Text Box: *Doctors once recommended that people with diverticular disease avoid high-fiver foods, believing the roughage could make the condition worse. Today they know that a high-fiber diet can prevent and help threat diverticular disease. During an attack, however, avoid seedy foods, such as berries.

Diverticulosis: mild cramps, bloating,

constipation, and lower abdominal pain,

but often no symptoms are experienced

until later!

Diverticulitis: fever, nausea, vomiting,

chills, severe lower-left abdominal pain,

constipation, rectal bleeding

Diverticular disease can take two forms: diverticulosis and diverticulitis. In diverticulosis, grape-sized pouches called diverticula bulge out through weak spots in the walls of your colon (large intestine). About half of all Americans age 60 to 80 have these pouches, the result of a low-fiber diet.

Diverticulosis is rarely found in Asia and Africa, where people eat mostly high-fiber foods and little meat. Fiber makes stools soft and easier to pass, reducing pressure in the colon.

Doctors believe that straining to have a bowel movement encourages diverticula to form the reason constipation can cause diverticulosis.

In diverticulitis, the pouches become inflamed or infected, possibly because stools or food get caught in them. About 10 to 25 percent of people with diverticulosis develop diverticulitis, which can lead to tearing, blockage, or bleeding of the colon.

If an abscess (a localized collection of pus) forms, it can cause swelling, tissue damage, and the spread of infection to other parts of the body. Sometimes the pus leaks out of the colon into the abdominal cavity.

This can lead to an infection called peritonitis, a medical emergency requiring surgery to clean out and disinfect the cavity and remove damaged portions of the colon.

Most people with diverticulosis have no symptoms AT FIRST. The condition is often diagnosed during tests being performed for another reason. Some times doctors discover diverticulosis during an X ray of your colon in which barium (which outlines the colon) is used. If your doctor suspects diverticulosis, he may request a stool sample to test it for blood.

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Using barium to detect problems in and of itself creates more of a problem because it is difficult to get out of the system and often people develop blockages because this substance turns into cement and either blocks it up or leaves a layer of hard cement like material lining a part of the colon that eventually causes its own problems. We do not suggest getting this type of X-ray when other methods can be used! Often colon therapy is needed to clean out any leftovers!

Actually, colon therapy is often needed to assist in the treatment of this condition, but should be used only after using our testing method to determine when or if a procedure should be use and if it will help or hurt!

The Natural Health Care System has advocated the best treatment and prevention techniques, which the Allopathic Medical Practitioner most violently rejected these processes but now are beginning to use them!

They continue:

Your doctor may be able to diagnose diverticulitis from your symptoms. He will examine your abdomen for tenderness and take blood to check for signs of infection. An endoscope (a lighted, flexible tube with a tiny camera at its tip) may be used to view the inside of your colon.

What is it?

How is it treated?

Most people can control mild diverticular disease with the recommendations in Your Prevention Plan (below). For more serious disease, the goals are to treat any infection, reduce inflammation, rest the colon, and prevent complications such as bleeding or perforation. Drugs and surgery are sometimes necessary.

DRUGS

Anti-inflammatory medication (such as ibuprofen) can ease the cramps, bloating, and constipation of diverticulosis. To allow your colon to rest, your doctor may prescribe a liquid diet and the drug propantheline bromide (Pro-Banthine), which helps control intestinal spasms.

If you’ve had rectal bleeding, an artery-constricting drug such as vasopressin may be injected into the affected area to stop the bleeding and ease symptoms. An abscess requires treatment with antibiotics. If the drugs don’t work, however, the abscess may need to be drained. Your doctor will insert a needle and a catheter (small tube) into the abscess to remove the fluid.

SURGERY

For serious diverticulitis, your doctor may recommend surgery to remove the troublesome portion of your colon. The healthy sections of the colon are then reconnected.

NATURAL MEDICINE

Visit your health-food store and ask about marshmallow root, slippery elm bark, licorice root, and aloe vera juice, all of which can soothe and protect inflamed intestines. Chamomile, goldenseal, red clover, and yarrow may also help. And fiber supplements in the form of psyllium or flaxseed can help ease flare-ups.

Fast Fact

A new treatment may cut the need for diverticular surgery, reports The New England Journal of Medicine. An endoscope (a lighted, flexible tube with a camera at its tip) is guided into the large intestine and used to deliver drugs and perform tiny repairs on bleeding diverticula without full-scale surgery

Your Prevention Plan

Exercise

Diet

Supplements

• Go for bulk. Increasing the amount of fiber in your diet can reduce diverticulosis symptoms and prevent diverticulitis. Be sure to consume at least 30 grams of fiber each day but increase your intake slowly. Good sources include fresh fruits and vegetables, beans and legumes, and whole-grain breads and cereals.

If you are unable to get sufficient fiber through diet alone, your doctor may recommend a daily dose of Citrucel or Metamucil. When mixed with water, these products provide about 4 to 6 grams of fiber in an 8-ounce glass.

• Drink up. Make sure you drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water daily. This can help prevent the constipation that can result when you increase your fiber intake.

• Spoon up some yogurt. Beneficial bacteria nor-mally live in the colon, where they fight disease-causing bacteria. If you are taking an antibiotic drug (which can kill the good bacteria along with the bad), eat yogurt that contains active cultures every day to help restore the beneficial bacteria.

• Send garlic to the scene. Use lots of garlic in your cooking to help fight harmful bacteria.

• Move things along.

Exercise helps prevent constipation by keeping stools moving through the digestive system. Get 30 minutes of moderate activity each day, such as brisk walking, jogging, swimming, or biking.

• Welcome “good” bacteria. Take an acidophilus supplement to help restore the favorable bacteria in your colon—especially if you are on antibiotics.

• Take your vitamins. Help keep your immune system in top shape by taking a daily multivitamin and mineral supplement that contains the immune boosters and infection fighters vitamin F, vitamin C, and zinc.

• Try cat’s claw. This herb, from the inner bark of the cat’s claw vine, is valued for a variety of healing properties, including its ability to boost immunity and soothe inflammation.

OUR UNIVERSE COMMENTS:

Although most of the suggestions given are good there are other things to do and to take these suggestions and using them is at your own risk without our science to guide you in their use!