Note: The Prescript-Assist supplements discussed in this article are no longer available. Please click here to learn more about a substitute, the Daily Synbiotic from Seed.
If you’ve ever experienced a diverticulitis attack, I’m sure you’d be the first to say that it’s not a pleasant experience. I bet you’d be willing to do a lot of things to prevent it from happening again! Or maybe you’re someone who has been diagnosed with diverticulosis by your gastroenterologist, but you’re not quite sure what to do to prevent those painful attacks you’ve heard about and you want to learn more. Whatever brought you here, I’m happy to have you. Today I’ll be providing tips on how to prevent diverticulitis attacks naturally.
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What Is Diverticular Disease?
Diverticular disease is the term used to encompass a spectrum of issues from diverticulosis (the presence of sac-like pouches called diverticula that protrude from the colonic wall) to diverticulitis (the inflammation of these pouches and the accompanying symptoms). Diverticular disease is common in the Western world, with the highest rates seen in the United States and Europe. Even in those countries the disease was almost unheard of in 1900, but by the 1970s it was the most common affliction of the colon. (1)
Diverticular disease has been shown to increase with age – by 80, it is estimated that approximately 70% of individuals have diverticular disease. (2) The highest estimates suggest that approximately 20% of patients with diverticulosis (remember these are the people with the pouches, not the acute inflammation of the pouches) will at some point develop diverticulitis. (3) However, newer and more accurate estimates suggest that this rate is somewhere between 1 and 5%, depending on the strictness of qualifying criteria. (4) This is important to note for those who have been diagnosed with diverticulosis but are currently asymptomatic – according to these newer estimates, it is unlikely that you will develop diverticulitis. However, if you have diverticulosis and want be sure to prevent any problems or you’ve had diverticulitis attacks in the past, continue reading!
Despite the fact that diverticular disease is so common, we know relatively little about it and the common recommendations are based on limited data. If you’ve been diagnosed with diverticulosis, you may have received advice from your gastroenterologist about avoiding nuts and seeds and eating more fiber. However, these recommendations are based on inconclusive research and may not provide much benefit to you. In fact, few studies show any benefit to avoiding nuts and seeds and one study even showed that intake of nuts and popcorn was associated with a decreased risk of diverticulitis and diverticular bleeding. (5) High fiber diets are also often recommended, despite inconclusive evidence. (6) It is evident that recommendations for diverticular disease are due for an update.
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Underlying Factors That Contribute to Diverticulosis
Newer research suggests that the factors underlying diverticular disease are the following: (7, 8)
Inflammation
While inflammation is well-accepted in the model of acute diverticulitis, more and more research points to the involvement of chronic low grade inflammation in the development of symptomatic diverticulosis. In fact, of 930 patients undergoing surgery for symptomatic uncomplicated diverticular disease (SUDD), approximately 75% of them had evidence of chronic inflammation in and around the diverticula. (9) It is for this reason that drugs used for treating inflammatory bowel disease like mesalamine are being used to treat diverticular disease with good results as well (but hang tight, we’ll talk about natural ways to prevent diverticulitis, of course!). This is also why chronic use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen have been shown to increase the risk of diverticular complications (10, 11), since they are known to increase intestinal inflammation. (12, 13)
Fecal calprotectin can be measured to identify intestinal inflammation, and is high in those with symptomatic diverticular disease compared to those with functional digestive tract disorders like IBS and those with asymptomatic diverticular disease. (14) If you’re wondering whether you may have intestinal inflammation, it’s a great thing to get tested (and you can order a stool test from a specialty lab like Genova Diagnostics which will measure it). It is clear that chronic inflammation is involved in the development of diverticular disease, and that those who wish to prevent attacks should take steps to reduce intestinal inflammation.
Thankfully, one of the best ways to decrease intestinal inflammation is to eat a paleo diet! By avoiding potentially irritating and inflammatory foods such as grains, omega-6 fatty acids and lactose, we can reduce intestinal inflammation and encourage proper gut health. A paleo diet also positively influences gut bacteria, which in turn results in reduced inflammation as well. A paleo diet for diverticular disease should focus on gelatinous cuts of meat, bone broths, well-cooked vegetables, starchy tubers, and fermented foods.
Reducing your stress level is also important for bringing down levels of intestinal inflammation, as stress has been shown to activate inflammation in the intestine. (15) Stress can absolutely wreak havoc on the gut, so it is essential that any program focused on preventing diverticulitis attacks include proper stress management. This means incorporating mind-body activities such as yoga, meditation, tai chi, etc on a regular basis. If you’re someone who’s constantly stressed out and never takes time to take care of your own well-being, it’s unlikely you’ll be successful in preventing diverticulitis attacks even if you implement all the other suggestions outlined in this article. This one is important!
Another way to reduce an inflamed intestine is to supplement with soothing and healing demulcent herbs – deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL) has been shown to reduce mucosal damage and inflammation in rodents (16, 17) and it is likely that other demulcent herbs such as slippery elm and marshmallow root may have the same effect. Take chewable DGL tablets or mix a spoonful of slippery elm or marshmallow root powder in a small amount of water and drink 1-3 times per day to help soothe and heal an inflamed intestine. Another healing substance for the gut – bone broth – should be liberally consumed for this purpose as well.
Altered Intestinal Bacteria
Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is common in diverticulitic patients. (18) Rifaximin, a non-absorbable antibiotic (meaning it only affects the gut, not the rest of the body), has been shown to effectively treat SIBO (19) and this treatment has also been shown to improve diverticular disease outcomes. (20) Bacterial overgrowth, along with fecal stasis inside the diverticula, can contribute chronic dysbiosis which can lead to low-grade inflammation (21), so improving gut bacterial balance is crucial to reducing intestinal inflammation.
Probiotic supplementation has been shown to be safe and potentially useful in diverticular disease (22) and is likely to be even more beneficial when combined with other therapies. If you’re not already consuming probiotics from your food (in the form of kefir, kombucha, kimchi, etc) then you should consider adding a supplement like VSL #3 or Prescript Assist (though even if you are consuming probiotics, a supplement isn’t a bad idea!). As Chris has mentioned, Prescript Assist tends to be the probiotic of choice for those suffering from constipation so start with that if you tend to err on the side of decreased motility.
Prebiotics are also very useful for correcting dysbiosis, and should be considered by those with diverticular disease. Prebiotics “stimulate selectively the growth and/or activity of intestinal bacteria associated with health and well-being” (23), which is exactly what we want when we’re trying to shift the balance of the microbes back to the good guys. My go-to prebiotic is Pure Encapsulations fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS) powder, but others include GOS and even lactulose. Supplementation with 10g of FOS per day has been shown to increase counts of bifidobacteria. (24) As with all prebiotics, it’s important to start with a very small amount and increase slowly. If you’re sensitive to FODMAPs you’ll want to be particularly careful as prebiotics are also FODMAPs. However, if you tolerate them well I think prebiotics can be a powerhouse when it comes to correcting imbalanced gut flora.
Most importantly, it’s crucial to treat SIBO or dysbiosis. As we’ve discussed, these conditions are very common in those with diverticular disease so it’s worth checking on your gut bacteria to see how they’re doing, using specialty labs such as Genova Diagnostics (and get your calprotectin tested while you’re at it!). It’s best to work with a practitioner who can test and treat you for these conditions.
Abnormal Colonic Motility
Researchers have found that those suffering from symptomatic uncomplicated diverticular disease have what they like to call a “spastic colon” in the areas affected by diverticulosis. (25) This is similar to what is found in patients with constipation predominant IBS and in functional constipation. These same researchers also found that patients with diverticulitis disease have reduced density of interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC for short – a fun name for the “pacemaker cells” of the intestine). (26) In studies on animals with a lack of ICC networks, delayed or absent intestinal motility is noted. (27, 28) What this means for diverticular patients is that these lack of networks and a spastic colon can cause increased symptoms in terms of constipation and bloating/pain. Though we’re not entirely sure what we can do to directly affect these cells (yet), it’s important to use therapies aimed toward improving motility if this is an issue for you.
Know that correcting SIBO and dysbiosis will go a long way toward improving constipation, so this is a good place to start. Given that our stool is mostly made up of dead bacteria, one can imagine that without proper amounts of good bacteria we’re going to have a tough time bulking the stool. Prebiotics can be particularly useful for constipation given that they selectively increase good bacteria like bifidobacteria. However, if you’re still struggling after correcting dysbiosis, here are some additional recommendations.
First, serotonin is an important player in gut motility. Serotonin concentrations in those with colonic diverticulosis are significantly lower than normal controls and contribute to the type of bowel habit following a test meal. (29) Serotonin transporter (SERT) transcript levels are also lower in those with a history of diverticulitis compared to controls and those with asymptomatic diverticulosis. (30) Inflammation is also known to decrease SERT expression and function (31, 32), so following the recommendations to lower intestinal inflammation is of course the first step to improving gut motility. In addition, it is also likely that supplementation with 5-HTP (a precursor to serotonin) may alleviate constipation and increase motility since it will increase serotonin levels. Note: do not take 5-HTP without talking to your doctor first if you are on an SSRI medication.
Second, if you’re currently on a low carbohdyrate paleo diet, you may want to consider increasing your carbohydrate intake. In my experience working with those with constipation on a paleo diet, this is the single most effective diet-based recommendation I’ve seen. If you’re at a loss as to what starches to add in, check out this excellent handout from Balanced Bites. Note: since SIBO is so common for those with diverticulosis, this step may need to wait until that has been treated, and may not be appropriate for some people.
Magnesium supplementation can also be very useful for people with constipation. Given that only about half of US adults consume the RDA for magnesium (33), it’s safe to say that a lot of us probably aren’t getting enough. This is due to the fact that not many foods naturally contain high amounts of magnesium, and even those that do have less due to the depletion of magnesium from our soil. Check out this magnesium soil content map to see how your local area is doing (and think about where most of your food comes from – if you’re not eating local you may not even know what soil your food is being grown in!).
Conclusion
By reducing our intestinal inflammation, balancing our gut bacteria, and improving our intestinal motility it is likely that we can prevent diverticulitis attacks. I’ll leave you with a set of action steps so you remember exactly what to do to improve these underlying factors.
Action Steps to Prevent Diverticulitis Attacks:
- Eat a paleo diet!
- Reduce stress
- Use demulcent herbs such as DGL, slippery elm, and marshmallow root to soothe and heal the intestine
- Take probiotics like VSL #3 or Prescript Assist
- Take prebiotics like FOS powder
- Treat SIBO or dysbiosis
- Reduce intestinal inflammation to increase SERT functioning, and consider supplementation with 5-HTP
- If you’re currently on a low carbohdyrate paleo diet, consider adding some starchy tubers to your diet
- Supplement with magnesium
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I love these posts and have referred to hem many times – especially posts from Prioris – yet so grateful to hear all the different points of view and things that helped each of us on our journey towards wellness. I do want to stress as Prioris has said that it is important to eliminate trigger foods and those triggering foods can be different for each of us. I agree with Treblig that sugar is a HUGE issue – its causes inflammation. However with that being said I was low carb for 2 years and LCHF (Keto) for 1-1/2 of those years. The longer I went on LCHF the more episodes I began having – looking back I wish I would have ate more clean (organic, grass fed, no chemicals) in my food as I see now with much research that contributed. For me, corn, too much red meat, not enough water, caffeine, dairy, sugar all are trigger foods for me. I do take Amp and have done numerous things recommended on this site.
