Diverticulitis, anyone? Despite high fiber diet?

10 years ago

I first had a scope when I was 24, and it showed diverticulosis (which for the sake of spelling I will call D). The GI thought it was weird, because I was so young, and also I was a vegetarian.

Fast forward to now, age 38- and I just had my first bout of actual diverticulitis (which I will call DV). Dear God that was AWFUL.

I was scoped yesterday- and I have D on my ascending colon- which is pretty rare, my spleenic flexure, and the decending colon. Not allot of D's all over the place, but more than you would expect in a person my age, who does eat healthy.

My GI does not agree I eat enough fiber. I use myfitnesspal.com to track what I eat, and I presented her with several pages of my food diary which shows I get about 25-30 grams per day. (she still refuses to believe me, I think because my colon looks like someone who eats like crap and is constipated all the time). She lectures me on not eating red meat, getting fiber, eating beans, blah blah blah. She doesn't listen when I tell her, we DON'T eat meat- we eat it like twice a week, and it's chicken breast, also we eat fish twice a week- we eat lots of veg and fruit. No soda. Barely drink, don't smoke, eat fried foods or lots of sweets, etc.

She tells me to improve my diet but I don't know how. She tells me to avoid being constipation, but I never am.

Has anyone else gotten D or DV despite eating healthy? I am so scared this will come back. It's been 3 months and I STILL hurt. Even on the scope she did yesterday- no infection but she can't find a reason why I still hurt, or advise me on anything apart from diet.

I know, find a new Dr right? I can't do that right now.

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Comments (3)

emma
10 years ago
I do not have a problem with it but my Mom and my sister did. Mom's doctor told her to take Metamucil and no substitutes. He said Metamucil does something the others don't. My thought just from watching commercials is that Metamucil makes you gassy and other products do not. It makes sense to me that gas would be good because it would expand the intestines and give a chance for the stuff trapped in the pockets to pass. Mom's never developed into a serious problem, my sisters did.
carmelbrulez
10 years ago
Hi, hope you feel better now. I am not sure if I have diverticulitis. A month ago I had some raw garlic and for a week felt awful in my stomach. I then took some medication I have taken many times over the years and again it seemed to hurt my stomach a lot despite never having hurt it before. My stomach is in constant agony.
Like a severel period pain that never lessens or goes.
Same whether I eat or drink lay down stand up or sit.
I sit and cry. I am at my wit's end with it. Cannot work or go out or anything.

I saw three doctors - uk - first one said ulcer and gave me the usual for that - for a few days it helped but then
was far worse and had to stop taking them. Second doctor said it was a urine infection - which seemed to ignore that I had no other symptoms at all (?) and said to take antibacterial tablets,. Third one said it is gerd and very minor (!).. He said to take the tablets for ulcers that make me feel worse. I have insisted on a urine, stool and blood test which will all take about three weeks. I am petrified of what this is and coping in meantime. Painkillers make no difference.

I have read that with some people who have diverticular flaxseed oil can help, as can fish oil and fibre. But this is just from looking through google past few days in an effort to get to grips with things. Would be good to hear from others with similar thoughts and experiences.
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My Mom and Sister had it. Mom was told to drink the fiber drink in the tall cans, metamucil I think. He made sure she understood not to sub with anything else. He said it had something in it that the other products didn't have. I see other brands advertising no gas, maybe the gas was what was special about it. Made sense to me that the gas would bloat you a little and cause pockets to expand and may be empty better. That is just my assumption. My Sis has not found any diet that helped her. Luckily I haven't had a problem.
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I have not read about this particular diet, but I'm trying to get more fiber in my diet to help with diverticulosis. Here is some information I have found: ~ making your own whole grain or multi-grain bread is a good idea; just watch how much plain (white) all-purpose flour is in the recipe as that is not the way to get whole grains; add unprocessed wheat bran and wheat germ to bread recipes ~ add more barley, oatmeal, and brown rice to your eating habits; I cook up both barley and brown rice in 2 cup (uncooked) portions then freeze the extra in 1 cup (cooked) portions for later use ~ eat 3-5 servings of fruit and veggies every day, with as many of them eaten raw as you can ~ add cooked dried beans (mashed) to meatloaf, meatballs, casserole, meat sauce, chili, taco meat; or you can add 1 TB unprocessed wheat bran to these recipes as you are making them ~ for snacks, eat fresh fruit (not fruit juice), pretzels, baked tortilla chips with bean dip, fresh veggie sticks with an herbed yogurt dip. Brown rice might take some getting used to, but the more you eat it the better it tastes! A Mexican pizza could be made with a flour tortilla, topped with seasoned mashed pintos or refried beans, some taco seasoned ground beef if you want, cheese - then top with shredded lettuce, diced onion, tomato, olives, peppers, jalapenos, any topping you like on a taco. You could drizzle some taco sauce or salsa over all if you like a spicy sauce.
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https://www.gastro.org/guidelines/Diverticulitis_Guideline_Final.pdf "AGA Recommendations Diagnosis and Management of Acute Diverticulitis There are no studies that address whether dietary or supplemental fiber intake reduces the risk of recurrent acute diverticulitis. Risk reduction for recurrent diverticulitis is extrapolated from a study examining patients without a prior history of diverticulitis (incident diverticulitis). Risk reductions for diverticular complications and surgery are based on a single, small case control study. Benefits of fiber for chronic abdominal pain in patients with diverticulosis are inconsistent and do not necessarily imply benefit in terms of recurrent diverticulitis. While both the certainty and the magnitude of benefit of fiber in patients with acute, uncomplicated diverticulitis are difficult to ascertain based on very low quality evidence, the intake of a high fiber diet or fiber supplementation is unlikely to pose substantial risk to patients. In light of the very low-quality evidence base, patient preferences and side effects of fiber such as abdominal bloating need should be considered when counseling a patient. A differential benefit of dietary fiber intake compared with fiber supplementation is unknown, as is the optimal daily fiber dose necessary to achieve benefit. The benefit of fiber in patients with recurrent or complicated diverticulitis is also undefined. The relevant data on the consumption of seeds, nuts, and popcorn and subsequent diverticulitis outcomes are derived from observational studies of incident episodes of diverticulitis. There are few data on consumption of these products and subsequent recurrence of diverticular disease. The key study reported modest estimates of relative risks and has a high degree of statistical certainty. In the absence of more compelling evidence it seems that advising patients to avoid these items is not useful."
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cookie8
10 years ago
When you did your food diary, did you also track your symptoms and flares? I also followed the pyramid diet to a tee and my health was so bad from it. High fiber, low meat, high grains, etc. A really good book is Breaking the Vicious Cycle - it tackles everything from Celiac and Crones to Diverticulitis and Ulcerative Colitis. No, it won't be what your doctor would suggest and it is definitely a limited diet but wow, it works. There are many positive reviews too. It is an easy read with simple explanations on everything that is happening at an intestinal level. I bought the book but you can probably get it from your library.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Vicious-Cycle-Intestinal-Through/dp/0969276818/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374339666&sr=8-1&keywords=breaking+the+vicious+cycle

Diverticulitis, anyone? Despite high fiber diet?

Comments (3)

emma

carmelbrulez

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