A Case Report: Abdominal Pain and Vomiting

A 44 year old woman came to see me in November last year for complaints of her “3 P’s”: pain, puking, and puffiness. She had been diagnosed with acute pancreatitis with liver involvement in 1991. The inflammation in the pancreas was apparently initially triggered by a blockage of the common bile and pancreatic ducts with stones. The bile then backed up and caused a serious inflammation of the pancreas. Her gall bladder was removed at the time. In 2000 she had a flareup when the enzymes that are elevated with pancreatitis were out of sight at over 40,000. She ended up having some GI bleeding also. She was intolerant to fats in the diet. She had a stent placed in the pancreatic duct to attempt to drain accumulated “sludge”. However she reported severe nausea, abdominal pain, recurrent vomiting, swollen extremities, fatigue, and shortness of breath persisting since that time. In her words, she felt like “roadkill”. She had been “managed” conventionally with strong pain relievers including Tylox, Talwin, and Vicodin and antinauseant medication (Zofran during the day at $300 per month, and Phenergan at night).

My workup revealed she had allergies to dairy and eggs. She had grown up on a dairy farm and used lots of both of these foods. Her CRP, and inflammation marker, was very elevated at 7.5. Probably because of the damage to her pancreas, her fasting insulin level was elevated at 44, evidence that some degree of insulin resistance or blood sugar disturbance was present. She had a history of some hypoglycemic episodes. A CT scan of the abdomen taken within 2 months had been negative. The normal natural medicine treatment for acute or chronic pancreatitis is high dose enzyme therapy to take a load off the pancreas and to reduce inflammation. This patient was convinced that she was “dumping” enzymes and had too much already, so she did not want to take them even though the latest enzyme levels did not show elevations as had been true before. A candida antibody test was negative, and her hormones were all very low except her cortisol, which was high. probably stress induced. She had been taking the birth control pill for contraception, despite her age, which probably had been instrumental in messing up her hormonal balance. Hair analysis revealed elevated arsenic. No, we did not think her husband was trying to poison her, although, in fact, her symptoms were compatible with chronic arsenic poisoning. In short, I thought this patient had a recent and longstanding acute flareup of a chronic pancreatitis, food allergy, arsenic toxicity, and hormone imbalances.

Treatment consisted of an allergic food elimination diet with a vegetarian bias, and oral and intravenous phosphatidylcholine to clear the bile ducts of sludge and to help repair any ongoing inflammation in the pancreas. I recommended oral selenium which has also been shown to reduce pancreatic inflammation and to buffer the effects of heavy metal toxicity, another oral chelator called Nh4 Redox, and Mastica for her irritated stomach lining. I advised that if she must have contraceptive protection, she would have to have a tubal ligation. This procedure makes hormone levels drop, but hers were already as low as they could go on the pill. This patient definitely should not have been on the pill in view of her chronic inflammatory condition.  She needs natural hormone replacement therapy soon. Within a month of starting her diet and after 5 IV’s she just came back to report that all of her symptoms are gone.

Her regular doctor was amazed by her results since he has known her for some time. She will be gradually weaned from the IV’s over the next two months.

This case illustrates the power of natural medicine to help when everything else has failed and all hope seems to be gone. Experience, open mindedness, and a strong desire to search for causes and answers can and do change people’s lives. We see it happening here at Caring Medical every day. If you have a tough health problem, let us try help you too.

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