Colon is the longest portion of the large intestine, it consists of four sections: ascending, transverse, descending and sigmoid colons. Colon operates as water and some nutrients withdrawer, before converting food to waste. Several disorders affect colon’s functions including diverticulitis, ulcerative colitis, polyps, cancer and others.
Before starting we should notice that there are three terms describing diseases associated with diverticula, depending on its severity: Diverticulosis, diverticular disease and diverticulosis.
Colonic diverticulosis is the presence of diverticula, small swollen pockets that develop in the muscle the colonic wall. These pouches are common during middle-aged persons. Diverticular disease is when pockets cause symptoms. While, diverticulitis is when inflammation and/or infection of pockets occur.
What are the causes and symptoms?
Diverticula usually appears due to high pressure within the colon wall caused by low-fiber diet and constipation. Diverticulosis increases by age, since it affects 10% of people over 45 years. Nevertheless, other risks factors may increase the inflammation of pouches (diverticulitis) like, obesity, smoking, lack of exercise, high fat diet and certain drugs (steroids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications).
In the most of cases diverticulosis is asymptomatic, but may evolve to symptomatic diverticular disease: irregular bowel habits, mild cramps, lower abdominal pain and sometimes blood in stools. Moreover, it can complicate to diverticulitis, caused by injury, inflammation or infection, common symptoms include abdominal pain, fever, nausea, vomiting, fresh blood in stools etc. In this case, we should distinguish between diverticulitis and appendicitis. Pain of diverticulitis usually appears in the lower left of abdomen, on the other hand, the pain of appendicitis is usually located in the right lower side of the abdomen.
Sever diverticulitis is rare, but can lead to complications such as: gastrointestinal bleeding, anemia, fistulas (abnormal connection between colon and other organs), inflammation of bladder, gastrointestinal perforation, bowel blockage and abscess.
How to diagnose and treat diverticulitis?
When healthcare providers suspect diverticulitis, they’ll prescribe CT scan, blood tests, stools tests and colonoscopy. Moreover, several key points are recommended to prevent and treat diverticulitis:

• High-fiber diet may help prevent the development of pouches
• Exercise frequently
• Quit smoking
• Maintain normal weight
• Drink plenty of fluids
• Avoid solid food (nuts, seeds, beans, peas)
• Doctors my also prescribe medication depending on the cause of inflammation or infection