I am now seeing a dr who is helping me get to the root and did multiple tests including blood & stool tests. I tested positive for dysbosis and high levels of candida – both of which are making it difficult for me to get on top of as it is a perpetual breeding ground for bacteria and fungi to flourish…. so despite my best efforts there were things happening in the microbiome of my gut that needed to be addressed before I could fully move forward in wholeness.
I HIGHLY recommend finding a functional medicine practioner and get your stools checked!!! I am in the middle of a 3-month long protocol to right these things so we create the right environment for my body to heal itself and get the most of all the things I have tried for the last 10 years that haven’t worked (1-1/2 years have been hard core working towards this).
Chris Kresser and other drs have talked about the importance of root vegetables and how they provide prebiotic fibers which promote the growth of healthy bacteria – which i wasn’t doing because i was so severely low carb…. an aha moment for me. I have also started making my own bone broths which promote incredible healing in the gut. And now that the candida is under control have made kimchi and kombucha which are healthy probiotics delivered instantly through food to promote balance.
Again – i cannot stress the importance of seeing a functional dr and getting your stool checked – who will address the root cause & get you on the road to recovery. There were so many things I was doing that were right – but because this issue was going on in my gut I didn’t get the full benefits.
Hello, I have been dealing with a bout of diverticulitis every year for the past 5 years. I have a GI doc who says go for the surgery, but my regular doctor says no way. I’d prefer to avoid the surgery at all costs! I truly believe there is a natural way to heal myself or at least get infections far less frequently. I have had a colonoscopy, and I have two deep pouches in my colon. My thought was to try calorie restriction along with intermittent fasting. I’m really not sure what the best overall diet would be. I’m looking for someone who has been through this and beat it. Please help! You can email me at [email protected] if you have any suggestions.
This article was great. I didn’t have any idea about the inflammation connection. Also, a good reminder to keep stress levels down.
I have divers. I have just figured it all out. I am with treblig on his observations re sugar. Sugar is the baddy. I have been 3 months clear of it and like treblig eat pretty much the same diet with the addition of coconut products- they are such good fats.
I am in New Zealand and have found a wonderful sugar free cookbook by Sarah Wilson who has been sugar free for 3 years now due to digestion problems. Also David Gillespie has written a great book on sugar called Sweet Poison. Another tremendous book is Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. My divers is so much better now. Hope this helps.
Ginny, nice to know that someone else is getting the same results as I am by taking sugar out of their diet. As long as the coconut products don’t give you pain they are OK!! I have been ingesting 4 tablespoons of EVOO daily and some days a little more. You have to be creative to take that much EVOO. You have to take/eat lots of the good oils when you cut back on carbs/sugars because your body uses the oil for fuel. Also you should eat more oils than protein. You can read all about it online. I basically don’t have Diver anymore…it might be there but I’d never know it, in fact, I had completely forgotten about it (Diver) until I received a message that Ginny had posted something to this website. I just had a blood test (last week) and the Doctor said that I was in perfect health and the Lipid panel was completely normal and so were all the other blood tests. So I must be doing something right considering I don’t eat any fruits/vegetables except for green beans, lettuce, tomatoes. Mostly salads with lots of Caesar dressing, Caesar dressing has lots of good oils. So breakfast is 4 eggs (Better’n eggs), 15 strips of bacon and 4 Tbls of EVOO. Lunch is tuna salad or chicken salad and then a gigantic Caesar salad with lots of Parmesan cheese. I also no longer have to take blood pressure pills because of the EVOO and the 86 percent dark chocolate. The removal of sugar from my diet has allowed me to stop taking other medications that had been recommended to fight the inflammation in my sinuses/lungs. Good Luck Ginney and hang in there!!!
Treblig
What supplements do you take on a regular basis to prevent flare ups. I am interested in the Amp.. Just started on probiotics any suggestions on a good brand. I eat primarily vegetarian so paleo would be an issue for me.. Does anyone else have issues with belching yeast after eating .
Patricia, If you’re asking me what supplements I take to prevent flare-ups the answer is “none”!!! I no longer get flare-ups because I stopped eating all the foods that inflame my gut. It’s so simple I don’t know why more people haven’t figured it out. I’ve written about it extensively here at this website under “treblig”. I don’t get flare ups. The last time I had a flare up (many, many months ago) I used Aloe Vera Gel pills. Four pills a day, each pill gave me the equivalent of 5000mg of pure AV inner leaf gel. 4 X 5000 makes 20,000 mg of gel per day. The AV seems to help my gut heal after I had eaten too much cake. Unfortunately AV will not help you if you continue to eat the foods that inflame your diver!! But now that I know what foods to avoid I don’t use the AV because I don’t get flare ups….NEVER!!! AV absolutely will not prevent a flare up, I don’t know of anything (supplement) that will prevent a flare up. THE ONLY THING THAT WILL PREVENT A FLARE UP IS TO NOT EAT THE FOODS THAT INFLAME YOUR DIVER!!! Please read all my previous posts here so you can understand the theory behind my madness. It’s so simple….if you don’t eat foods that inflame your diver YOU WON’T get diver symptoms. If you don’t get diver symptoms you don’t need supplements to prevent diver attacks. I don’t use any probiotics. I eat protein, good fats, lots of EVOO, lettuce, tomatoes, green beans and 86 percent dark chocolate. I no longer have to take high blood pressure medications or any other anti-inflammatory medication. My heat rate used to be in the high 90s (at rest) which always made me worry but now it’s in the 70s all the time.
Don’t get me wrong, I used to get bad diver attacks with pain and bleeding…it was scary and painful!! I’ve gone through a lot of trouble to explain what I did to help myself and to heal myself. It has worked beautifully and I am not only very happy, I am also very healthy according to my primary physician, my gastroenterologist and my kidney specialist.
treblig
Since my posts never seem to make it to the blog, we will see if this one does. Totally agree with 99% of what trebling says! There is no supplement that will counteract wrong diet and when diet is good, there is no supplement needed (after healing period). All our triggers are different…my trigger is mostly nuts (which is the one that sent me to the hospital) and secondarily, dairy, sugar/grains. There came a point where everything turns to bloat. So I’m back on the NOYEAHBUT diet. (yeah but what about…) Animal Protein and above ground veges breakfast lunch dinner (if you eat 3 meals) and low glycemic fruits between meals PERIOD. You need see wellness practitioner (chiro, naturo, acu… ) to see if you are sensitive to salicylates as they can ruin the gut too. By the way…those of you taking aspirin etc (salicylic acid) for pain……its one of the leading causes of leaky guy and SIBO.
On this way of life, not only does your gut heal and you stop bloating, but your brain heals too…you think more clearly, you have more energy, you are brighter, the pain of arthritis goes away as you are not eating any pro-inflammatory food items. FOR ME, dark chocolate or ANY form of sugar (save low glycemic fruits) will throw me into a tailspin and ARE NOT worthy of investigation…they are a yeahbut. For treblig’s constitution they work.
I agree with brief fasting or intermittent fasting, especially if your ayurvedic dosha is Pitta.
For those of you, like me, who chose not to drink, smoke or do drugs…then when you are stressed, you most likely head to the YEAHBUT. You may want to investigate NET (neuro emotional technique) or something similar to handle the reasons why you get stressed and need to binge. Again a qualified Chiro, Naturo or acu are invaluable. “He who has himself for a doctor has a fool for a patient”. TODAY, I am pain free and feel terrific!
My .02 but its been right for 30 years
DR, It’s nice to get some validation but I don’t understand why more people just don’t get it?? I’ve posted here numerous times about what works for me but still the same questions keep getting asked. The dark Chocolate only has 5g of sugar and the only reason I eat it is so that I can stay off of the Avapro. I had high blood pressure for 10 years until I started eating dark chocolate and EVOO. I don’t eat the chocolate for pleasure, it’s a natural method of lowering my blood pressure. Some folks may not be able to tolerate the 5g of sugar but everyone must realize….when there in no inflammation in your gut, you tend to tolerate small amounts of things that normally aggravate your condition, at least that’s what I have found.
Treblig
Sorry, had my breakfast on the stove and had to stop writing to eat. For those who might be interested it was 15 strips of cooked “low salt” bacon crumbled into a pan with 4-5 eggs (Better’n Eggs), 4 Tbls of EVOO on very low heat. EVOO retains all it’s good properties if you keep it at a very low heat. Also, to mask the EVOO I add 1/4 to 1/3 cup of Ranchero sauce. It’s delicious and contains plenty of protein and good oils. Anyway, as I was saying, I have been symptom free for a very long time and have found that I can actually enjoy a nice piece of cake with lots of frosting every three or four weeks. This is how I reward myself for being good!! The piece of cake will slightly aggravate the diver BUT….since I immediately revert back to my High Fat Low Carb Low Sugar diet, the symptoms come and go very quickly. In fact, it’s barely noticeable. I guess most folks don’t have the discipline to stick to the diet and that’s the reason it doesn’t work for them. I had a recent blood test (for my Kidney Specialist) and he said that I was the healthiest patient he had. In spite of all the fats I eat my cholesterol it really good and my triglycerides are perfect. My blood pressure is 110/75 and my heart rate is 75. That’s a tremendous improvement from before the diet. It’s funny….I say diet, 15 strips of bacon and 5 eggs every single morning!!! The word “diet” isn’t glamorous enough for eating like a KING!! I now know that you can eat all the good fats you want to eat and as long as you don’t eat carbs and sugar your cholesterol/triglycerides will all come out GREAT!!! This diver problem seems to be terribly simple….DON’T EAT THINGS THAT AGGRAVATE YOUR CONDITION AND YOU’LL GET BETTER. Stay away from the things that aggravate your condition and you NEVER get symptoms. I even stopped taking the Aloe Vera because once my gut was healed I no longer needed it. I don’t know what else to say, please read all my previous posts before asking any questions as I have written many times about what I do to help myself.
treblig
treblig, Do you ever drink any alcohol? With this no carb or sugar diet?
I stopped drinking margaritas for a good while when I went on this diet. It took me a few months to determine what I could drink without messing up my diet. I’ve settled on Crown Royal and diet coke. I only drink once a week on Friday. There are quite a few alcoholic drinks that have no carbs, I’m sure you can look them up. It’s funny though….when you drink alcohol the body actually uses the alcohol as energy (like carbs). If I read correctly, the body will burn (use) alcohol as fuel first before anything else in your stomach. It’s actually a fuel!! So to answer your question, yes I do drink alcohol and I’ve seen no detrimental effects with respect to my low carb/low sugar diet. As a bonus…I don’t get any kind of hang over, evidently pure alcohol with no carbs or additives don’t mess up your head like mixed drinks do. Who’d a thunk!!!!
Treblig
I was diagnosed with Diver 2 days ago. I am 47. I live a very active lifestyle including endurance sports, hot yoga, and strength training.
Although these antibiotics have ZAPPED me of my energy, I will be transitioning off them eventually, and wonder how to go about moving off of this clear liquid diet?
