Injury Spotlight: Pancreas

Protecting your internal organs from power shots is equally as important as safeguarding your chin.

Here our resident medical expert and pro fighter Rosi Sexton continues her series of features on how to protect your inside from the outside.

What is the pancreas?

The pancreas is an organ with several functions. It’s found in the abdomen, just below your stomach and connected to the small intestine.

The pancreas serves two major functions. Firstly, it releases digestive enzymes into the small intestine to help with digestion.

Secondly, it helps to regulate your blood sugar levels by releasing several hormones into the blood stream. 

Blood sugar regulation is critical to a fighter. Whenever you’re managing your weight or looking to achieve peak performance you’ll benefit from understanding how your body gets fuel to the cells that need it. 

Insulin and blood sugar regulation

The best known of the blood sugar regulating hormones is insulin. After you eat a meal, your blood-sugar level goes up.

The pancreas responds to this by raising the level of insulin in your blood. Insulin helps the cells of your body to mop up the sugar, so they can use it for energy or store it for later. 

Some foods raise insulin levels more than others. Carbohydrates – especially simple sugars – are known for their insulin raising properties. While it’s true that too much insulin can be a bad thing, it’s also essential for getting nutrients into your cells.

It prompts your body to store fats and carbohydrates and helps amino acids into muscle cells where they can be used for growth and repair. Bodybuilders sometimes misuse injections of insulin to increase muscle mass. Needless to say, this practice comes with significant health risks. 

Popular low-carbohydrate diets often claim to work because they lower insulin levels and put the body into ‘fat burning mode.’

There’s some truth in this, but it’s a simplification. The real relationship between athletes, carbohydrates and performance is more complex. 

Exercise increases the sensitivity of the body to insulin.

This is most noticeable during the two-hour window after a workout. While this might be seen as the ideal opportunity to eat that chocolate bar you’ve been craving, think again.

Consuming sugary foods or drinks after training have been shown to reduce some of the benefits of that exercise.

Eating a meal that is high in protein, healthy fats and vegetables will help to prolong insulin sensitivity. 

On the other hand, a professional fighter training several times a day may need more carbohydrates in order to replenish his/her fuel stores for the next training session. 

Diabetes and insulin resistance

Diabetes, or to give it it’s proper title, diabetes mellitus, is a disorder where blood-sugar levels get too high. It comes in two types. Type 1 diabetes is caused by the destruction of the insulin producing cells within the pancreas.

It is also known as ‘juvenile onset’ or ‘insulin dependent’ diabetes because it is most often diagnosed in teenagers and requires daily injections of insulin. Without them, the level of sugar in the blood stream rises to toxic levels, but the body is unable to make use of it. Before the discovery of insulin, this kind of diabetes was almost always fatal. 

Type 2 diabetes is the more common type. This time the problem is caused by the cells of the body becoming resistant to the insulin that is produced. Eating a diet that is high in calories and in refined carbohydrates is known to be a risk factor for developing this kind of diabetes.

The theory is that because so much insulin is being produced, the cells become unable to take on any more sugar and the body stops responding to the signal. It’s a bit like someone continually nagging you to wash the dishes – you eventually become desensitized and stop listening. This kind of diabetes can often be controlled well with a good diet and exercise. 

There’s been a lot of talk recently about ‘metabolic syndrome,’ which refers to a condition of insulin resistance that stops short of being outright diabetes.

A growing proportion of the population are showing signs of it and it may be linked to all kinds of health problems including heart disease, stroke and full-blown diabetes. 

Regular exercise is one of the best ways to improve insulin sensitivity; however, if you have a medical condition then please speak to your doctor before starting a new training program or combat sport! 

Complications of diabetes 

Diabetes can be a very nasty condition and needs careful management. Badly controlled, it results in too much glucose in the blood stream which is damaging to cells.

Nerves, and small blood vessels are particularly vulnerable to damage, as are the eyes, heart and kidneys. 

Although there are a number of fighters who have not only fought for honor inside the cage, but also fought for their lives outside of it (such as the late, great Carlson Gracie who suffered from diabetes), to have a successful or even world-class career, fighters with diabetes certainly have a number of difficulties to deal with.

Keeping insulin and blood-sugar levels controlled throughout an intense training camp is a challenge, and some of the common weight cutting practices used by fighters could be dangerous. Diabetics should – wherever possible – discuss their training and competition plans with a sympathetic doctor or specialist. 

Damage to the pancreas

The pancreas is rarely damaged by blunt trauma – its location deep inside the abdomen means that it is well protected. Accidents and injuries that cause damage to the pancreas can occasionally occur in contact sports, though.

Severe abdominal pain brought on by an impact should always be taken seriously, and urgent medical advice should be sought. 

One of the most common causes of damage is excessive alcohol consumption. This can lead to pancreatitis (an inflammation of the pancreas) which is a serious condition in which the enzymes produced start to damage the organ itself.

Symptoms may include abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and fever.

So Clay Guida, as much as you love your bodacious attitude and superior gas tank, it’s time to tone down the partying.

Case Study

The brave fight

As well as Carlson Gracie – one of the early pioneers of MMA, who suffered from diabetes, and in 2006 passed away following a kidney condition – boxer ‘Sugar’ Ray Robinson was also diabetic, as is Joe Frazier.

Bantamweight fighter and WEC veteran Jeff Curran has been a vocal supporter of the American Diabetes Association.

His father died from complications of the condition in 1996 when Curran was 18 years old.