Question: After examination and tests, doctors have diagnosed the cause of my intestinal discomfort and bloody motions as colitis. Cortisone enemas have been prescribed, but results have not been encouraging. I would appreciate your comments.
Ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory condition of the last part of the bowel that causes multiple deep bleeding ulcers to form. Its cause is unknown.
Patients experience bloody diarrhea, cramping pains in the lower belly, fevers, weight loss and sometimes anemia.
When the diagnosis is suspected by a doctor, it is confirmed by performing a colonoscopy. In this procedure a flexible tube is passed through the anus up into the colon, and through this the examining doctor can easily see the ulcers and inflammation that are characretistic of the disease.
Unfortunately there is no cure for this condition. In acute attacks, hospitalization may be necessary with many medications being given in high doses to bring the condition under control. Long-term treatment with steroid enemas, oral steroid tablets and special antibiotics (sulphasalazine) is then given to control the condition.
Patients with ulcerative colitis should be on a specific diet that is high in protein and low in dairy products. Each patient will learn to identify specific foods that aggravate the condition and avoid them. As a last resort, it is sometimes necessary for the affected piece of bowel to be surgically removed. If your condition is not adequately controlled, you should be discussing the matter further with your doctor, as good control of ulcerative colitis is essential for your long-term wellbeing.

Question: Doctors have diagnosed my wife’s condition as a bowel syndrome, and she has to watch her diet as eggs and meat cause diarrhea. Her bowel X-ray shows diverticulae. Can you help us please?
It appears that you may be confused by two different bowel conditions, although it is possible that your wife has both of them.
The irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) causes painful spasms of the gut that result in irregular bowel activity, and is caused by anxiety, stress or depression. The treatment involves a high-fiber diet, bulking agents (eg. Normacol, Meta-mucil) and drugs to stop the gut spasm.
Diverticulitis is the inflammation or infection of multiple small out-pocketing (diverticulae) of the large gut wall. When inflamed, these diverticulae cause diarrhea and abdominal pain. The diverticulae are the result of a low-fiber diet over many years, and the condition is also treated with bulking agents, a high-fiber diet and antispasmodics. Antibiotics are also used sometimes to remove any infection in the diverticulae. The symptoms of the two conditions are very similar, and only by performing an X-ray of the bowel (a barium enema) or examining the bowel with a flexible microscope tube (colonoscopy) can the diagnosis be made. It is certainly possible for the two conditions to be present in the one patient, and one may worsen the other, but as the treatments are almost identical, the differentiation between them is not of critical importance.
Both conditions can be well controlled in most patients. The irritable bowel syndrome often comes and goes depending on stress levels, while diverticulitis will persist for the rest of the patient’s life, causing occasional periods of diarrhea and discomfort.

Question: I have had terrible belly pains on and off for years. My doctor now tells me it is diverticulitis so can you tell me what causes diverticulitis?
Diverticulitis is the inflammation of small bubbles that develop on the large gut. They are out-pocketing of the gut that form between the muscular bands that run along and around the gut. They are caused by excess pressure inside the intestine when there is inadequate bulk in the diet for the constantly contracting gut to move along towards the anus.
If you squeeze a half-inflated balloon between your fingers, it will bulge out between your fingers. This is what happens in the gut, but after a while the bulges become permanent, and these are the diverticulae. When food waste becomes trapped in a diverticulum, it may become infected and painful and cause diarrhea. A high-fiber diet will prevent formation of the problem.