Mild cases of diverticulitis are usually treated with antibiotics and a low-fiber diet, or treatment may start with a period of rest where you eat nothing by mouth, then start with clear liquids and then move to a low-fiber diet until your condition improves. More-severe cases typically require hospitalization.
Consume a liquid diet or low-fiber diet until your flare-up improves. Rest as needed. Sometimes, doctors recommend surgery for people with more serious flare-ups or recurrent diverticulitis. Surgical removal of the affected portion of the colon (and the infected or inflamed diverticula) should resolve the problem.
The most common symptom of diverticular disease is intermittent (stop-start) pain in your lower abdomen (stomach), usually in the lower left-hand side. The pain is often worse when you are eating, or shortly afterwards. Passing stools and breaking wind (flatulence) may help relieve the pain.
Actually, no specific foods are known to trigger diverticulitis attacks. And no special diet has been proved to prevent attacks. In the past, people with small pouches (diverticula) in the lining of the colon were told to avoid nuts, seeds and popcorn.
Diverticulitis. The most common symptom of diverticulitis is belly or abdominal pain. The most common sign that you have it is feeling sore or sensitive on the left side of your lower belly. If infection is the cause, then you may have fever, nausea, vomiting, chills, cramping, and constipation.
In about 80 out of 100 people, complicated diverticulitis clears up within a few weeks of having treatment with antibiotics.
You may have heard advice that people with diverticular disease should avoid small, sharp and hard foods such as nuts, seeds and corn. The thinking is that there is a risk of undigested remnants of these foods lodging in the diverticula and causing inflammation.
Uncomplicated diverticulitis
Your doctor is likely to recommend: Antibiotics to treat infection, although new guidelines state that in very mild cases, they may not be needed. A liquid diet for a few days while your bowel heals. Once your symptoms improve, you can gradually add solid food to your diet.
Probiotics combined with mesalazine have also emerged as an alternative potential therapeutic strategy in preventing recurrent attacks of diverticulitis. One series reported that treatment with mesalazine and/or lactobacillus casei induced remission in 88% of their patients at a median follow-up of 2 years.
Stay with liquids or a bland diet (plain rice, bananas, dry toast or crackers, applesauce) until you are feeling better.
Natural treatments for diverticulitis include eating a high-fiber diet with more anti-inflammatory and probiotic foods and using supplements, such as slippery elm, aloe vera and protein powder made from bone broth.
However, you should seek immediate medical attention if your symptoms are not going away or you are feeling worse, such as having increasing pain, fever, bloody stools, or abdominal bloating with vomiting. Treatment depends on whether you have uncomplicated or complicated diverticulitis.
In most cases, when you have diverticular bleeding, you will suddenly have a large amount of red or maroon-colored blood in your stool. Diverticular bleeding may also cause dizziness or light-headedness, or weakness. See your doctor right away if you have any of these symptoms.
Severe diverticulitis symptoms, including sudden, intense, and continuing lower-abdominal or low-back pain, ongoing fever, excessive nausea and vomiting, persistent diarrhea, and blood in your stools, indicate you might need to go to the hospital.
Diverticulitis is an intestinal disease that can cause fatigue in some people. The fatigue may be caused by infection, inflammation, or sleep disruption due to pain. It could also be related to nutritional deficiencies such as anemia, dehydration, medication side effects, or surgery.
You should present to your emergency department should you develop fever, worsening or severe abdominal pain, or become unable to tolerate fluids. Diverticulitis can often become a medical emergency, requiring immediate medical attention and admission to hospital.
There are no specific foods you need to avoid. You do not need to avoid any foods such as nuts, seeds, corn, popcorn or tomatoes if you have diverticular disease. These foods do not make diverticular disease worse.
Fresh fruits, like apples, have the most fiber when eaten with the skin. 13 However, if you're having symptoms of diverticulitis, look for lower-fiber options, like applesauce. Bananas are another good source of fruit fiber.
Plus, probiotics have anti-inflammatory effects, which may help to ease inflammation from diverticulitis. Probiotics are available in supplement form, but they can also be found in certain foods, such as yogurt, kombucha, and fermented vegetables.