Chronic Pancreatitis Blog

Study Links Smoking to Increased Risk of Pancreatitis

Posted 23 Mar 2009 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, March 23 – Smoking may increase your risk of pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas that causes abdominal pain. It's believed that gallstone disease and excess alcohol consumption can cause pancreatitis. Smoking is a suspected cause of pancreas damage, but it hasn't been clear whether smoking is an independent risk factor for pancreatitis, according to background information in a study by researchers in Denmark. They analyzed about 20 years of data from 17,905 people to determine if smoking was associated with increased risk of acute or chronic pancreatitis. The researchers said that 58 percent of the 9,573 women and 68 percent of the 8,332 men were current smokers, 15 percent and 19 percent of men were ex-smokers, and 28 percent of women and 13 percent of men had never smoked. By the end of the study, 113 women and 122 men had developed acute (160 cases) or chronic (97 ... Read more

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