How to Tell If You Have Diverticulitis – Signs and Symptoms

What is Diverticulitis?

Diverticulitis is a condition that is uncommon and is hardly heard by many, especially in places like Africa and Asia. The disease is rising in many Western countries, where diet contains lesser fiber compared to countries where fruits and vegetables are the main source of food. Diverticulitis is most common to patients whose age is 35 years and older. In United States, data shows that about half of the populations of the patients are at their 60’s, and older.

Sadly, this disease comes silently. It comes with few symptoms, or sometimes none at all. However, symptoms may be present at the acute stage. The symptoms vary from patient to patient. Diverticulitis may lead to a serious disease that may have started as either a simple abscess of the pouches called diverticula to massive infection. The importance of early detection and proper medication are important in this kind of disease.

Diverticulitis refers to the condition in which the diverticula in the colon burst. The bursting happens due to infection in the tissues that surround it.

How does a Diverticula Form?

Usually the muscular colon wall grows thicker without symptoms. This thickening increases pressure causing the colon to eject feculence. A diet low in fiber can lead to produce hard feces, which are difficult to discharge and requires pressure to the colon. These hard feces allow colon to close off from the rest of its parts, as the colonic muscle in the part contracts. The pressure within these closed-parts becomes high, since, the pressure cannot be distributed to the other parts of the colon.

Moreover, as the pressure increases, there is a tendency that the inner intestinal lining pushes out the weak areas of the muscular walls. When this happens, pouches or sacs are formed and these are called diverticula.

What are Diverticulitis Symptoms?

While early symptoms may not be available as the disorder progresses, you will experience noticeable changes that will tell that you have diverticulitis. Most of these symptoms include fever, abdominal pain, chills, cramping, nausea, vomiting, constipation and tenderness along the left side of the lower abdomen. The pouches in the colon can split and results to leaking of the waste products in the abdomen. In this case, diverticulitis disease can lead to some medical complications.

The leakage of the waste products will cause peritonitis in which the lining of the abdomen becomes damaged. Aside from this, you may also develop blockage in your colon that blocks the food from moving properly. Other possible complication is the formation of abscess in the colon.

Bleeding of the pouches in your colon can be one of the possible complications of Diverticulitis. This can be determined if you see blood in your secreted waste after a bowel movement. Other symptoms such as irritable bowel syndrome and urinary tract infection can be a sign that you already have this disease. So, be aware of these symptoms to have an immediate medical intervention.

Typical Causes of Diverticulitis

Diverticulitis develops when the feculence are being trapped at the diverticula. When this happens the trapped feces will be gathered into the large intestine. This diverticulitis formation will allow the bacteria to develop and cause infection. The infection will result to damage of the intestine; thus, lead you to develop peritonitis. Peritonitis, on the other hand, will infect the lining of the abdominal wall and causes infection in the abdominal cavity.

Doctors say that diverticulitis formation in the large intestine is caused by the pressure inside the colon that pushes the inner intestinal lining to its muscular wall. Low-fiber content can be found mostly in the processed foods which are commonly used as a part of the diet.

How to avoid Diverticulitis?

You can reduce the risk of getting diverticulitis disease by increasing the amount of fiber you eat every day. Fiber found particularly in fruits and vegetables can help you form softer feces that will make you secrete waste easily. Another thing is to drink enough water to help prevent constipation. This disease is rare to those people with high fiber diets. Most of the fibers dissolve easily in the water that helps you to secret waste quickly.

How is it being diagnosed?

Most physicians will recommend having some serious test before undergoing treatment. One of the recommendations includes CT scan. This uses X-ray to see the dimensional image of your bowel. They will be checking the image if there is a sign of infection between the walls of your large intestines.

Another way is through colonoscopy. Your physician uses Colonoscope to view the inner part of your intestine. Colonoscope is a medical procedure a thin flexible-tube is being inserted into your rectum. This tube sends images to the video monitor which can help your doctor determine the severity of the condition and be able to give the proper medication needed for the immediate intervention.

Diverticulitis Treatment Options

Medication

Most doctors will recommend that you take Paracetamol for stomach pain. This will reduce the pain you feel in your abdomen. Other doctors will also suggest you to take bulk-forming laxatives to increase the amount of fiber in your body. Other symptoms like vomiting and infections will require suitable medication.

In addition, your doctor will prescribe antibiotics to kill the bacteria that cause infections. If you start feeling better, you should try to finish entire medication to avoid recurrence of infection. If you only have a moderate pain, the doctor usually recommends you to take a pain reliever and potent pain medication, although these can produce various side effects.

Surgery

The doctor will recommend you to undergo surgery if your condition doesn’t respond to other medical treatments. The surgeon will be applying the procedure of colonic resection. This process is the removing of the affected part of your intestine and joined the healthy parts together. Another is drainage of collection of stools in the part of the colon that contains diverticula.

Removal of bleeding diverticula is also necessary for those who experienced the worse symptoms such as bleeding. The surgeon will determine the exact portion where the surgery will be applied to stop bleeding. Sometimes, UTI occurs due to the erosion of diverticula to the urinary bladder, which also needs surgery.

Avoid the worsening of diverticulitis. Seek immediate medical help to avoid worsening of the condition. If you feel abdominal pain and blood is present during excretion, you may be having a diverticulitis. Early detection with proper intervention surely stops the gravity and complication.