There are a lot of different chemicals that are produced in the body, it may sometimes be in the form of a waste that must be secreted out of the body but others are used to continue the important processes that happen inside our bodies like digestion.
The flow of the chemicals such as the bile produced by the liver and the pancreatic juice, produced by the pancreas are being controlled by the sphincter of Oddi which is a type of muscle.
A sphincter is a round muscle that can open to allow the entrance of the bile and the pancreatic juice and then closes. But when this muscle is not working properly, this condition is called what we know as the sphincter of Oddi dysfunction. Here, the opening function by the sphincter is not working and this will prevent the chemicals from flowing and might cause a digestive juices backup that will produce bouts of severe abdominal pain.
There are two types of this dysfunction: billary dysfunction, it is when the digestive juices are backed up from the liver and the second one is the pancreatitis wherein there is an inflammation of the pancreas and the backing up occurs in the pancreas mainly.
Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction symptoms includes the following: nausea, vomiting, chills, fever, diarrhea, loss of appetite and it can be the cause of weight loss but the most common symptom is the abdominal pain. Once you have these symptoms, it may easily come and go, but there are times that you will feel the pain mildly and the next will be severe pain. Once you feel it severely, go to the doctor immediately.
There are specific persons that can develop this condition, this are the people who had surgically removed their gall bladders, the middle- aged women, and people having high cholesterol. For the doctor to successfully diagnose if you have this condition, they will check if your sphincter of Oddi is normally functioning by placing a plastic tube that is usually small into the bile duct or through the pancreas duct. This will measure if the sphincter of Oddi is expanding and contracting well.
The patients that have mild condition of this dysfunction, they just usually undergo medical treatment by using pain medications that will prevent of having spasms. But for those whose pain is severe, they undergo surgical procedure which is called the sphincterotomy but is accompanied with complications that are considered as high risked. If the surgery goes wrong, there is a possibility that there would be extreme bleeding, infection and scarring.
Here are tips on how to avoid this dysfunction; it is by not drinking alcohol, smoking, avoiding eating foods that has high- fat content, cholesterol control, healthy weight maintenance and eating smaller frequent meals.
Doing the said tips will definitely help you in avoiding sphincter Oddi dysfunction but if it you can’t resist the temptation of it, you can instead lower the dosages of the tips and just do some of it occasionally. Live your life in a healthy way so that it will not just strengthen your body but also it can lengthen your stay in the world. Live life happy, contented and disease free!