Also, is there anything I can do for increased energy? Short and long-term?
You need to do trial and error. The first suspect would be the B vitamins may be depleted.
I would try a 5mg of sublingual methylcobalamin. I’d also get a coenzyme B complex. country life has a brand. You can take it on an empty stomach.
I’ve just had my first bout of diver. was put on two antibiotics with one being Flagyl. I read another post that said Flagyl is poison. Please enlighten me!
I also found it odd that I ended up with diver. I had my gut flora tested 6 months ago and it was fine. no candida. I take pre & probiotics daily. I’m shocked I got this. Anyone else?
Diverticulitis is bacterial and not fungal so fungus testing not helpful.
It is interesting that you had your gut flora checked and that your taking prebiotics and probiotics didn’t work to prevent it.
Antibiotics are a double edged sword. Lot of people have been damaged by them. I stay away from broad spectrum antibiotics since it can wipe out ones guy bacteria. Different people will tolerate antibiotics in varying ways.
Flagyl is a narrow spectrum so I think better. It can cause neuropathy in some people.
Some like quinine based antibiotics have a bad record and something to stay away from. I know what antibiotics I can tolerate well like minocin and amoxicillin. Most others I wouldn’t touch.
As far as treatment, I would recommend going the natural way. I would also suggest you do partial enema’s with plain filtered water especially if pain near rectum or near waist. Throw some h202 in it. this may clean area of diverticulitis. Read thru the rest of the comments for other ideas.
But who knows, you may tolerate antibiotics well and the antibiotics may work for you. If they are making you very sick, i would stop them.
You sound like you take care of yourself. I’d like to understand how it happened
Could you please let us know what kind of diet you ate. Protein, complex carbs, simple carbs etc.
Hi,
I would like to tell my experience, I’ve been a visitor of this page since 6 months now and I followed many of the treatments that have been posted (doctors only prescribed antibiotics).
I was diagnosed with diver back in august and since then I had 2 serious bouts ended up in hospital and a couple of more flare ups, for which I was on a strict liquid diet for even up to 6 days, almost fainted couple of times.
I started to take:
aloe vera gel (Ive been told that anyway doesn’t get its way to the colon)
Quercetin before and L-glutamine afterwards
Pro and pre biotics
liver oil fish
In the end, I also started to eat raw garlic and a tea made of lemmon skin, garlic, ginger and turmeric. Not that tasty but not bad either.
So I had it all covered : good gut flora with probiotics, anti-inflammatory actions through l-glutamine and aloe and finally antibiotics power thanks to tea and garlic (if that works).
Always tried to avoid antibiotics and for food, I completely cut on vegetables, fruits and everything that was rich in fiber…that was for almost 6 months.
Because of the change of my habits, and of a strict diets I had a parallel complication and therefore started to take vitamins and other pills to compensate the carencies.
I found out that I could feel the pain in my guts by lying down and touching a specific point of the colon (lower left side). So, even if I was feeling ok during the day I started to check this point every night to understand what food caused pain or not.
I must say that I’ve never found a direct and evident correlation between food and pain. Possibly alcool or meat in heavy quantities made a difference sometimes and caused the pain. Generally speaking I think it’s also a problem of quantity apart from selecting which foods are good or bad.
Anyway, I started to feel better but always felt the persistence of the pain while touching the point. I then decided to cut on every milky product and on alcohol for 2 weeks. Got even better til the point that for Christmas I didn’t feel any pain at all and for 2 weeks I started to eat everything. And by then I mean everything. I had hot chocolates, cakes, meat, pasta, more cakes. spicy foods, nuts, and also seeds, which seems to be the most dangerous thing to eat when you have this condition and finally raw fruits and vegetables.
Well, I still feel good, no pain by touching but still taking my vitamins and stuff.
I had a colonscopy which found that my divert. are ok, not inflammed at the moment.
In the end, the surprise: I changed my gastro for a younger one, who required a blood test to find the levels of Vitamin D. Well, my levels were below average. Somebody already commented here of this recent study (Dec 13) that associates low Vitamin D with higher risk of Diver. : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23954650
which can be explained bec the vitamin D would help the gut walls to be better protected. I started now to take vitamin D pills. My doctor said that food is nor related with Diver.
Just wanted to share my experience if can be of any help for somebody. I still think that there is some connection with food, but it’s probably not that important as we thought before.
This is just my conclusion and I think everyone has his own story to tell,
ultimately diverticulitis is a microbe infecting the colon. one can try to come at the problem from many different directions.
I have never had problems with constipation or diareah, i am 47 and was hospitalized 6 days ago with a diagnosis of Acute Diverticulitis. Didn’t know a thing about it, sadly after being discharged there are soooo many conflicting things to read. They placed me on Flagyl (poison) and Cipro immediately with IV and followup at home for 10 days. I feel horrible. I am desperately looking for alternatives. The antibiotics are killing me. I eat Paleo, but recently switched to Atkins cause i was not losing weight. Again this is the first time i have ever had an issue. The only thing that hits home is that I recently was diagnosis with a low Vit D!!!! I wonder if there is a correlation between them.
please read all the comments on this page. they will give you ideas on how to attack the problem and new things to research.
i realize you feel sick as hell on those antibiotics so you probably want a quick simple answer.
first remedies i would try are aloe vera juice. while you are trying this, you can read the rest of the comments.
i would also look at your diet especially non complex carbohydrates which could be the precipitating cause of your diverticulitis. It may make your colon a more hospitable place for the infection.
grapefruit seed extract may work but it may work only if it has the chemical solvents in it that are the real active ingredient so not hopeful on this route.
another possible way to defeat diverticulitis – FASTING
i would look into juice or water fasting as a way to overcome diverticulitis. this would remove the food in which the infecting microbe feeds on.
there are other things but this gives you something you can start to do.
in the end, it comes down to EXPERIMENTING and PERSISTENCE to defeat a colon microbe infection.
diagnosed with acute diverticulitis 3 days ago, 11 yr history of IBS, I was on so many anti spasmodics all it did was give me reflux and rapid heart, changed Gastro doc who took me off everything and said he wanted to go a more natural route.
Aloe Vera juice, I’ve been drinking it for years every morn. However I’ve been slacking off lately as this really helped my IBS, but I don’t know where this excruciating diver came from?
I am so discouraged. Just got a bout of DVT, extremely painful!! I’ve already had a bowel resection, followed by 2 emergency surgeries back in 2011. Ended up with an ileostomy, reversed later. The pain is awful. Not sure what to do anymore. I don’t want more surgery, but feel there’s no alternative. I haven’t cut out carbs and sugar because my gastroenterologist never recommended it. Guess it’s worth a try.
My gastroenterologist never recommended anything either. All he ever said was avoid spicy foods!! I eat all the spicy foods I want now. It’s not spicy foods that aggravate my condition….IT’S CARBS AND SUGAR!!! He never told me that sugar and carbs were bad???? I had to figure it out for myself. If you cut out sugar and carbs you won’t die as long as you take the proper vitamins and minerals (supplements). But you will die if you keep eating foods that increase the inflammation in your intestines. NO antibiotic will fix the problem as long as you keep eating the wrong foods!!!!!
treblig
if she hasn’t been addressing it with change and experimenting with diet, any treatment will more likely lead to failure. carbs especially non complex and sugar etc will aggravate it. she has to experiment with her diet.
Check out the specific carbohydrate diet (SCD) – designed for UC and Chron’s, but said to be good for diver too. That is essentially what you are doing by avoiding carbs and sugar, but you have to be extremely strict and not cheat on the diet to get the full benefits.
I’ve been on the diet for a year and only had two minor flareups in that time – both due to inflammation problems in the colon. Lots of good recipes out there for the SCD diet. It is my last resort to avoid surgery.
What is AMP? I have just had an episode of D and on the antibiotics, the Alo Vera sounds interesting and i will try it but I cannot find out thru the conversations what AMP is.
I have been on low carb diet and it does help, I am sure this attack was caused by a weakened moment of chocolate over the Christmas holidays, live and learn
Thanks
j
Amp is : AMP = Aloe Mucilaginous Polysaccharide
From what I have found, Aloe Vera Gel (AV) will only help you if you stop eating foods that aggravate your condition. In other words you could eat a truck load of AV everyday but it won’t do any good unless you stop eating carbs and sugar. I have had some pretty bad episodes of (extremely painful) Diver including passing blood but I’ve never taken antibiotics now that I’ve figured out how to cure it myself. I have found that AV helps to heal the inflamed intestinal walls if and only if you stop eating foods that inflame your gut!!! I’m on a very low carb diet and maybe 5 grams of sugar a day (86 percent dark chocolate which keeps my blood pressure down). AV is not a miracle drug, it merely aids in the healing process if the offending foods are restricted. I no longer get diver attacks….NEVER!!! As long as I stick to my diet. I had a birthday just a few days ago. My wife bought me a chocolate cake with double frosting and a ton of flowers, she knows what I like. I knew for a fact that if I ate a piece that within a day or two I would get symptoms. Well my birthday only comes once a year so I ate a big fat piece with lots of frosting. One and a half days later I experienced some mild pain. But here’s the trick to eating something that is bad for you…..as long as you go right back to your low carb low/no sugar diet the symptoms are mild and don’t last very long at all (one maybe two days). I knew this was going to happen so I ate the cake, had a very, very mild attack and now everything is going great again. I’VE FIGURED IT OUT!!! This trick only works if you’ve been on this diet continuously and have had no symptoms for a while. On the other hand, if you are having any symptoms at all and eat a large piece of cake with lots of frosting you will end up on antibiotics!!!! This is because your gut is already inflamed and the additional carbs/sugar (cake) are like throwing gasoline on a fire. But if your gut is completely healed like mine was on my birthday then I know I can eat a piece, go right back on my diet, suffer a day or two of mild discomfort and then back to a life of bacon, eggs, tuna salad, fish, sausage, big salads, etc, etc!!! It’s really VERY SIMPLE!! Besides, antibiotics unintentionally kill the good micro organisms that live in your gut as well as the bad ones….the low carb, low/no sugar diet STARVES the bad micro organisms but doesn’t hurt the god ones. It’s so simple I don’t know why someone hasn’t published a book on it, AS LONG AS I GET ROYALTIES!!!!!!!!!!
GOOD LUCK>>>>
Treblig
I recently had a colonoscopy and they told me i had diverticulitis but didnt give me any don’ts .I ask my Dr she said no that the things i heard were all old tales. Can you tell me the signs of an attack or flare up i have been getting pain in my lower stomach and a spot on my left side .I have changed my diet on my own increase veggies and fruits. I have an appointment in March soonest they could get me in with GI DR.
most doctor MDs are too brainwashed and too restricted by their licenses and the system that they practice within to truly heal people. you have to inform yourself.
The major symptoms of diverticulitis are nausea and cramps. This is a pretty good indicator for diverticulitis.
Not sure what you asking about?? You said, “I ask my Dr she said no that the things i heard were all old tales. Can you tell me the signs of an attack or flare up i have been getting pain in my lower stomach and a spot on my left side “. What did you ask that made your Dr say that “all were old tales”?? I don’t think there is a Dr alive that can tell you what causes your diver symptoms!!! My Dr couldn’t tell me what causes my diver symptoms…I had to figure it out myself. You’ll have to do the same thing. I can tell you the foods that aggravate my diver but they may or may not aggravate your diver. Just read all my posts, they will tell you everything.
