The so-called "diet for diverticulitis" is not a system to treat diverticular mattia, but a method aimed at preventing its inflammatory evolution.
Even if through a correct diet we cannot eliminate intestinal diverticula, we therefore have the possibility of preventing their inflammation.
This disease can only affect those with so-called diverticulosis.
Diverticulosis means "presence of diverticula".
Diverticula are real anatomical alterations of the colon which, based on the pathological nature and the level of severity, can be of two different types.
- The less problematic diverticula are characterized by extroversions of the mucosa and sub-mucosa which tend to invaginate within loci of least resistance of the wall, such as the points of penetration of the arteries through the smooth muscle layer.
- The most serious diverticula, that is to say the "real" (less frequent) ones, are instead formed by an "everting of all the layers of the intestinal wall.
Diverticulitis occurs when diverticula become infected / inflamed and give rise to an acute disorder. However, if these remain healthy and asymptomatic, the condition is simply referred to as diverticulosis.
To avoid continually distinguishing the two phases, especially in subjects who get sick frequently, we speak of diverticular disease.
, computed tomography and rectal-colonoscopy.
The diagnostic finding can be justified by a specific symptomatology of diverticulitis or be a random finding during the investigation of other disorders of the large intestine.
It is not easy to establish the incidence of diverticulosis, as it is not certain that those with one or more diverticula will fall ill with diverticulitis. It is much easier to define the epidemiological importance of acute conditions, which affects about 10% of over 40s. and 50% from 60 onwards.
Diverticulitis mainly affects the left portion and is exceptional in children, rare in adults under 40 and quite frequent in over sixty.
With these data in hand, the first question that arises spontaneously is: “Do diverticula tend to form more as time progresses, or do they simply become more delicate?” Probably, both solutions can be considered valid and significant.
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