- Dr. Albert Snow
These are the same as any other inflammatory bowel condition. Essentially it is a man made injury. Diverticulitis does not just occur naturally, as does diverticulosis, which is a breakdown of the internal bowel tissue – this comes about mainly from aging. Diverticulitis occurs when there has been damage to the mucosal lining that protects the intestinal tissue from digestive acids and food passing by. These then erode the GI wall until there is a “pot hole” deep enough to hit nerve tissue, at which point you feel pain. This can also bring about acute, urgent diarrhea. The only difference between this and IBS, Colitis, and Crohn’s is that with Diverticulitis you will have one or two “pin holes” that go very deep. With the other conditions you will have multiple locations, more like gashes and not necessarily as deep, impacting nerve tissue and blood vessels and occurs in acute episodes not chronically.
What DOES happen in relation to diverticulosis is the “pocket” becomes perforated, essentially an ulcer (ulcerated colitis?) and you will then see blood in the stool. When you see mucus in the stool that is your body’s desperate attempt to block the hole and stop the bleeding. If that is not taken care of properly and you are on some drug thinking you are doing good, the mucus thing will finally give out and now you're at Crohn’s Disease.
The cause of Diverticulitis is the same as any other IBD, because they ARE same thing. The difference is, how long did you wait to get proper care and therefore how much damage was done.