You ask for the signs of an attack….well that’s pretty easy. You’ll get very severe pains in your lower gut, almost unbearable.. You’ll get bleeding when you have a bowel movement. The pain will continue basically day and night but mostly when you have a bowel movement. It will be tender in the lower gut area when you put a little finger pressure on it. You may even get a bladder or urinary tract infection. Once it flares up it will continue to get worse until you stop eating whatever is aggravating your condition.
Treblig
I have defined AMP in many comments below,
I would take the time to read thru this ENTIRE comment section below for ideas on how to approach the problem. I provided a lot of discussion on AMP because it is NOT a well known kind of aloe vera so gets glossed over. It’s an additional tool to combat diverticulitis.
Ultimately you have to experiment with different things. It takes time and effort and persistence.
Another thing to ponder is zinc carnosine. This helps low acid stomachs. A healthy stomach is high in acid. H pylori is said to cause ulcers but that may not be entirely true since 60% of the world’s population has the infection. There may be cofactors. Low acid stomach is something to study.
GERD may be caused by not low acid in stomach. The spincter may not close because of this. Some people who have GERD may take zinc carnosine to solve it.
Interesting that gelatinous meat is recommended because there’s one thing that i’ve had right before my 3 bouts in 4 years and that’s some grissely meat. Of course i think what prompted it was taking potassium iodide after Fukushima doused us with extremely high levels of radioactive fallout. What? Yeah, if you believe the media is liberal then you haven’t heard of that but you can find more info at enenews.com
i doubt very much that potassium iodide effected the diverticulitis. Iodide would likely help against infection.
unless your eating meat that wasn’t cooked enough to kill any microbes or worms etc, i would tend to suspect something else.
As far as meat, you have to ask yourself what kind of meat and what you were eating and drinking with the meat also.
Hot spices on the meat could aggravate the surface pain of the pouches in the intestine wall, it isn’t the root cause.
Bout of diverticulitis isn’t a real time thing. The infection has already been existing in your colon for a while and has done surface damage but hasn’t been severe enough to be noticed until some event comes along. that event doesn’t always necessarily mean it was an underlying cause.
For most people, I would suspect a carbohydrate source of some type.
There’s a big difference between gelatinous meat and good fats!! I eat at least one large roasted shank bone filled with bone marrow every day. As much EVOO a can handle in my food preparation. Lots of olives (good fats), etc, etc. The EVOO actually seems to help things move along the intestine, at least that’s how it feels. Grissle is probably hard to digest, I don’t eat any.
treblig
I was surprised of the recommendation of meat also, after reading the China Study….I think I would skip all animal products. I have the biggest problem staying away from sugar!! ugggg
you will have to bite the bullet and experiment.
I don’t look at it as avoiding sugar or not getting to have sweets……..I look at it as a means of avoiding having to carry a colostomy bag around with me everywhere I go!! Besides, from I have found, I can still enjoy a piece of cake or a candy bar every week or two. It’s very simple really, once you have found how to completely get rid of the inflammation you can eat whatever you want….but not very much of it and only for ONE MEAL!!! Once you start to feel your gut hurting you better go straight back on the diet that you know will stop the pain. The alternative is to continue to eat things that increase inflammation in your gut, eventually get an infection, suffer on antibiotics, get a portion of your intestines removed and be further restricted on what you can/can’t eat. Did you know that even after you have had a portion of your intestines removed all the foods that caused the problem will still cause further problems? There are people on this website who have had surgery and come home only to continue to get inflammation because there intestines (whatever is left of them) STILL can not handle certain foods (sugar/carbs). You just have to pick which “S” your prefer, Sugar or Surgery???
treblig
exactly treblig
to get better, one must remove or minimize the thing causing the colon inflammation. other wise it is like putting a band aid on a cut while stabbing the cut with a knife after you put the band aid on it. the body can heal itself but one must create the environment that allows one to do that.
once you figure out how to control the infection, you experiment more to find your limits. also you improve how you control it to improve or overcome any limits.
i wish there was one thing that worked for all but the colon still has a lot of unknowns. experiment with different things. if something is successful then report back and tell other people.
OK I give up, where is the best place to buy AMP? I’m in New Zealand and none of the health shops here have heard of it!
i buy it from aloevin.com
I have an appointment for a second opinion on whether I need to have a colon resection. It may be necessary due to a complication (fistula) with the bladder. I’m praying I don’t have to have it. In any case, I will be going on the Paleo diet. I have a few questions if any of you can help. 1. What is AMP? I see that posted here and there. 2. What is the best source/brand to get aloe vera? 3. What is the purpose of organic sour kraut? 4. On low carb diets I’ve tried in the past, I ended up with diverticulitis. How do I prevent constipation on Paleo? Thank you!
Eva, I am 63, and have written previous posts. Today I am 6 weeks post op from a colon resection, I also had a fistula where my bladder was attached to the colon, and caused a tear. I am not a Dr. I totally agree with any natural way if it works, but there are times you need medical intervention. I had three surgeons in the OR with me one a Urologist, they had to see where the tear was to separate the bladder from the colon.
Anyway, I ate way too much sugar in my life and believe that has not helped the diverticulosis and the resulting problems.
I feel good now, the bladder problem is corrected, I am eating well, but avoiding sugars.
For me, I had to have the surgery, I just know by how I was feeling. I advise everyone to do whatever it take to take care of yourself, we all have to make the best choices in our lives. I wish I had cut out sugary foods earlier in my life but I did not. I also am the type of person who would get stressed easily, another factor which is not good for the gut.
As I said I am feeling the best I have in a long while, I am not up to speed with my energy yet but getting better each day.
Thanks so much for your comment. I know I have to go with my doctor’s advice. I can’t risk a ruptured fistula.
I can try and answer some of your questions. 2. What is the best source/brand to get aloe vera? I researched this a little and there are many companies who manufacture AV. I bought Spring Valley, Natural Concentrated Extract Aloe Vera Gel. I take 5 gel tabs a day. But I had already been on the low carb/no sugar diet for a few months before I started the AV. I first got the inflammation under control then used the AV to help heal my intestinal lining. Although the AV might help you, it won’t stop the inflammation if you continue to eat foods that aggravate your condition (sugar, carbs, spicy foods).
4. On low carb diets I’ve tried in the past, I ended up with diverticulitis……….. It’s funny you didn’t mention if you stopped sugar intake?? It probably does NO GOOD to cut your carbs if you still eat sugar. So if sugar aggravates your condition then it does NO GOOD to cut back on carbs. Please clarify??
How do I prevent constipation on Paleo? I take Citucel with every meal (3 or 4 pills with each meal depending on how much I eat). Lots and lots of water, especially at the same time as the Citrucel. I have found that although the Citrucel doesn’t really keep the stool really soft it really doesn’t matter once you heal because my intestine got much stronger and more resilient once the inflammation went away. Eating large very low carb salads (tomato, lettuce, cheese pieces (lots of cheese), grilled (protein) sausage medallions, ranch dressing) helps things along. Lots of green beans (very low carb) with tons of crispy bacon pieces (protein) also helps. I haven’t had an issue with constipation because I started on the Citrucel when I started the diet. You need lots of GOOD fats not just any fats. Good fats will lower your bad cholesterol and help the good cholesterol. Will also help with triglycerides!! I just finished my lunch: A large piece of grilled “blackened” salmon (good fats) smothered in clarified butter (more fats) and three large servings of green beans (very low carb) , also a large salad with tomato, lettuce and lots of cheese and ranch (very low carb). IT WAS SUPER DELICIOUS!!
Maybe someone can help with your other questions.
PS – Do not ever assume that you can decrease your inflammation with AV or any other medication IF YOU continue to eat foods that aggravate your condition. NO matter how good the AV, or anything else, might be it’s the inflammation that you need to address FIRST!!
Treblig
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I had stopped eating sugar several weeks ago and have never been a huge sweet eater, but too many carbs for sure which I realize turns into sugar. I’m eating low residue now until I know if I’ll have surgery. I absolutely plan on low carb eating surgery or not. (Will know on Dec 3rd.) My diet is complicated because I have a history of DVTs and am on Coumadin.
AMP = Aloe Mucilaginous Polysaccharide
Take the time ro read all the comments to collect ideas on what you could do.
coumadin causes calcification of the arteries. It can be replaced with nattokinase and serrapeptase with no side effects.
Hi! I just read your post and I wanted to tell you that a Gastroenterologist told me that I had caused diverticulosis by taking 4-5 Citracel after my evening meal. He said that the bulk forming fiber in that amount was causing too much pressure on my intestines and caused the pouches to form. So….I don’t know if that is true but I wanted to share it with you. It might be a good idea to ask your doctor if it is okay to take that much of the bulk forming laxative.
Chantelle, I appreciate the information. It doesn’t make any sense because of what I have experienced. I”m not saying that your Doctor is not telling you the truth but again, it’s nothing like what I have experienced. My pouches formed many years before I started using Citrucel. I didn’t even know about Citrucel until after I started on my low carb/low sugar diet (4 months ago). I had suffered from Diver for many years until I found there was something in the sugar and carbs that aggravate/cause my Diver. I only started using Citrucel because my current diet doesn’t allow that many vegetables so I figured I needed some bulk to help things along. I eat mostly fats and protein with some green beans, pinto beans, cold slaw and lettuce…basically very low carb veggies. Ever since I started doing the low carb/low sugar diet I have been taking 3-4 Citrucel with every single meal (3 meals a day). It’s been 3 or 4 months of BLISS!!! Not even a hint of pain and no bleeding at all. I never had taken Citrucel before this diet so my Diver occurred as a result of something else. I had also never taken any kind of laxative or bulk forming medications when I had Diver symptoms or before the Diver started (many years ago). So, for me, the warning from your Doctor holds no truth. I have found that Doctors don’t know that much, per se, only what they have read in books. My Gastroenterologist NEVER told me that carbs/sugar were aggravating my Diver!!! My primary physician NEVER told me that sugar and carbs could cause inflammation in my gut, my lungs and my sinuses!!! I figured all this out by myself. The Citrucel has given me no side effects at all.
Again, I appreciate your concern and the information that you bring to the table but, in my case, it’s not true. I would like for you to think about one thing though…….If you were taking Citrucel with any foods that aggravate your condition then I would put down $100 that it was the foods (or whatever was in the foods) and not the Citrucel that was causing the problem. Once the inflammation is there it will never go away until you remove the foods (or food components) that aggravate your gut. My inflammation is totally gone unless I eat a large piece of cake (CARBS AND SUGAR), in which case I will be in slight pain for a few days then it will clear up quickly as long as I stay on my diet. I say “slight pain” because I have no inflammation so the cake can’t easily aggravate the diverticulum except in the presence of sugar/carbs. For this reason it flares up only slightly then quickly goes away. If it was already inflamed and I ate a piece of cake I would be in serious pain for over a week and probably have some bleeding. It’s so simple that I don’t know why more people don’t know how to control their Diver. The Doctors won’t tell you any of this??? I even eat spicy foods and because they contain no sugar or carbs I get no symptoms. Seems like spicy foods only make things worse if you already have some inflammation. Without the inflammation there’s nothing there for the spices to aggravate.
