body The pancreas is an organ located underneath the The pancreas is part of the digestive system liver and near the stomach. and makes lots of digestive enzymes. These enzymes help break down food into smaller No pancreas injury molecules, like glucose and amino acids, that are tiny enough to pass from the digestive system into the circulatory system. Because my pancreas was damaged, it wasn’t making as many digestive enzymes as a healthy Injury to the Pancreas: Trouble Digesting © The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Image Credit: (t) © iStock.com/Raycat pancreas would. Without enough enzymes, my body was having trouble digesting food—that’s what was making The pancreas makes enzymes that break down me feel sick. Most of the food wasn’t breaking food into smaller molecules. down into molecules like glucose and amino acids, so not as many of those molecules were Pancreas injury entering my circulatory system as they would in a healthy body. The undigested starches and proteins were just moving right through my digestive system and leaving my body as waste. My cells weren’t getting as many glucose molecules as they needed, which was making me feel tired all the time. Without the enzymes made by the pancreas, starch molecules aren’t broken down into How I Stay Healthy glucose molecules. The good news is that scientists have figured out how to make most of the enzymes that a healthy body needs. To stay healthy, I’ve been taking medicines with enzymes in them, and they are helping my body digest food much better. Now my cells are getting all the molecules they need. I still have a damaged pancreas, but I’m feeling much better. Medicines with enzymes in them can help people with pancreas injuries stay healthy. E2 Injury to the Pancreas: Trouble Digesting