Are your fit and active??

Do you exercise at lest 3-4 times every week. For more than half an hour.

Do you have a diet that is High in fiber, fresh fruit and veges? With little or no junk food?

Do you suffer from Diverticulitis?

Well your not alone there are other people out there in the same boat. They have very active, very healthy lifestyles and still suffer from Diverticulitis. It is being compiled right now and is just for those unlucky few that seem to be doing the right things but still have Diverticulitis.

Why did someone who is active and fit and eats the correct foods get Diverticulitis?

Well I have a theory. It is only a theory just my musings. There is no scientific evidence behind this at all. Just my disclaimer.

I'll tell you a short story, I believe it was Barry Marshal who discovered "Helicobacter pylori" which is a bacteria that is heavily involved with gastritis. This is interesting when we start talking about Diverticulitis.
Why?

Well if a bacteria can cause gastric problems including stomach ulcers, I would have thought it was possible to cause (or at least be the root cause) of Diverticuli. A bacteria gets into the bowel and breeds and causes the bowel wall to weaken. Then it is only a matter of time before the bowel wall is weakened enough for a diverticuli to form.

Now I'm not saying that if this is true it is possible to cure Diverticuli by killing that bacteria.

If the bowel wall is weakened and a diverticuli is formed then more conventional methods will have to be used to make sure you do not get an infection. Fiber, exercise etc.

It would help explain why people that are fit and have a high fiber diet sometimes get Diverticulitis. Cases of Diverticulitis are higher in people that have a diet low in fiber, this may be because a diet low in fiber will give bacteria more chance to breed. A diet high in fiber will keep any potential baddies moving through faster. It is still possible that bad luck might play a role in an infection that causes a bowel wall weakening.

With the western lifestyle lets ignore food and exercise for now. Our lifestyles tend to be generally high in stress. We get stressed about lots of things, from work, to money, to home life etc. And the western work tends to have a lot of extended periods of sitting at a PC or for work, going to and from. All these help in giving a bad bacteria a "chance" to take hold.

I could be wrong. It is just a theory.

So what do you do if you have a fit and healthy lifestyle?

First look at stress. If your life has lots of stress in it that will be a big concern.
Quite a lot of the people that I have spoken to who are younger fit healthy and eat right. Tended to have some serious stress in their life. Now I know this might not be yourself. This is just what I have heard so far. Stress can take many forms, from worry about the mortgage, to work, to people you deal with, to family life.

IT IS VITAL YOU MANAGE STRESS.

Look at ways to reduce stress. Get a good book on stress management. (our library has a good list of books).
Look at stress relief programs, like the Stress Buster from Meditainment It is a very important thing in your long term fight against Diverticulitis.

Also reduce the high impact exercise, like running or jogging. They are high impact as when you run, you jar the body. So if the intestine is a little tender, then running will be jarring an already tender area. Instead think about things like swimming, even yoga. They are much lower impact and will help if your tender. If you cannot live without running, then try to hold off until things are at least a little better and stay well hydrated.

We have more coming about this shortly.