Thanks again,
Treblig
The last two posts were very informative- your help is appreciated. As someone who has never given up sugar or carbs, I am reluctant to try simply because of the 55-year habit! But the last two years living with D has made me want/need to change, and I do feel worse on that lower left side when I abstain. I hate that stretched/diseased intestine feel! Ice-cream and too many carbs definitely have on occasion contributed to the pain, hence an attack. If I go a day without eating, or eating very little I always feel better. I love to eat but love my D-free days more! I take digestive enzymes and feel they help. Due to reading all these posts, I also take aloe and a probiotic, eat plain yogurt & raw organic sauerkraut regularly- now I will be avoiding sugar and carbs, and appreciate any help in addition to buying gluten-free and paleo books and cookbooks…
Kim, you wrote “I am reluctant to try simply because of the 55-year habit!” I am 63 years old, I have been average/slender all my life and have been able to eat anything I wanted and as much as I wanted without becoming over weight. I eat like a horse. I would sit down and eat a whole box of chocolate covered cherries in one sitting and savor every bit of it. I would wolf down numerous butter finger bars one after the other as a snack. If I ate a piece of cake it would a large piece but I would always (and I mean always) get a corner piece because it has icing on three sides then I would scape all the extra icing off the cake platter and cover the remaining sides of the piece with more icing. Now if that isn’t a sugar freak I don’t know what is???
What I’m trying to say is that you have a choice….take the risk of eating those foods that will aggravate your condition to the point that you have to have surgery OR stop eating some of the things you love so that you keep your intestines intact!! Once you lose you lower intestine there’s no turning back. If you think you miss many of your favorite foods now just wait until you have lost part of your gut and have to walk around with a colostomy bag!!! These are the choices I faced and this is the reasoning I used. I looked at it this way….I got to eat anything I wanted and as much as I wanted for 62 years (more of less), that’s a long time. Some folks on the blog site are only 25 years old and are in worse condition than me and will have to watch their diet for the rest of their lives. Looking at it from that prospective, I AM LUCKY!!! So don’t look at it as giving up sweets and carbs, look at it from the prospective of all the years you got to eat what you wanted AND those who are much younger who will miss out on what we were able to do.
Yesterday, we had a big meal and many, many people came to my house and brought cakes, sweet bread, pies, pasta, potatoe salad, mack and cheese, tortillas, etc, etc, etc. I looked at all the deserts and carby foods and imagined how good they would taste, then I filled my plate with protein and lots of green olives (good fats) some provolone cheese (more good fats) and ate until I was full. A few folks lifted the containers filled with all the deserts to my face and said, “You know you want some??”. I simply said, ” yes it looks and smells delicious but I’m completely full”. Do what you have to do for yourself and/or for your family. Your family needs you much more than you need the sugar and carbs.
PS – Do not go on this low carb/no sugar diet without first doing extensive research. You don’t want to deny your body certain vitamins and minerals that you would normally get from fruits and vegetables.
Good Luck,
Treblig
Nice- Happy Thanksgiving 🙂
I had part of my colon removed almost 20 years ago. It eventually destroys you unless you find a way to manage the many trips to the bathroom. I’ve found a way to manage things to stop the many trips, but it is an every day battle. Still looking for ways to overcome this. However as far as Cdiff goes, or any other infectious problem, I have kept myself out of the hospital for over 20 years using herbs and Colloidal Silver. Colloidal Silver is a life saver especially when you are inflamed. Please look into it. As sick as I was in the beginning, I never had Cdiff thanks to the Silver. My husband had Cdiff and the doctors couldn’t get it under control. He took the Silver along with his prescription and within a short time, he was back to normal. He has since used the Silver every time he felt the least bit sick. Brings him through every time. He has a tube in his stomach from having throat cancer, called Lymphoma and he is not supposed to eat by mouth. The stuff they gave him to exist on made him sick so I encouraged him to eat. We feared that he would get pneumonia like they said he would but I kept him on the Silver daily until he was able to swallow easier and pretty soon it almost like normal. He just had a case of flu that he picked up from an emergency trip to see a family member in a hospital. He left home well and came home sick. Again, no meds. No doctors. Home cooked foods, no junk, homemade broth and Silver and it got him through. Then I got his flu. Same thing. No meds, just healthy foods, herbs, lots and lots of broth and the Silver. Homemade beef and chicken broth have made all the difference in the world in my health. I may still be struggling with too many trips to the bathroom but I am not sick. I’m looking into Chia Seeds and I just learned about Acacia Senegal powder to lessen my output, so I am going to try them. I apologize if I have not added any value to the forum and my solutions have been well discussed before. I don’t have time to read the many comments but I plan on doing so eventually.
Interesting thread.
I have been diagnosed with diverticular disease for 7 years now. Though I suspect I had the disease for many years going back to my late teens, around 19. I am currently 37.
At 19 I remember having acute pain in my stomach. I put it down to coffee and wearing suit pants in my first job and ignored it. At around 27 I remember waking up with such acute pain I could barely walk. For most, you’d see a doctor. Being a stupid male I ignored it until it passed.
Skipping forward to 30. I remember the day. I felt backed up but had a baked potato for lunch. That was a bad move. I started feeling a lot of pain and gave myself panadibe forte. By 6pm I was delirious. I drove myself gone and got in a bath and went to bed. I had the worst pain. I can only liken it to having a demon in my stomach who was trying to get out with a Bowie knife.
I woke early and got ready for work. At this point my girlfriend demanded I go to hospital and I finally agreed. It got wise from this point. I ended up on antibiotics for 8 days, no food and morphine injections to my stomach for the pain. Thankfully I recovered. As it was over easter the doctors were mostly away. Had they not have been I’d suggest they would have operated. They were amazed I came good at all.
For the next couple of years I experienced regular bleeding. This has since reduced significantly. But just as you think you’re right, something happens and it’s back.
Recently, I have been trying to get healthy and have been juicing a lot. I noticed last week I was bloated and then I got extremely tired and worn out feeling. You know, slept 8 hours but feels like I haven’t slept at all. The blood passed around 4 days after feeling bloated and tired.
Thinking back this seems to be a trend. Previously is stopped eating only after an obvious attack. However now I think this is a warning sign.
I’m going to try and cut sugar out. I’m disappointed it could be the fruit. I just want to be healthy. my greatest fear is this killing me young and my young family being left with nothing.
I’m also considering the surgery now and while I am still relatively still young. The thought of having to wear is bag is scary though. Just wish I didn’t have this affliction
To: Hello World,
I don’t understand, you write that, “I’m going to try and cut sugar out.”. Why do you not say that you will stop eating any sugar immediately???? Also, The body converts carbohydrates into sugar so if you stop eating sugar and you continue to eat carbs then what’s the point?? You absolutely have nothing to lose by cutting out all sugar and eating very few carbs. I’m been doing it for many, many months and feel great with no symptoms at all for many months. The only reason you might not get on the super low carb, no sugar diet is if you are a diabetic or for any other medical issue that might not be helped by the diet. I don’t want to lose any part of my intestine and there’s nothing I won’t do or try to keep my life normal.
not understanding,
Treblig
Hi Trebling,
I ws thinking about all the things you said in your posts. I’m ignorant in this matter although if lately I’m reading about it quite a lot.
Anyway, was wondering if the sugar in the carbo is the real problem. Carbo are broken into more elementary elements such as glucose and fructose and are absorbed by the intestine walls so they end up in the blood. Would they still affect and favour the inflammation in the diverticulis that are in the guts?
On the other hand…as we, as human are not really “programmed” to be carnivore, and because of the long lenght of our intestines, together with the not enough acid juices we have in the stomach to decompose meat, especially red meat (like bacon you eat!), it might be that the meat get putrified and favour a lot infections. Many researches nowadays show a correlation between an important consumption of meat and cancer . I’m not saying to become vegetarian, but just that red meat can be a major trigger for diver. Prioris, any thought on this?
Guido, Health specialist have already determined that sugar causes inflammation. If carbs are turned into sugar so that they can be absorbed into the intestine then the sugar (converted carbs) are still being introduced into the intestine. So it makes it really hard to justify eating carbs (without eating sugar) hoping that the carbs won’t turn into sugar??? Glucose and Fructose are sugar, aren’t they?? Anyone can get cancer from numerous places and from some foods but we must not forget that cancer feeds on sugar/Fructose/etc. From the research I have done it’s clear that cancer cells can not feed on Ketones, fat or protein. So if you continue to eat sugar (or carbs that into sugar) then two things will happen: first you’re inflammation will continue and/or get worse until you need an operation, and second, if you do happen to get cancer for any reason you will not only feed the cancer cells with sugar and carbs (that turn into sugar) but you will also NOT HAVE any Ketones to help reduce the inflammation or to starve the cancer.
On the “carnivore” question: To say that we are not programed to eat mostly meat in our diet, well….I will have to respectfully disagree. Before the advent of refined sugar and refrigerators cave men ate mostly meat and fat. There were no refrigerators to keep your veggies cool during the summer and in the winter there were no veggies or fruits at all. So early man developed his digestive processes on the diet he had (protein and fat). As time progressed man developed processed sugar and ways to keep fruits and vegetables around most/all of the year. But the human body never forgot how to survive on protein and fat because that’s how we were originally programmed. If you stop eating carbs and sugar your body “naturally” switches from one system of survival to the other. If the human body couldn’t “switch” I would have been dead long ago. Since being on the low/no sugar, low carb diet I no longer have ANY symptoms of diverticulitis, the lung inflammation I have had for years has greatly decreased (I was recently tested by my allergist) and lastly, I have noticed that the sinuses I usually have (inflammation of the sinuses from allergies) has stopped bothering me completely. I don’t think that by some sheer chance or dumb luck I accidentally reduced the inflammation in my gut, the inflammation in my lungs and the inflammation in my sinuses. All these coincidences could only be attributed to the carb and sugar restrictions. I have only had diver for about 5 years but I have had asthma and sinus allergies for my whole life!!! I have never seen a study where individuals were fed only meat without and sugar, carbs, veggies or fruits. So you really don’t know if the high protein caused the cancer or the sugar and carbs in concert with protein caused the cancer. Because once cancer cells begin to grow they survive on sugar and carbs. If a person is not in Ketosis then there’s no way to starve the cancer.
Moreover, if you continue to aggravate your intestinal inflammation eating sugar and carbs and you eventually have to get a section of your intestines removed, you are now really susceptible to many other major problems, if you survive the surgery and if you DON’T get any major infection from the surgery!! I would much rather get cancer (heaven forbid) while in Ketosis than to get cancer on a sugar/carb diet.
PS – You mentioned infections from eating too much meat. This one is easy to respond to…..The majority of infections in the intestine (from diver) result from inflammation. In fact without inflammation there can be no infection!! So to say that too much meat could cause an infection doesn’t make sense if eating sugar and carbs is conducive to inflammation and therefore infection!! I have found that it is impossible to get an infection in my intestine once I had removed all the inflammation….that’s from my actual experience (not a hypothesis) .
