5 ways to support your pancreas

Your pancreas is a small triangle-shaped organ located in your abdomen. It sits directly in front of your stomach, and — fun fact! — it has a small tail!

It’s likely that you rarely give your pancreas much thought, but it is an incredibly important organ.

Your pancreas produces digestive enzymes which help you to process your food, insulin to manage your sugar levels and pancreatic bicarbonate which neutralises stomach acid. Without a well-functioning pancreas, you’ll quickly become unwell. In particular, if you experience insulin issues you’re more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

Fortunately, you can easily support your pancreas, here are five ways as to how:

1.

Eat regular meals, and yes, even snacks!

Your pancreas secrets insulin which stabilises your blood sugar. By eating regularly, insulin is released regularly, meaning that your pancreas can do its job as it is meant to.

If you want to take good care of your pancreas, consider eating three meals a day, and snacks in between too.

Just be mindful of what you eat. Try to avoid sugary food and drinks, and excessive carbohydrates as these will trigger your pancreas to secrete excess insulin.

Check out our seasonal recipes for delicious ideas for balanced meals.

2.

Practice meditation.

Meditation helps to stabilise your cortisol, which in turn mediates your blood pressure.

Meditation is also a tool to exercise self-control and boost self-esteem, which in Eastern medicine are emotions which correlate to the pancreas.

For easy to follow meditations we like Headspace, or follow Madeleine Shaw’s 10 minute meditations.

3.

Exercise regularly.

Exercise is one of the best ways to burn off excess sugar. Try taking up a form of exercise which is fun for you, that way you are more likely to keep up the habit. If you get bored of your exercise regime, don’t give up — switch it up instead. Here are our team’s favourite ways to stay fit and healthy:

  • Laurens meditates daily and builds his fitness on a trampoline.
  • Cath loves to walk the family dogs, meditates and practices yoga each day.
  • Carolin enjoys running for cardio fitness, adding yoga or tai chi to balance her head and her heart.
  • Megan too is a meditation and yoga fan and walk regularly with her 2 little girls.
  • Laura likes to cook healthy meals with fresh ingredients and plays volleyball.
  • Lucy enjoys trail running and practicing yoga.

4.

Add herbs into your regime.

Fenugreek and Gymnema Sylvestre have been linked to stabilised insulin levels.

For a delicious recipe incorporating fenugreek try this Saag aloo with roasted gobi curry.

Gymnema Sylvestre can be taken as a supplement.

5.

Add Chromium into your routine.

Chromium is a supplement which can help to regulate your blood sugar levels, and as such can help to prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes.

You can easily purchase Chromium online. Laurens suggests 150mcgs per day for most people, but as always it is worth checking with a health professional to ascertain your individual needs.

If you are suffering from a blood sugar issue, we can help.

We are passionate about unpicking our clients’ health concerns and it is our number one focus to help our clients to achieve their optimal health. If you think that you may have an issue with your pancreas and blood sugar, and think we could help, we’d love to hear from you.