When I was diagnosed with diverticulitis, I was merely because physician mentioned there exists agood chance that I might have Crohn's disease. Nonetheless, diverticulitis can be as considerable and painful as Crohn's disease.

For those of you which have not had opportunity to learn about Diverticulitis, it means infection of one or more of pouches (diverticula) wall of colon. The infection slows down bowel activity, due to the fact infected pouches do not empty well; feces could possibly get held in those sacs and become infected and inflamed. In layman's term, think of your colon to be a road and feces for a car. Basically, diverticula (infection) it results in considerable road block, therefore it will impedes the flow of traffic.

There are many warning signs of diverticulitis. I can tell you about my experience. In earlier stage, I experienced some cramps and abdominal pain. However, it wasn't that serious in any way. The pain would go away completely after couple of hours. In addition, the pain was endurable.

However, this pain decided not to go away, and pain was excruciating as time went on. It kind of brought to mind pain I had when I had appendectomy infection. The pain in lower left side of abdomen was constant and excessive. I learned that's due to the fact diverticuli (infection) are generally present on that side.

The additional symptoms I had was fever, diarrhea, nausea, chill, and bloating. I shed a lot of weight because I lost my appetite (another symptom). If you've got constant pain in the lower left side of belly, you must visit your doctor. Your doctor will do blood tests, such as a complete blood count (CBC) or CT scan to figure out your problem.

I did not know this, but my diet had a lot to do with diverticulitis. If you love McDonald's, Wendy's, KFC, and a lot of other junk foods like me, you should be worried. The low-fiber diet and lack of exercise can result in many colon/stomach related diseases just like diverticulitis. Without fiber to increase bulk towards the stool, the colon has to work harder than usual to push the stool forward. As I mentioned in other articles, you need to be active and watch your diet.

Many studies have shown that countries that intake a higher ratio of fiber in their diet show a population that has less cancer, diverticulitis, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses that are common in our North American dietary lifestyle. If you exercise regularly and watch your diet, then you are on your way to healthy living!