JMO
treblig
Hi trebling,
thanks for the reply. i had to read it a couple of times to fully grasp it, I got it now. Didn’t know about the ketosis process. I’m just 32 and got diagnosed with diver only some months ago and now my life has changed, I’m becoming afraid or eating anything.
As per being carnivour/herbivore, I always stick to this example..compare ourselves with a lion for example. We don’t have such teeths as he has, we don’t have this huge mandible he has, plus our intestines are much longer (meat stays there too long!). We only eat meat when is cooked, cut and prepared with herbs, salt or whatever else. We don’t use our mouths to strip off meet, cutting the skin of other animals that are possibly live still most of the times. That, to me, is quite a reason why we are vegs. or at least we were at the very beginning. Anyway, getting back to the carbo thing, would you think it could be the gluten as well aggravating inflammation? And possibly eating carbo without gluten would be actually beneficial (or at least better then the ones with it) ? Some researches say that possibly the majority of people is intollerant to gluten, even if they don’t know it.
Guido, Your “lion” analogy makes some sense. Your gluten hypothesis also could be correct, however….there are two problems with everything you wrote. First, sugar does cause inflammation in the body (intestines and other places) and I know for a fact that it aggravates my Diver. Second, your body turns carbs into sugar so whether you eat gluten or not the sugar and the carbs (that turn into sugar) will aggravate your condition. It could be the gluten but sugar doesn’t contain gluten. If I eat a gluten free candy bar I will be in pain the next day. Fresh whole fruits do not contain gluten but they do contain carbs and sugar so you’ll have to decide for yourself. If the food item makes your condition worse then don’t eat it. I avoid the carbs and sugar because they will put me in the hospital. The fact that protein and fat don’t aggravate my condition is just coincidental. The fact that being is Ketosis decreases my inflammation is a free benefit of my diet. So far I have found that the inflammation in my intestine, my lungs and in my sinuses has completely gone away. If eating no sugar and very few carbs keeps me in this state then I will continue to eat this way until I die. Everyone on this site must find their own answers because all the doctors really don’t offer this kind of help. They give you drugs and tell you not to eat spicy foods. I eat spicy foods and it doesn’t bother me at all!!! But then again, I have completely eliminated the inflammation (Ketosis) so the spicy foods can’t aggravate my condition because my intestines are not inflamed.
Treblig
glucose feeds cancer. this is why ketogenic diets have come about
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This is from Dr. Frank Shallenberger
What if you have cancer and the doctor you go to knows what substance feeds that cancer? You would expect your doctor to tell you to avoid that substance, right? Well, imagine that he tells you that you can eat as much of that substance as you want. That it somehow won’t make any difference on your overall outcome. Does this make any sense at all? Of course not. But it happens all the time. In fact, in oncology (cancer) medicine, it’s routine.
Recently, doctors developed a new way to test for cancer. It’s called a glucoCEST. GlucoCEST stands for glucose chemical exchange saturation transfer. Here’s what it does. The system enables a standard MRI scanning machine to determine how much glucose any spot in the body takes up. And that’s important. Because glucose is the basic sugar that is in table sugar and that all carbohydrates break down into. By carbohydrates I mean grains, fruit, and starches. And how does the glucoCEST test for the presence of cancer?
Cancer cells are unique. Unlike healthy cells, they can only live off glucose. Other cells can live off fat, but cancer cells can’t. They need glucose. So what the researchers do is feed a small amount of glucose to a patient and then see if there are any areas in the body that immediately consume it. When they find an area that consumes the glucose immediately, that area is cancerous. Now this new detection device is fantastic for several reasons.
One, it dramatically shows how important it is for patients with cancer to avoid eating the foods that feed the cancer — carbohydrates. According to Professor Mark Lythgoe, the senior author on the study, using this new technique, “We can detect cancer using the same sugar content found in half a standard-sized chocolate bar.” Did you get that? He is saying that the amount of sugar that is found in only half of a candy bar is sufficient to be picked up by a cancer and light up a scanning device enough to show where the cancer is. The moral is simple. Do you want to feed your cancer and make it grow faster? Then start eating sugar, grains, and fruits.
Now many of you reading this report might respond by saying, “What’s so new about this kind of measurement?” PET (positive emission tomography) scans have been doing that for years. Yes, but there is a big difference between PET scans and the glucoCEST scan. First of all, glucoCEST uses real sugar. PET scans have to use radioactive sugar. Patients with cancer are already exposed to a lot of radiation simply because of their disease treatment. Less would be better. Also, the radioactive sugar is way more expensive than regular sugar.
In addition to being a safer and simpler alternative to PET scans, the new procedure is more sensitive than PET scans and allows the radiologists to see the tumors in greater detail. According to Professor Lythgoe, doctors can use the new glucoCEST with any MRI.
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As far as meats contributing to infections, it may be, pork would likely be the biggest offender. i tend to braise my meats or cook them well. maybe people who like their meats rare are more prone to such infections. i don’t really know but that would be my guess.
as far as stomach acids …
ideal healthy body has a more alkaline body and very acidic stomach.
as people age, their stomach acid can become weakened hence open the door to many medical conditions. if your stomach acid is weakened, you need to supplement with hcl betaine.
either the infection came from existing gut flora that just got out of control or it came from outside. in the end, it’s about trying different strategies to control if it is normal body microbes or eradicate it if it is an outsider. usually something ends up feeding something that has been living there for a while already.
there are things like hot spicy foods that can irritate the diverticulitis wounds but probably not feed the microbe causing it.
some how you have to find something that interferes with the life process of the offending microbe causing it. the information in these posts are meant to be a tool box of things to try. the more ideas we can add to that toolbox the better. it takes a lot of perseverance to push through them.
Hi Prioris,
thanks for the reply, that’s very interesting stuff to know.
Do you think that by having integral or semi-integral products instead of the ones processes and refined could be better or would present the same problems for the diver?
that baked potato turns to sugar and feeds the microbe infection causing the infection. many carb foods will likely feed the microbe so just stopping sugar may not be enough. you need to experiment with trying different things to kill the microbes. read the posts for suggestions. there is no guarantee something will work but you need to be persistent and try a broad range of things.
Hello World -your experience is pretty much mine exactly. Especially the fears. I’m 39, vegetarian and female with a young family. Had my first attack at 27 which later found out my dad did too at that age. I am currently water fasting to stave off what looks to be a flare up. Nothing like celebrating thanksgiving dinner with family by only drinking water and broth! Anyways, I’m having a really hard time figuring out the right diet for this because the GI world is still pretty conservative and as the author states is in need of an update. I’ve juiced and done raw diets in the past and never had issues but find that’s not sustainable for me and I crash hard. I’m hoping juicing isn’t totally off the list, but it looks like I’ll need to test our paleo to see if this helps.
I just found this site. I’m not sure I feel better or worse after reading the posts! I’m 74 and have had 2 hospital admissions with diverticulitis in 2 years. The hospital surgeon saw me in hospital and said I needed surgery while there, that there was a complication with the bladder. Two days later she came in to tell me the “final scan” shows no change fro 2012 and recommends I go home & heal from the infection, and then have the surgery. My primary called and suggested a second opinion. I’ll be doing that next week. I’m so confused about what to eat as there are so many varying opinions. Also, what is AMP???
Eva, I hate to sound so simplistic but, you should eat everything that DOES NOT aggravate your condition. If there are foods that increase the inflammation in your gut or foods that won’t let it heal then you should avoid those foods at all costs. Knowing what those foods are is a totally different problem. I won’t rewrite all the things I have already written on this site but if you scroll down and look for everything written by “treblig” you’ll get some insight into what I have discovered. It’s not really that difficult to do what I have done when you consider the alternative!! You might even completely heal like I have.
If you have any questions I will do my best to answer them, but if you’re not willing to sacrifice then I’m not sure if anything I say will help??
Wishing you luck,
treblig
Treblig….
I’ve just read the whole site, and thank you for everything you’ve written. So, don’t bother to list what you eat ,as I asked in my initial contact with you.
I am going to copy your eating,and hopefully stop my diverticulosis in its tracks!!
when i first got disease and researched, what not to eat was confusing. bad microbes causing diverticulitis in your intestine are being fertilized by some of the foods you eat. i would tend to put the fast dissolving carbs at the top of the suspect list. you should read all the posts for suggestions and experiment with different things, you will also find the answer to your question.
i am recently diagnosed with “severe” divertic.
it is really interesting reading all the comments
but there seems a lot of very different ways to help
things settle down.
i have weekly or more attacks of real bad pain
and would love to keep them down.
it seems Aloe Vera may work i’ll be trying that and post the results. thanks to all who’s stories i have read…i’m not alone and that is a big help
Martin, The AV alone may not give you the results I got! The AV helped only after I had the inflammation under control. Seems like the AV helped it heal after the inflammation subsided. You see, I have been on a very low carb, very low sugar diet for a few months now. That is how I got the inflammation to go down to the point where the AV could do a better job. The AV may help you heal but if you continue to eat foods that aggravate the inflammation you’ll never see any real results from the AV. If you’re really interested in possibly solving your problem let me know and I tell you what I have found!!
treblig
I had written back in Sept. that I would be having a bowel resection due to diverticulitis. I had two major attacks which landed me in the hospital, and two or three in between attacks from 2008 till April of this year. I am 63 yrs old. I was so sick from april till June when I ended up in the hospital and three or more rounds of antiobiotics later, All I can say is I suffered a lot. My whole life changed, I started taking aloe but never bought the AMP b/c I was just seeing to many doctors and had to make a serious decision. I ended up with a fistula a tear in my bladder, being my age I became scared. Well I am now three weeks post op, I can eat everything, ( not junk ) I had my staples removed yesterday, in surgery they had three surgeons, one being a Urologist as they had to separate the bladder from the bowel, so it would heal, which thank God it did. I cannot life anything over 10 lbs, understandably but I may be odd but I am grateful for my surgeon, and not sorry I had the surgery. I recommend to all eat carefully and take care of yourself if you are younger, I believe in the natural way, but I know of a friend who was a total health person and now has cancer, we can do everything right but you never know. be wise in all you eat and do, this is a very good site, just wanted to say I do not regret the decision I made, and when I am fully recovered, I can start to live again, working, seeing my grandkids, I don’t mean going crazy.
God bless everyone who is going through this thing, it is a horrible pain, esp when the infection involves fevers, and total loss of energy. I was there. cris
Just wanted to add, I had gone to a Naturopathic Physician did a number of Colonics, but as this diver… got worse, my bowels became so inflamed I was afraid if I had another Colonic it could perforate.
