Diverticulitis Essay

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Diverticulitis By Raymond Laster Ms. Cameron A digestive disease that involves the forming of pouches inside of the walls of the bowels is called Diverticulitis. Changes usually happen inside of large intestine also known as the colon and sometimes inside of the small intestine. When the mucosal and the submucosal layers of the G.I. tract bulge through the outer muscular layer, at this point the disease is called diverticulosis. When one of the diverticula become inflamed, this causes diverticulitis. In many people, some complain of nausea, diarrhea or constipation. Some complain of right-sided abdominal pain and some rectal bleeding. The most common symptom is abdominal pain, tenderness around the left side of the lower abdomen. If an infection is the reason for the pain, there would be nausea, fever, vomiting, cramping and constipation. Diverticula is common in people after 40 years of age. When you have inflamed diverticula, the condition is known as diverticulosis. You may never even know that you have these pockets because they rarely cause any problems as severe as diverticulitis. Diverticulitis usually gets worse throughout the first day. It starts out as small pain or diarrhea and slowly turns into vomiting and sharp pains. Many people do not have the discomfort or the symptoms. There are other diseases like inflammatory bowel disease and stomach ulcers are mistaken for Diverticulitis. One main cause of Diverticulitis is the lack of fiber in a person’s diet. A high fiber diet and increased frequency of bowel movements are associated with greater prevalence of diverticulosis. Daily fiber intake is recommended to be 25 to 30 grams per day along with 64 ounces of fluid. Vegetarians whose diets are built on whole grains, fruits, and vegetables rarely develop diverticulitis. Bulk forming laxatives such as Metamucil is also

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