Pancreas...12 Things To Know

Type 1 and LADA
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Twelve things to know about your pancreas, A good article from WebMD.

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Richard - The link didn’t work.

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There was junk appended to the end of the URL. Not sure how that happened. Below is a link to what I think Richard was pointing towards. It’s a 12 question quiz about the pancreas on WebMD.
How Well Do You Know Your Pancreas?

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Thanks John, I replaced the link.

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I feel like such a nerd; I started screaming at WebMD about one question. It’s not the pancreatic islets that solely produce insulin but instead the beta cells within the pancreatic islets. The islets also produce glucagon (alpha cells), somatostatin (delta cells), and pancreatic polypeptide (gamma cells).

This might be because I am slightly crazy from finals week (yay! learned all about the exocrine functions of the pancreas for physiology), but doesn’t the pancreas also produce sodium bicarbonate in addition to the digestive enzymes and endocrine hormones?

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Caught me out on a couple of things, but some of 'em only because of the bane of standardized tests, questions like this:

You can live without your pancreas: YES NO

Well, NO, not without insulin therapy–it’s not like your gall bladder if that’s what you mean. Or YES, of course you can, but only by therapeutic intervention–it’s not like your gall bladder if that’s what you mean.

SO WHICH ONE DO YOU MEAN???

This kind of “read my mind” question used to drive me nuts on standardized tests…

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Thanks for replacing the link, Richard. I scored 9/12. Who knew that the pancreas creates a half gallon of fluids and enzymes each day!

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This quiz illustrates why I get annoyed when people with Type 1 talk about their pancreas being “dead.” Beta cells make up about 2% of the pancreas, and the rest of the pancreas works just fine. If your pancreas were “dead” you’d be taking more medication than just insulin.

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Good reply, Jen. Thanks!

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But it’s amazing seeing what chaos occurs when only 2% of our pancreas no longer functions.

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I’ve always been annoyed with that omg. As someone who has other issues with their pancreas than just type 1 diabetes I’m like no honey, your pancreas is living, it’s just not working at full capacity.

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