So I opted for the Surgery, the Surgeon said I have diverticulitosos through my entire intestines, but he removed the diseased part, of the sigmoid.
this is a suggestion for other people who still can’t kick the diverticulitis
if the sigmoid area has an infection, it would be more difficult to address unless “sludge” is cleansed daily.
there is this idea that the colon has layers of “crap” along it’s lining. generally, most of the colon is clean so antidotes should work along most of the colon.
there are colonic and there are enemas.
i can see doing one or two colonic but an enema is preferred way. it us about cleaning around the sigmoid and rectum area with an enema after you have taken your “dump”. you can easily do that on your own.
the part where the infection is more protected is where the stools build up and lie. it could be partly due to some constipation.
dandelion root will help with constipation. it helps with a lot of different problems. it has zinc, iron and potassium too. go to amazon and look at all the positive reviews on dandelion root.
an enema can help address the infection. just using 2 cups of plain filtered LUKEWARM water is sufficient. since we are just talking about cleaning the sigmoid area, one can do it standing up or sitting on toilet. do this once or twice
optionally one could drop a couple AMP capsules or whatever into 2 cups afterwards and do an extended enema for 15-25 minutes but i think above is sufficient.
by keeping the sigmoid area clean, it greatly improves the odds that any infection around there will heal.
so if you feel cramp or pain in sigmoid area then this may be the reason it isn’t healing.
I have diver and I have been told not to do enemas by my gastroenterologist.
This is the reason given on why not to do an enema
“IF you get constipated NEVER EVER use an enema. It could wash stuff up into one of the little diverticula and cause an almost immediate problem.”
THIS IS ABSURD. Remember that anything that gets eaten can get caught on the pouches also. Does this mean we should stop eating or that there is dire consequences if we do eat.
Just like water can wash things in so always a possibility but it is only a temporary situation. It can be washed out. It will be no different than food. It could happen but it is not the end of the world if it does.
I am not advocating a deep and long enema which take more practice but just enough to clean up the region of intestine where stool lies around and maybe half way up vertical portion large intestine. This may tip the balance for some people.
One should do them after one takes a good dump in the toilet. One should use lukewarm water. One should stick with just plain filtered water. I hang water bag high on shower curtain rod so more water pressure.
First enema should be quick internal rinse to get out lot of the gunk.
Second enema you should see how long you can hold it in while sitting or standing.
I can hold them in lot longer if I lie on my side but I just want to hold it in for a few minutes unless i am using aloe vera.
I have had experience of doing enemas lying on my side where the water and aloe vera goes in but never comes out. Where did it go … mystery … lol. i just have theories. maybe it permeates through intestine.
I sit on toilet doing them since I have no interest in deep long enemas at this point. I just want to clean the rectum and sigmoid region for a few minutes with water.
One needs to buy a good enema kit. I use silicon water bag with two types of tips. one tip helps keep the water from leaking out better than other. I also use coconut oil to grease the tip.
There is a lot of different things one can do with enemas. when one is dealing with health problems of various types, it should become part of your arsenal to fight health various problems. The more weapons you have the more ways you can fight things. So for the people still struggling with diverticulitis or any resistant health problem, they should consider adding this to their health arsenal.
Remember it takes experience and practice to do them deeply and for long periods of time so your not going to be flushing much up too far.
After practicing some basics, the world of enema’s gets opened. There are all sorts of things one can do with enemas. I have just scratched the surface myself.
You can use all sorts of herbs in the water. Aloe vera seems like the most popular herb to use for intestine. As i said before, just plain water may be enough to tip the balance for many people.
So experiment
Thanks for your comments. I am suffering from my first bout of diverticulitis this week. I was fine on Monday but had increasing pain and fever. Friday’s CAT showed diverticulitis! Wow, is this painful. Found out my Aunt and her two children also had this disease. I think heredity plays a major role.
In 2003 I went through a very stressful easter Friday and Saturday and ended up in hospital where a colonoscopy was performed and I was told I had diver, I was only 43. After that I had the occasional painful episodes but nothing as chronic as April 2003. Feb 2012 I ended up in hospital again with a chronic attack which was once again stress related.
Towards the end of October 2014 I was once again in chronic pain which was a combination of stress, a kidney infection and wrong eating. I opted not to go to hospital but have self treated and it has settled down substantially, however still tender and a little sore. Have lost 5kg over the past 2 weeks.
How did you self treat? What has helped? I am struggling with only my 2nd bout and I have been miserable. Have never had diver til last Feb. and it was easily controlled. Now it has flared up again even though I have done everything the doctor suggested. I quit smoking, gave up caffiene, no nuts or seeds, increased my roughage, etc.
I’d like to ask a question
How many have tried doing an enema to address your diverticulitis ?
I’d also like to suggest another couple things to add to your tool box to overcome diverticulitis
The only thing I can think of that may be preventing an antidote from working is that something has to be protecting the infection. The fact that one does get some improvement with AMP or any other remedies indicate that remedy should be working. Something is preventing it from completing it’s job.
Crud can build up along the large intestine. The last part of the intestine will have the most waste sludge that could prevent any antidote from working. An enema could help clear the crud away. Enema’s are known to address diverticulitis also. They are done all over the world for health purposes. It is one of the more direct routes to combating an infection in the rectum and large intestine.
A possible alternative that may take longer and cover entire colon is mixing some AMP capsules in water and letting it soak into some Psyllium Husk. You can soak other thinks into it. Then swallow it. That will take longer but it would get the entire colon.
Just and update and a question(s). I have posted before about my diver, what I have done to improve my condition and would like to make an update. I removed the great majority of carbs and sugars from my diet (one year ago). I eat proteins and fats and low carb veggies. I also take 2 Tbls of ground flax seed daily along with many vitamin and mineral supplements. But I noticed the biggest difference after taking Aloe Vera daily. My gut feels really great here lately. I’ve been on AV for about 5 weeks now and I feel so good I’m afraid to talk about it. My big question(s) is: I don’t know if I’m taking too much AV and I don’t know for how long I should keep taking it?? The AV info label reads, “Aloe Vera(200:1) 25mg”, then it goes on to say “(Equivalent to 5,000 mg or approx. one teaspoon of 100% pure AV inner leaf gel).” My question is, how much AV am I actually taking??? Evidently each gel tab is 25mg but contains 5,000 mg of AV gel??? If that is correct then am I taking 25,000 mg of gel per day??? Is that safe?? Am I correct in my calculations?? How long should I keep taking this amount of AV. I have had absolutely no side effects except ZERO diver attacks and ZERO diver symptoms. I have even been introducing candy and honey into my diet with no effects. Could I have lulled my diver into hibernation??? Do I keep taking the AV so I can continue to eat some candy/honey?? Inquiring minds want (need) to know.
treblig
i was diagnosed with diver 4 years ago. i ended up in hospital with a fever, severe pains and the horrors.
I have had two returns, though, because I know the area of the pain and I feel it coming on now, unlike the first attack, I just stop eating. Fasting essentially on black tea or a hot mug with some spices in it. Pretty much all they did in the hospital for 4 days. Whilst this works, I am usually so weak and out of it by the second day. I was wondering if there is a way to work through it and eat at least something. When you have the pain on the lower left side, is that a sign to stop eating??
You may have stumbled upon the same thing I did but you don’t know the “WHY”?? I’ve had diver for years and never knew what caused it. When I got a blood test that showed my sugar level a little high I (as a precaution) decided to go on a low sugar/low carb diet to lower my blood sugar. The Doctor told me it was not necessary because my blood sugar wasn’t that high (103, fasting). A few days after going on the low carb/low sugar diet my diver symptoms began to decrease. Now after being on the diet for a few months I know that it absolutely works. As it turns out (after many days/weeks of research) sugar causes inflammation in the body and Carbs get turned into sugar in the body. So when you didn’t eat for many days at the hospital your body unknowingly released a tremendous amount of ketones. Ketones are released when there are no sugars or carbs being ingested. Ketones allow your body to use fat and protein for energy instead of sugar/carbs. With no food (when you were in the hospital) your body went into Ketosis (cave man diet). I have now been in Ketosis for many months eating lots of protein and fats. In your case, your body was burning body fat (using the Ketones), so might have lost some weight. Now that I have researched this diet further I have found that the reason nutritionists recommend eating Raspberries is that they contain Ketones and Ketones (as scientists have found) decrease inflammation. If being in a Ketosis state floods your body with ketones doesn’t it seem possible that these ketones are decreasing the inflammation in you gut??? If you’ve read my posts here you’ll know that the inflammation in my lungs has also greatly decreased. I just found out about my lungs a week ago when I went to my allergist. It was then that I put two and two together. The ketones in my body are attacking any and all inflammation, that’s why my diver has all but disappeared and that’s why my lung inflammation has decreased. It’s the Ketones!!!! I have much more information on this issue but I can’t post pics of the chemical diagrams of the raspberry ketone VS the Ketosis Ketone. You have helped me prove my hypothesis, of course I expect to get rich off of this discovery since I’m the first to put all this in writing ( connecting the Raspberry Ketone to the Ketosis Ketone)….LOL!!!
My reasoning is scientific, at the allergists office there is a machine that you blow into. The machine measures lung inflammation. I have been blowing into that machine for over a year and taking a steroid inhaler daily to help decrease the inflammation WITH NO RESULT!!. After realizing that the low carb/low sugar diet helped the inflammation in my gut I hypothesized that the diet might also be helping my lungs. I stopped taking the inhaler 5 weeks before my recent visit to my allergist. My allergist was delighted to find that my lung inflammation had greatly decreased. He said,”that inhaler is finally kicking in??”. I disappointed him when I told him that I had stopped using it 5 weeks ago. You should have seen the look on his face!!! I told him my story and he was amazed. So i proved my theory….being in Ketosis causes your body to flood with Ketones which in turn decrease the inflammation all over your body. I mean, it’s not possible to inhale Raspberries is it???? So there you go. I would not recommend you go on this diet without first doing a lot of research. Not eating fruits and many vegetables will deny your body of many nutrients. I take many pills (vitamins/minerals) to compensate, ground flax seed, citrucel, and Aloe Vera gel pills. I have more info but I gotta go….
Treblig
treblig
Davo, I wrote you a very long thought out answer but it wasn’t posted. I did notice that it was being reviewed by somebody, but that was over an hour ago. I probably wrote something that was too helpful???
treblig
Davo, I’m not sure what happened. I wrote a clear explanation on why I believe a low carb low sugar diet can help decrease inflammation associated with diver as well as decreasing inflammation all over the body but they won’t post.it. It’s been a few hours now and the only thing posted was my little post about “them not posting my longer post”??? There may well be a direct association between the Ketones produced during Ketosis and the Ketones in Raspberries, both of which help decrease inflammation in the human body.
Treblig
Gidday Treblig
Thanks for your attempts. Not sure if this is doable, but If you would like, send your long response to yulinbilla at hotmail dot com
Well Davo, I tried to post it again this morning and the same thing happened. Although I did send the e-mail to the address you posted. It’s real funny, after I hit the “submit” button I can see my post on the screen and I can also see the original post (from the other day) in it’s entirety but both posts have the, “Your comment is Awaiting Moderation” statement just above each long post. This time I copy pasted the whole thing showing both long posts that I submitted and everything in between. So I have it all to show that my posts, explaining what I have discovered, are being “held back”. When I refresh the page my “long posts” disappear??? Why would anyone want other people to “not benefit” from what I have discovered????
treblig
Like everyone on here I do not want to take the antibiotics or have surgery that the doctors push. I have been on the Aloe MP Plus for a few months, but I continue to have flares. They’re not as often as they used to be, but when they happen, they’re bad. I also have a lot of bleeding on and off. Maybe I still need to be more careful with my diet. I try to avoid bread and other processed carbs. I say try, because I never feel full without some occasional bread or rolls. How often do people like me wind up with peritonitis? That’s really the main thing I worry about. I’d appreciate any input on this. Thanks.
