mborys Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 I have been on the whole 30 for 17 days. I am a healthy 45 year old female in excellent health. I have been following all the rules, and eating the meals using the recipes in the book. I started having diahrea about a week ago, and I took imodium, which would stop it for the rest of the day. After about a week of this, I decided to see my pcp. I was diagnosed with diverticulitis. She said that the condition was the result of the severe change in my diet. Now I have to take 2 antibiotics, have blood work, a catscan on my abdomen, give 3 stool samples, and be on a clear liquid diet for 2 days. I'm lucky I didn't end up in the hospital. Last week, I checked the forum for posts about diahrea, and I didn't see anything mentioning diverticulitis. The reason I'm writing this is to urge anyone with chronic diahrea to go and see their doctor. If I had known this would be the result of doing whole 30, I would have never done it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators ladyshanny Posted June 2, 2015 Administrators Share Posted June 2, 2015 I surmise the reason you didn't see anything about diverticulitis on our forum is because this is not at all a common or normal result of the Whole30. Diverticulitis is not entirely understood by the medical profession and for a doctor to declare that a diet change to one that is biologically appropriate for humans is unfortunate. If moving towards protein, vegetables and fat is a severe change for you, it is reasonable to assume that your previous diet may have initially contributed to the trouble you are having now. While there is no clear medical understanding of what causes diverticuli to form, much of the time it can be linked to lack of fibre in the person's diet. Since Whole30 is an omnivorous plan, you can and should expect to be eating around 9-12 cups of vegetables every day. There is plenty of fibre there for proper bowel health. I'm not sure what your plans are going forward but if you are interested in posting a few typical days of food consumption, we'd be interested in taking a look and seeing if something there could have caused your diarrhea. I hope you're feeling better soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ladybugbutt Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 I have diverticulitis - was diagnosed about 3 years ago. I've done about 3 W30's. I do periodically get some discomfort but that passes. Sorry that you are having such a rough time. I'm currently on my second (consecutive) W30 for this time around - I'm around day 50(ish). I've had a particularly stressful period of time over the past 6 weeks, so honestly not sure if the diarhea / discomfort I've felt is more from stress or from diverticulitis...but I'm fortunate in that it hasn't been bad enough to make me feel the need to stop eating this way. Best of luck to you - I hope that you get this sorted out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sahara64 Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 mborys, I'm so sorry you have had that experience. I have had diverticulitis long before I started my Whole 30 June 1. A good 4 years ago, I had my first flare where my PCP talked to me about eating too much refined food and urged me to eat more vegetables - once the flare recovered. I did up my fiber intake (fruits and veggies) more than it had been and usually that kept it at bay, unless I got lazy again and stopped eating enough fruits/vegetables. Whole grains inflamed my joints so badly I was in constant pain, so I did not go that route. I would pretty much think your diverticulitis actually started before your Whole 30 began - most people of a certain age have some diverticuli, but they aren't inflamed and so they don't know it. While I'm NOT a doctor, I DO work in the medical field and have had quite a bit of my own experience over the last couple years as well as researching it. Once your flare ends, I'm sure your doctor mentioned increasing your fiber intake (SLOWLY) and actually, a whole food lifestyle would indeed BENEFIT your diverticulitis. I know it's so painful, and again I'm sorry you have to suffer with it. Lisa in Oregon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savil95 Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 I'm also one of the unfortunate few with diverticulitis - it landed me in the hospital for several days about 10 years ago. I'm having a bit of a flare up currently, but I slacked a little on my vegetables in the last week and now plan to 1) eat more veggies and 2) supplement with Benefiber again. It totally sucks. Hang in there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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