You need to feel full. If your not full, any diet modification will fail. Butter is healthy. There are many different types of bread. I’d avoid the commercial white bread.
You really need to add more things. I would consider the following:
Make sure you have sufficient stomach acid. A healthy person has an alkaline body and acidic stomach. I assume you know what you have.
L-glutamine powder – 20 grams or more – all at once every day on empty stomach. This helps the healing of colon surface. You need high dose since some will be absorbed by your body and the remaining will be used by intestine. Buy some GABA just as a precaution.
Baking soda … the rational behind this is that this tricks the microbes who like an alkaline environment out of hiding so the antidote can kill them. The link below discusses it.
Fulvic/Humic Acid …. this is a very complex subject but here are some suggestions to make it simple
a) shaljahit …. use the Primavie brand
b) http://www.motherearthlabs.com/products/the-gift-from-mother-earth/
c) http://www.supremefulvic.com/store/
winjusen is a more pure fulvic acid but we want something with humic acid in it also.
Enteric coated Bromelain
Wheat grass. This has cured people’s colitis.
xanthosteen™ Mangosteen Extract (Garcinia mangostana) (peel) 500 mg *
20% Polyphenols 100 mg *
15% Total Xanthones 75 mg *
10% Alpha-Mangostin 50 mg *
It needs to be from the rind peel. The Xanthones are one of the active ingredients. So something to consider.
Activated charcoal … I would take 3 or 4 grams every 5 days to soak up any toxins in your stomach.
I would even consider taking food grade h202 drops in water on empty stomach for a week or so but you must research it.
This is about coming at the problem from different directions. You don’t know exactly what you are battling.
I would read thru this to come up with more ideas. Search for Ted from Bangkok
http://www.earthclinic.com/cures/ulcerative-colitis-holistic-treatment.html
I would definitely do the L-glutamine, Activated Charcoal and humic/fulvic acid. Even chris mentioned humic acid.
I know one can become wary from fighting it a long time but it requires persistence.
I would also consider doing enemas. Enemas have more immediate effect. Many people do it with coffee. Start with small amount salt water to get hang of it and work your way up. Break open some AMP capsules and dissolve in water. It should be gentle on colon. I would do the retentive kind for 15-30 minutes. It’s another way to attack the infection.
I don’t understand. You say you don’t want to end up on antibiotics but then you turn around an say that you can’t keep from eating the foods that may force you to take antibiotics??? If you truly do not want to end up on antibiotics or end up in surgery then you need to try and figure out what foods aggravate your condition. I also have Diver, but I was lucky. I had a blood test that showed that I was a little high on blood sugar. I did some research and found that foods high in carbs and sugar raise your blood sugar. I didn’t want to end up with diabetes so I went on a super low carb, low/no sugar diet. My symptoms all but disappeared. I also take Aloe Vera caps. But the symptoms had already deceased even before the AV tabs. I eat mostly fats and proteins now. Meat, which is supposed to aggravate the condition, doesn’t seem to aggravate it at all. I take lots of fiber pills and multivitamins/minerals to compensate for the lack of fruits and vegetables. So only by mistake did I find that carbs/sugars aggravate my condition, like I said, I was lucky. Now…. if I know for a fact that carbs/sugars make my condition worse and I don’t want to end up in the hospital, then why OH why would I eat carbs/sugar??? Once you get your diver under control ,like I did, then and only then will you be able to introduce ONE food item at a time to determine what things aggravate your condition. You can’t have your cake (no pun intended) and eat it too!! I know it’s a little harsh but SURGERY is REALLY HARSH!!
Treblig
Hi Trebling,
could you please tell what are you often eating and what you’e avoiding for a low-carb diet? why no fruit at all?
thanks!
Sure, Guido.
I eat three times a day and snack once in a while. This morning I ate oatmeal ( a few carbs, 15) and 5 strips of bacon. This my usual breakfast except on weekends when I eat three fried eggs, bacon, sausage and refried beans (beans have very few carbs). I just ate lunch a few minutes ago, I had a good sized chunk of grilled ham and a some organic cheese (no carbs at all). For supper I’ll have fried sausage medallions (1/2 cup) on a large tomato and lettuce salad with a little ranch dressing (very few carbs). That’s a typical day unless I eat steak and green beans for supper or hamburger with cheese (no bun) and a salad. I eat green beans prepared with lots of real bacon mixed into the bowl. This has very few carbs some protein and some fat and of course the beans.
As far as the fruit is concerned, I stopped eating it because it has sugar. I know it’s natural sugar but I stopped anyway although I am slowly trying to reintroduce the fruits one at a time to see how my diver reacts. When I said no vegetables I misspoke, I eat low carb vegetables like green beans and lettuce. My plan is to slowly introduce other foods to see how my body reacts. One at a time and write on the calendar because it takes a day or two to see if there are any reactions.
For quite a few months I gorged on vegetable to keep the stool soft. The vegetable kept the stools soft but I would get diver attacks. Now my stools are not soft (all the protein) but I have no pain and if I get an attack it’s very, very mild and clears up very fast if I get any symptoms at all. I think the mild symptoms are from accidently (or on purpose) eating one small piece of cake or a tablespoon of ice cream as I experiment. I also take 5 tablespoons of Aloe Vera in gel tab form every day so that if accidently eat the wrong food that AV helps heal it faster (at least that’s what I’ve read). I remember getting pretty severe pain in my lower left abdomen many, many months ago. That hasn’t happened since I removed sugar and the massive carbs from my diet.
I don’t know if what I am doing is “right” but the pain is gone and I can go to the restroom without fear….Oh what a relief it is!!!
Treblig
Hi trebling,
thanks a lot for the reply, I missed that before!
Well, I think it’s an interesting diet for somebody with diverticulitis..as far as I know, diet should be quite light but see that you use bacon a lot, which is quite heavy on intestines I guess. Besides, you seem to eat a lot of green beans which are very rich on fiber, which again, I’ve been told is not ideal.
I’ve seen you were asking about the Aloe vera. I was drinking the pure juice and wondered the same thing..how much is enough? If taken for long time, can it have side effects? No idea to be honest. I actually stopped taking it after one month, guess I’ll start again in some time, don’t want to exaggerated.
About the carbs…out of 100g, how much would you say is too much?
Also, do you drink alcohol? Wine, beer or spirits? If so, do you see any correlation with diver?
Anyway, another thing I was trying which has anti-inflamatory properties and might be helpful is Quercetin, you might want to try that.
On average I eat 30 carbs or less a day. Sugars, 15 or less. Your body can convert carbs into sugar so cutting back on sugar without cutting back on carbs is a waste of time. The more I research and experiment the more I figure out. Did you know that KETONES help decrease inflammation in the human body? Turns out all the good foods (blueberries, black berries, carrots, etc) that help fight inflammation use ketones for that. When you go on a super low carb, super low sugar diet your body will go into ketosis. Ketosis is the condition that exists when the body starts using protein and fat for energy instead of carbs and sugar. So when you’re in ketosis your body is flooded with ketones. It can even be found in the urine of people in ketosis. It’s no wonder my diver inflammation greatly decreased!! My body is being drenched in ketones!! It also explains why the inflammation in my lungs has decreased for the first time in years!!! I used to drink 5-6 margaritas every Friday. Haven’t done that in a while mostly because of the carbs. Also, if you’re in ketosis and you drink alcohol your body will automatically burn the alcohol first because it can easily turn it into energy. Plus, if I drink 4-5 drinks the carbs will take me out of ketosis then the next day you have a hangover and you won’t feel well going back into ketosis. Kind of a double whammy!! I’ve found that heavy foods (meat and cheese) don’t bother the diver in the least as long as the inflammation is under control. That’s the whole trick, if you can get rid of the inflammation then you can eat things that would normally hurt you. Of course if you cross the line and eat a large piece of cake the inflammation will return quickly and you’re back to square one again. But I have found when I have the inflammation under control I can actually each one piece of cake. It will hurt a little for a day or two but because I had no inflammation the consequences are minimal unless I continue to eat cake every day.
Hope I’m making sense???
Treblig
I answered you but my answer didn’t show up???
treblig
Never mind it did show up, it just took a while…
Treblig
i have read the whole conversation/ thread here and appreciate the advice and am going to implement many of the
Suggestions given. I particularly am following treblig’s thread and know a bit about this diet it is favored in Sweden and much is known as HFLC. But I do have a question which arose in my mind while digesting this information: treblig – you mention the blueberries, raspberries and some others are high in ketones. Is there a reason, therefore, why we can’t eat them still? Don’t they add to the big ketone pile of good stuff? Maybe you singable them and I misunderstood- but from what I can gather you do not have any fruits including these.
Larkin, I’ve never told anyone to “not” eat blueberries or strawberries. I have said that if your body can tolerate these food items then have at it. I’ve also said that blueberries and strawberries contain sugar therefore they might keep you from going into Ketosis (if that’s your objective). You would have to eat a truckload of blueberries and strawberries in order to “flood” your body with Ketones. By eating that much of these fruits you would be overloading your body with sugar. If (and I’m saying “if”) your Diver is sensitive to sugar then you’re totally defeating the Ketone effect of the fruit!!!! It would be like cutting all carbs and sugars to prevent Diver symptoms only to eat sugar rich foods to get plenty of Ketones. It makes no sense, if pure sugar contained Ketones would you eat it?? . The whole purpose of going into Ketosis is twofold: to remove the food items that aggravate your condition and to flood your body with Ketones (thereby reducing inflammation). You can eat anything you like (including cake and ice cream) if it doesn’t inflame your intestines!!! I have written here many times that if your body can tolerate any particular food then you should be able to eat it. In my case, my Diver symptoms increase greatly if I eat sugar or carbs that turn into sugar. Your body may be different. But in the end you can’t get the benefits of “flooding” your body with Ketones unless you’re in Ketosis.
There have been some questions about how much meat I eat, not very much actually. I should have said “PROTEIN”. Eggs, tuna, beans and many other non beef foods contain protein. If your not eating enough proteins you’ll lose muscle mass.
Also someone else wrote about the Inuit people eating less polluted foods….this is true. But the fact that the Inuit eat fat/oil and protein as 99 percent of their diet was lost in the conversation and was not addressed. My point was that the human body can survive and thrive on fats/oils and protein without carbs and sugar. Whether or not our foods are polluted is a totally different subject. Besides the high Omega components in the fish and other foods the Inuit eat can be replaced. That’s why I consume EVOO (high in Omega 6 and also contains Omega 3). I used to eat ground Flax seed everyday as well but switched to Flax seed oil (high in Omega 3). So in the end I’m eating as close to the Inuit Diet as possible, protein, good fats/oils and the Omega supplements. I can’t avoid the pollutants but the EVOO helps fight many of the effects of the pollutants.
If you see this comment on your computer you’ll have to scan halfway down on the blog sight to find it because that’s where “Larkin” asked the question.
PS – I say again, “Eat anything you want as long as it doesn’t inflame your Diver!!!”
Treblig